week three scripture

Week Three Scripture

Rebuilding after the tsunami :Poovanthopu in Tamil Nadu, India.

Week Three Scripture

Lesson objectives and outcomes:Students will be given the opportunity to:• study biblical texts relating to community building• produce a display of key texts • identify messages about community building within the biblical texts• write their own mini-encyclical.

By the end of the lesson students will be able to:• give examples of biblical teaching relating to community building• explain in their own words what biblical wisdom teaches about community building and how

this can be applied to current situations of conflict in the world.

Community building

Exodus 20:2-17

Acts 2:44-47

Acts 4:32-35

Acts 6:1-7

Romans 12:4

Ephesians 4:25-32

Luke 10:25-37

I John 4:20-21

Galatians 5:14-15

Mark 9:35

• Choose all or part of one Biblical text that says something useful about building community between different people.

• Choose from those above or find your own example.• Write it out in large script and add it to the centre of a display board.• Looking at the display, find one message about community building.• Write it out and place it to the left of the display. • Join it to the relevant text(s) using a piece of string or strip of paper.

Community building

Exodus 20:2-17

Acts 2:44-47

Acts 4:32-35

Acts 6:1-7

Romans 12:4

Ephesians 4:25-32

Luke 10:25-37

I John 4:20-21

Galatians 5:14-15

Mark 9:35

You have just been elected Pope. You are extremely concerned about conflict between communities in the world. You want to urge Catholics, and the whole world, to combat violence by building community.Write your own mini-encyclical following the structure given below. (Tip! - quote scripture to add weight to your arguments!)

Para. 1: Introduction: “Encyclical of [name of Pope] on [date] to the Catholic world and all people of good will… [Explain the issues]Para 2: [Main point 1]Para 3: [Main point 2]Para 4: [Main point 3]Para 5: [Summary and final call to take action]Para 6: [Closing prayer]

Pope-for-a-day

You have just been elected Pope. You are extremely concerned about conflict between communities in the world. You want to urge Catholics, and the whole world, to combat violence by building community.Write your own mini-encyclical following the structure given below. (Tip! - quote scripture to add weight to your arguments!)

Para. 1: Introduction: “Encyclical of [name of Pope] on [date] to the Catholic world and all people of good will… [Explain the issues]Para 2: [Main point 1]Para 3: [Main point 2]Para 4: [Main point 3]Para 5: [Summary and final call to take action]Para 6: [Closing prayer]

to see an example of a real encyclical.Click Here

Pope-for-a-day

Week Four Catholic Social Teaching

Weaving brings women together to share their experiences at a camp in Darfur.

Week Four Catholic Social Teaching

Lesson objectives and outcomesStudents will be given the opportunity to:• study key texts from Catholic Social Teaching relating to community building• relate these texts to scriptural texts used in the previous lesson• make their own judgement about which teaching is aimed at leaders and which at individuals

like themselves• reflect, using the words of Pope Benedict XVI.

By the end of the lesson students will be able to:• give examples of Catholic Social Teaching about community building• demonstrate that Catholic Social Teaching on community building is based on scripture• explain how it might be possible to live the teachings given in these encyclicals.

Fill in the chart.

for quotations from Catholic Social Teaching on building global community and working alongside each other for the common good (sometimes called ‘solidarity’).

Scripture Catholic Social Teaching

To individuals

To leaders and governments

Click Here

Time out to reflect…


“Working for peace must mean teaching people to recognise what makes for peace. So it must be an education for the kingdom of God, teaching people to hallow his name, for otherwise God’s image, the human being, will not be held holy. …only where God’s kingdom comes near can peace grow and flourish.”

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI], Seek that which is above

In silence, repeat: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”. What pictures come to mind?

How can hallowing God’s name, worshipping God as holy, help to build peace?

Picture someone you know They are made in God’s image – try to see God’s image in them.

Where is God’s kingdom visible around you?

Week Five What does a healthy community look like?

Catarina Lux Mejia (14) preparing thread in the weavers’ cooperative, Chiquimula, Guatemala.


Lesson objectives and outcomesStudents will be given the opportunity to:• consider the evidence that signifies a healthy community• identify these signs in community groups working together in Guatemala and the Philippines• consider current inter-community tensions in the UK and some ways to address these.

By the end of the lesson students will be able to:• give examples of signs of a healthy community• comment on examples of inter-religious community-building in the Philippines and Guatemala• explain their own views of inter-community tensions in the UK and suggest lessons that could

be learnt from other countries.

The Philippines

to view and/or download web stories of community building in the Philippines.Click Here

The Philippines

Guatemala

Click Here to view and/or download web stories of community building in Guatemala.

Guatemala


In groups, summarise one of the stories. Include:a. the problems facing communities in the story,

b. the ways in which they tried to build community and peace, and

c. the signs of health now visible in the communities.

Choose one person to read out your summary to the class and one person to take notes during feedback.

to watch a clip of John from London speaking about tensions he has encountered in the UK and consider your own views:

Click Here


“May Christ banish from our souls whatever might endanger peace. May God transform all people into witnesses of truth, justice and love. May the minds of rulers be illumined with God’s light, so that, besides caring for the material welfare of their peoples, they may also guarantee them the fairest gift of peace.May Christ inflame our desire to break through the barriers which divide us, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another, and to pardon those who have done us wrong. Through his power and inspiration may all peoples welcome each other as members of one family, and may the peace for which we long forever flower and ever reign among us. Amen.”

From the prayer of Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, 171

Week SixHow bad can an unhealthy community get?

Genocide memorial, Rwanda.

Week Six How bad can an unhealthy community get?

Lesson objectives and outcomesStudents will be given the opportunity to:• identify aspects that are displayed in an unhealthy community• find out, from the experiences of genocide survivors in Rwanda, about the worst extremes of

community breakdown• discuss some of the causes of community breakdown• identify signs of hope in Rwanda today.

By the end of the lesson students will be able to:• give examples of signs of an unhealthy community• comment on one example of community breakdown in Rwanda• explain some of the ways in which Rwanda is now working for community cohesion.

Week Six How bad can an unhealthy community get?

What might you expect to see in a community where cohesion has broken down? Jot down your ideas:

In 1994, Rwanda suffered the worst possible consequences of community breakdown when tensions between different communities resulted in genocide.

to watch a short clip from CAFOD’s website, where Dermot O’Leary explains the background of the Rwanda conflict.

Click Here

Liberaté Muhagihana


“The problems started for us in 1990 when there was a war in October [invasion of forces from Uganda]. That’s when people started saying that if you were a Tutsi living in Rwanda then you were an informer for people outside the country. My husband was accused of being an informer and they called him a cockroach. In 1991 they put him in prison…

“My husband was freed from prison at the end of 1992. But even after he got out of prison people would come to the house harassing him and telling him to join the party in power. So every day if he was not home by six o’clock in the evening I would always worry that something had happened to him.”


“On 6 April 1994 he came home late. In the morning about five o’clock. He woke me up and asked me whether I had listened to the radio the night before. He said the president had died. .. .We were very afraid so we got up and got dressed. All the neighbours were also up early that day talking about the president’s death.“The militia then said, ‘There are thieves coming from a different district to rob this village so we want all the men to go to this place so that they can stop the thieves.’ That is how the militia would get all the men out of the house.“In the evening of the 7th we kept hearing rumours from other areas that Tutsis were already being killed… On the Sunday my husband came back… the whole meal was like my husband was saying goodbye to us all; he kept putting food into our mouths. He told us that things were becoming bad because he heard that the militia were targeting people to kill…”


Liberaté’s husband fled to nearby Nyagasambu, where he had heard there was less prejudice. Liberaté stayed and continued with the meal. “When I was serving the children, women came and said, “Why are you still cooking?” They told me that there were looters burning houses in the village. I took some sheets and blankets and we went to hide in a small bush by the house…”

“Then I heard the militia say [to a neighbour who was a Tutsi but had joined the Hutus], ‘What are you doing? You have not killed all the cockroaches in your sector.’ He replied, “I have none left”. Then the voices said that he must kill Liberaté’s husband.”


Liberaté fled with her four children, two boys and two girls. She entrusted her youngest son to the care of her cousin and later became separated from her eldest daughter. After hiding in various places, including behind a bathtub where killers were washing the blood from their hands, Liberaté returned to her home and found it had been burned down. She went to speak to the militia leader.

“I said, ‘I have come to see you because you are the one who knows who should be killed or not be killed. I have come to ask if I should be killed, in which case kill me right here.’ He told me to go and sit with the other wives they had gathered together…The men had a list and were telling people where to sit. When they called your name you went with your children and they killed you right away.”


“The children started crying for food and I didn’t know what to do. There was an old woman with us… I said to the old woman, ‘Let’s pray, and if they come to kill you, don’t cry out.’ So we started to pray and the killers came in and took me out and said, ‘Give us money and give us your big radio.’ I said, ‘I don’t have any money or the radio. I left everything in the house.’

“I had a fake Hutu identity card. ...I told them, “My husband is Tutsi, so he ran away leaving his Hutu wife.”…I asked the killers where I should go now and they indicated a house. When I was in the Hutu house someone came to tell me that my husband had been killed the day before. I couldn’t show emotion because they believed that I was Hutu. So I said, ‘Let him die’…”


Liberaté heard them discussing ending her son’s life, so she left the house and tried to find someone willing to hide him. Everyone refused, including a congregation coming out of a church. “Then one of the men saw my son and hit him with a metal club. My son fell into my lap but the Hutu kept hitting him with the metal club. After they had killed my son, they left.”

Even then, the horror was not over for Liberate. The following day Liberaté saw her brother buried alive in the same pit where the murderers had thrown her son’s body. They said to her, “We are not going to kill you because you will die of grief anyway.”

(Liberaté and her surviving children are now rebuilding their lives with the help of CAFOD partner, AVEGA.)

Odette Kayirere works at AVEGA, with traumatised widows of the genocide. She says:


“What are my hopes for the widows? …a country without division and where we can live together.

“…When the decision was made to release prisoners they asked all civil society groups like AVEGA for their input… Category one prisoners will never be released; those are the planners and the big killers. [But] we said that those who were shamed and asked for forgiveness and who gave reparation to the victims should be freed… If the man who killed my husband came and said, ‘What I did was awful’, then I think I could forgive…”


“I have hope that by giving a good example, [by good government] and by education of the population on patriotism and human rights, respect of everyone can be engendered so people can understand that, if I have a right to something, everyone else has the right to that as well. The genocide made us reflect on what the roots of it were. We must reinforce love, and see that money divides us. “We didn’t have the opportunity before to get the public together to give their opinions on various things… We have been asked lots of questions now about how we want to live our lives… Now primary education is free because of a decision by the public – parents only have to pay a small fee towards the school upkeep. In some areas the local population has become involved in building schools and health centres, so they are now much better protected by the general public.“…In talking about a situation even traumatised people can begin to understand and move on.”


“God of Justice, transforming hatred into love,vengeance into forgiveness, and anger into compassion:

We light a candle for justice. Help us to speak your language of justiceand to speak the truth of your love for all people. WHO WILL SPEAK IF WE DON’T?Give us courage to work together for peace. WHO WILL WORK IF WE DON’T?Give us hearts of compassion, to care for those oppressed and in need.WHO WILL CARE IF WE DON’T?

In ……… (insert the names of countries in conflict): LORD, LET YOUR PEACE COME. In the towns and cities of our own country: LORD, LET YOUR PEACE COME. In Rwanda, where the pain of injustice is not yet forgotten: LORD, LET YOUR PEACE COME.

Amen.”

From CAFOD Lent Fast Day CD-ROM, 2004

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