New College Lectures | Towards Peace And Healing
From Gaza to Ukraine to the Voice Referendum in Australia, our world continues to fracture along fault lines. Many are surprised to find that this is not just the world outside, but the world within. The recent decades have seen increasing public consciousness of violence and trauma within households and between individuals.
Jesus Christ mandated blessing for the peacemakers. What does it then mean to live as someone who seeks peace and healing? This is the topic of the 2024 New College Lectures.
We are excited to announce that Rev. Canon Dr. Antoine Rutayisire, a leader in the Reconciliation movement after the Rwandan Genocide, will deliver the lectures. He will draw on his own extensive experience in pursuing peace and healing within traumatised communities.
About The Speaker
Agent of healing and reconciliation.
Rev. Canon Dr. Antoine Rutayisire is a retired Anglican pastor, well known in his native country of Rwanda as one of the recognised voices of healing and forgiveness, repentance and confession, and reconciliation. He has served on the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission that was in charge of drafting the national policy for reconciliation and overseeing its implementation. Rev Antoine Rutayisire served on the illustrious Commission for 4 terms ( of 3 years each) and was its Vice-chairman for 3 consecutive terms.
Rev. Canon Dr. Antoine Rutayisire is well known for his preaching on the cross of Jesus - Christ as a place of healing and forgiveness, repentance and confession as pathways to true reconciliation. He was a plenary speaker on the topic in the Billy Graham Association conference in Amsterdam in 2000. He was again the guest speaker on the same topic in Urbana and has been for many other conferences on reconciliation.
A survivor of the genocide against the Tutsi that took more than 1 million lives in just a hundred days in his native Rwanda, he presents first hand experiences of reconciliation and speaks with life informed knowledge about the practice of healing, forgiveness, repentance and reconciliation. He has contributed articles in journals and chapters in books on reconciliation. He has published two books himself on the topic: (1) Faith Under Fire - Testimonies of Christian Bravery During the Genocide, and (2) Reconciliation Is My Lifestyle: A Lesson in Loving Those Who Have Hated You.
Antoine holds a MA in Applied Linguistics, a MA in Global Leadership, and a Doctor of Missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is married and a father to 4 children.
Event Program
Lecture 1: Past Wounds, Present Scars (Tuesday, 24th September)
Please join us for complimentary canapes from 6:30pm.
Wounds do not simply disappear; they leave scars. This is true for both individuals and communities. To understand the current state of a community, therefore, we must first understand its past, especially its past wounds.
Lecture 2: Christ's Scars And A Vision For Peace & Healing (Wednesday, 25th September)
Christ’s crucifixion is central to the Christian vision of peace and healing – both for the wounder and the wounded. Any quest for peace and healing, therefore, must begin here, for it is at the heart of the Christian faith.
Lecture 3: The Practise Of Peace And Healing (Thursday, 26th September)
How should we practice of peace and healing in today’s world? Correctly understanding the past and having a vision is simply not enough. From the individual scale to the social systems of justice, education and politics, how can each of us become a practitioner of peace and healing?