This is a resource I shared on the TES site but it is not just useful for teachers. The issues or love and forgiveness, happiness and peace, justice and retribution, suffering and redemption are universal. They belong to the field of religion and spirituality - but they transcend all boundaries.

1. Name of resource (or tagline heading)
Love and Forgiveness – a practical example -
Related to South Africa and Apartheid,
1 sentence introduction -including the contributor's name
This resource was created by Dom7777777, specialist RE teacher, on 30th
December 2011.
There are three youtube videos listed in this resource, all excellent, but the one I
particularly recommend is the first in this group, which tells the story of a South
African woman whose son and husband were killed during the apartheid times (by a
policeman who in this video is now in the dock) in a simple and deeply moving way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSTvEi8gzos&context=C3af1bacADOEgsToPDskI_FYK1-
sKv4kY3vZdbd6f7
Who is it for?
This would be a good resource to use with pupils from year 9 upwards, exploring
subjects such as Suffering, Peace and Conflict, Love in action and Forgiveness.(The
other two video links provided would be good to use with younger KS3 classes, but I
would not advise using the one about South Africa with years 7 or 8.
How does it work?
The video lasts for 5 ½ minutes. With reflective music and a background which is
dark and abstract. The story is told in white text which appears and disappears quite
slowly, giving the viewer time to read and reflect on it.
The story is a true one, about a woman living in a black ghetto during apartheid in
South Africa. One day her son was taken by this policeman and shot. Later the same
policeman returned and abducted her husband, years later he came and took her to
see her husband, beaten and bound, but before she could reach him, he was then
burned to death before her eyes. His last words were, ‘Father, Forgive them.’
In the courtroom, after hearing the policeman confess to these murders, the old
woman was asked what is to be done with the man who killed her family, how she
would like justice to be carried out.
The old woman said that she wished for three things. Firstly she wishes to be taken
to the place where her husband was burned so that she can gather up his dust and
give him a decent burial.
Then, since her son and husband were her only family, she wishes the policeman to
become her son and visit her in the ghetto twice a month to spend the day with her,
so she can give him what remains of her love.

2. Finally she wishes the policeman to know that she has forgiven him, as Jesus died to
forgive. This was also her husband’s wish. She asks someone to escort her across
the court-room so she can embrace the policeman and let him know that he is
forgiven.
As she goes across to him, escorted by court officials, all those in the room, friends
and family, neighbours and others who have suffered decades of pain and injustice,
start to sing, softly, ‘Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like
me.’
Why is it useful?
The reason why this video is so useful is because it shows the power of forgiveness
– in an extreme example. We all have issues which we need to forgive and be
forgiven for, if we are to find peace and happiness. We have all ‘done wrong’ and we
have all also experienced injustice.
We can learn about forgiveness at a distance, in a theoretical way, but this only
touches AT1. The real power of RE is when we see how the theory works in practise.
Many Christians believe that Jesus died to forgive the sins of everyone. In this story
the reality of how that can empower a Christian and play out in their life, is made
explicit. And that enables us to connect with the theory and for our pupils to link their
own lives with the issue.
It is much easier to ‘learn about’ issues like forgiveness, than to ‘learn from’ them, so
I particularly value resources such as this one, which help teachers to access the
AT2 aspect of RE – and helps our pupil’s to make an inner emotional or spiritual
connection with the material in question.
This video is so powerful because through it we can identify with an extreme
example of the redemptive power of forgiveness – and the way that faith gives
someone the strength and inspiration to do something that would seem otherwise
quite impossible.
What do teachers say (TES reviews)?
The only TES Review for this resource, is my own. I gave it a five star rating and
commented – ‘Some great video resources here. The first one in particular is
superb. It made me cry - so add a box of tissues to the resources if you are planning
to use it in class! (durgamata 7th Feb)
What else?
There is a poem I sometimes use when exploring the subject of love and
forgiveness – and in my view/experience it is not possible to separate these two
qualities or issues as they feed into each other so strongly. The poem is:
Love,
Love the world.
Otherwise, you will be forced
To carry the heaviest load:
Your own bitter self.

3. Sri Chinmoy,
Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 20, Agni Press, 1981.
(http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/books/0448/8)
This poem suggests to readers that not only are love and forgiveness the ‘right’
things to do - in a moral sense – but they are also necessary if we wish to be freed
from suffering. There is a certain element of ‘enlightened self-interest’ at work here.
Forgiveness is not just the right thing to do, but the wise thing, too, if we wish to be
freed from past injustice and able to move on with our lives.
Bitterness is crippling. This is something else which we could explore in the lesson,
to engage with our pupil’s own experiences and make the learning really
empowering and even transformational.
Another strategy I use in teaching about forgiveness, sometimes when looking at the
Jewish festival of Yom Kippur and on other occasions when teaching a unit on
Suffering, on Peace and Conflict or on issues of justice, is an adaption of something
Sue Philips modelled in a workshop I attended some years ago.
In some parts of the Middle East there is a tradition which Jews follow during Yom
Kippur, in which they go to a river and pick up a stone. They look at this stone and
think of all the things that they have done wrong in the past year, things for which
they feel the need to be forgiven. Then, using their imagination, they ‘put’ these
issues into the stone.
Then they think of all the things that other people have done to them or those who
are near and dear to them, which have caused hurt or harm – things that they need
to forgive – and again, using their imagination, they place these things into the stone.
When this visualisation is clearly and strongly established they place the stone in the
river, where the water flowing past can dissolve away these issues and wash them
away into oblivion.
Having explained this to my class, I bring a bowl of water and place it in the middle of
the classroom. (As far as possible the seating is arranged facing in towards this
central point.) Then I ask my pupils to look underneath their chairs. Before the lesson
I have placed a stone under each chair. I ask them to take the stone and look at it
while thinking of all the things in their life that they may regret doing or saying and
feel that they may need forgiveness for. Then to think of all the things that anyone, a
member of their family, a friend or neighbour, someone in the school, a teacher,
anyone at all in their lives, may have done that has caused suffering. Think of all the
people they know who may benefit from forgiving. This can extend to people who
they have heard of in the news.
As they think of each thing for which they may need forgiveness of the capacity to
forgive, the pupils use their imaginations to ‘put those things into the stone.’ And
when they have done this in a strong way, they can, in their own time, get up and go
over to the bowl, where they place the stone under the water so that all those things
can be dissolved and washed away.

4. This exercise takes about 10 to 15 minutes and there is pindrop silence even with
classes who can be restless and difficult to discipline. After this I like to give the
pupils time to write about the exercise and their experience in doing it. But with some
classes who find written work difficult, we discuss the experience together and I ask
them to write it up as homework, since they may need more time.
When exploring forgiveness in the classroom, using this kind of role-play
engagement with their own experiences - approach, pupils sometimes respond with
great joy and relief as they feel that the exercise really made a difference. Others
may say that they tried to do it but the problem is still there. Sometimes a pupil will
see me afterwards to say that there are certain things that they simply could never
forgive – or that there are some things that they don’t even want to forgive. When
you get this kind of feedback you know that you really are engaging the pupils and
working on AT2, but how can you support them in this greater awareness when it
raises problems of things that can’t be forgiven?
This video shakes the concept of there being some things that are ‘too bad to
forgive’ to the core. As finite human beings we can see that this may be true, but
with the power that comes with faith, there is nothing impossible. If our pupils do
have a faith, they can be encouraged to offer the problems to God in their prayers. If
they don’t have faith then they can be encouraged to find someone who they can talk
to about the situation.
The video opens up a very important aspect relating to real engagement with
forgiveness. Could the old woman have forgiven the policeman if he had not
confessed to what he had done – or if his actions had not been made public like
this?
What part did the love and support of her community play in this, illustrated so
beautifully by the way that they spontaneously started to sing together, ‘Amazing
Grace’ as she went across the room to embrace the policeman?
The video also mentions that the policeman collapsed as she came across to him.
What effect may the words of the song, ‘Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me’ have had on this man – as forced by the pressure of public
opinion under the new government – he had been driven to confess to the murders –
something which he must have found very difficult – and then, as he expected justice
in the form of punishment, found that the woman wanted to accept him as her son?
Does this inform the experiences of injustice and forgiveness which our pupils may
bring to the classroom? Have they ever experienced the support of a community,
peer group or family perhaps, when they have been wronged or when someone has
wronged them?
Those pupils who say that they don’t even want to forgive someone, or that no
matter how hard they try there are some things that they seem not to be able to
forgive, may never have been in a safe enough place, with people they trusted
enough who would listen, so that they could say what they were suffering. They may
never have experienced the emotional and spiritual support of a loving community in
the way that the woman in this story was supported.

5. These issues need to be explored and addressed if such pupils are to come to a
position in which they can really forgive and move on.
In RE classes it is not necessary to get into the detail but it can be helpful to point out
that this kind of confidential listening is often needed when something really bad has
happened – and there are people who can help. The whole class can be given
details of pastoral support within school or given the contact number for Child-Line,
for example. Whether or not this is required and followed up, the whole subject of RE
will have become more relevant and more real. It will have come out of the textbook
and into the lives of real people in our world today – relevant to our pupils and
touching their own experiences and their own lives – and that gets to the heart of
what RE is all about.
Include a link to the resource
Love and Forgiveness – a practical example -
South Africa Apartheid,
http://www.tes.co.uk/ResourceDetail.aspx?storyCode=6160480