Hildegard Goss Mayr
Honorary president, International Fellowship of Reconciliation
Bio and press contact: see below.
This message comes to you from the office of the Austrian [branch of the International] Fellowship of Reconciliation in Vienna. For over 80 years, our movement has tried to promote the nonviolence of Jesus, and to forge it into an instrument to overcome injustice, violence and to create peace.
At
this day of International Prayer, we want to thank in particular very warmly the American churches and faith communities for all your combat to avoid the war in the Iraq, and we also want to thank you [for working] to create and to safeguard a fraternal and peaceful co-existence with your Muslims sisters and brothers in your country.
We want to invite you to join us more vigorously than ever to work to overcome the divisions and the injustices between North and South in our world. We also want you to pray for us, that we, in the enlarged European Community, may be able to overcome the century-old frictions that still exist with the power of pardoning and of reconciliation.
May we thank together our living God that he has given us this power of self-giving love and nonviolence. It takes off [removes] our fears, and it helps us to stand up more vigorously than ever to create the human community of beloved beings in our world.
Message delivered on 21 September, 2004, to mark the observance of the International Day of Prayer for Peace.
Biographical summary
Hildegard Goss Mayr
is one of the world's leading experts on non-violence. She is the honorary president of International Fellowship of Reconciliation, the world's oldest organization dedicated to the principles of non-violent resistance. The efforts and training of Hildegard Goss Mayr, along with those of her husband Jean Goss, were a major factor in the successful and peaceful overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.
Media contact:
office@versoehnungsbund.at
Last edited on
September 19, 2004
by
Juan Michel
/ WCC