CPTnet
3 September 2007
FORT FRANCES, ON REFLECTION: Creating space
by Gene Stoltzfus
[The following reflection by CPT Director Emeritus, Gene Stoltzfus, has been
edited for length and clarity. People wishing to see the original will find
it at http://gstoltzfus.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html.]
In the early 1990s, I joined with a group of six people who went to Miami,
Florida where U. S. officials were holding Haitian boat people--refugees
fleeing Haiti's military regime--in federal detention facilities. The
federal authorities denied our group entrance to the detention facility to
speak with the refugees.
After two days of quiet vigils and building rapport with officials, we
purchased several bottles of bubbles usually designed for children's play.
The next day at our vigil, we alerted supporters and the press that we would
be blowing bubbles into the prison facilities with sacred messages of
freedom for Haitian boat people.
When we arrived to carry out our action, the guards took up their normal
positions. We prayed, sang one song, and then began blowing bubbles towards
the prison facility.
We explained to the guards that since we were prohibited from entering the
facility, we were blowing bubbles carrying special messages for the release
of Haitians held inside. We warned the guards that since these were blessed
bubbles, they should not to try to touch or destroy the bubbles. The guards
cooperated and their behavior suggested that we had found a thoughtful way
to carry our message. Others who passed by were curious and we explained
the meaning of the bubbles through leaflets and conversations.
Word of the bubbles spread. Unknown to us, another delegation was also at
the prison attempting to interview Haitian detainees for a national
organization of lawyers. The group contacted us immediately when they saw
the bubbles and joined in the action.
They had received permission to visit the prison but none of them spoke
Creole, the Haitian language. One of our group was fluent and the
authorities certified that person to join the lawyers on the following day
for interviews.
Creating space in peacemaking involves fashioning a place in time where
sights, sounds, feelings, hearings, words, or art are presented within the
context of a nonviolent perspective. When this happens in a non-judgmental
spirit, hardened minds become freer to reach for new possibilities.
Something new can be born.
In the absence of this safe zone, a new reality is not possible, and
positions harden. So for example, the judgments of Chiefs of States like
Saddam Hussein and George Bush prevented each of them from considering other
options than intransigence and war.
When Jesus entered a village, he often became part of an event where new
thinking about God and human beings became possible. He used a healing, a
marriage celebration, and his entry into Jerusalem on a peasant's donkey as
agents of change. Some responded enthusiastically and others were outraged
by these well-timed events. The space He opened inherently shook up or
rearranged long held convictions, even to the point of challenging whole
systems. Some were inclined to resist these challenges to the status quo.
But for many, it was a space pointing to a sacred knowing--and that sort of
knowing leads to peace.
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Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in
organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained
peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict. Originally a violence-reduction
initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonite, Church of the Brethren
and Quaker), CPT now enjoys support and membership from a wide range of
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