GLOBAL GRACE DAY, 9th OF NOVEMBER 2010
ENDING VIOLENCE –
CREATING MODELS FOR PEACE
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo
W e are on a pilgrimage for a future without
war. We do not come in the name of a reli-
gion or an ideology, but in the name of GRACE –
in service of reconciliation, opening and sup-
port. We are part of a global movement for a
free earth, which bears no flag nor does it be-
long to any organisation. Instead it grows from
the international solidarity and cooperation of
all those who are today determined to leave the
system of violence and to create models for a
new culture of peace.
The current economic system of globalisation
uproots the whole humanity from its anchor.
The ecological and military destruction in the
outside corresponds to a boundless misery
inside the human being. Humans develop in
a way which separates them from their home
and original embedding in the world. Values of
truth, trust and mutual support are destroyed.
The destruction of community caused a deep
wound in the human civilisation. This results in
the wars of our time, which are waged in a fe-
verish frenzy of killing and destruction.
We can no longer overcome the globalisation
of violence by moral appeals or political pro-
tests. We need places where the original wound
of humanity is healed utilizing a model where
living systems are developed which reconnect
with the original values and the universal source
of community on a new level.
The Peace Research Village Tamera in Portu-
gal is such a place. Here social, ecological and
technological research compiles into a con-
crete vision for a future life. To carry the results
of this research into the world and to connect
it with other initiatives, the “Global Campus“
was created. It is a kind of world university with
bases on all continents in which the basis for a
global peace culture is researched, learned and
applied.
Today, we set examples of solidarity with all
courageous human beings, whose lives are
threatened daily, who are persecuted and im-
prisoned, because they speak the truth and
work for peace. In particular, we dedicate this
day to the Colombian peace community San
José de Apartadó, a rural community of 1500
inhabitants living in the North of the country,
who are severely threatened. The community
came together 13 years ago in order to create
an alternative of peace. Since then they have
not cooperated with any of the armed groups,
they do not tolerate any weapons and they are
connected in an unswerving ethics of peace.
However, the peace community is subjected to
massive persecution. In the last 13 years they
lost almost 200 members who were killed by the
military, paramilitary and guerilla. In the mass
media, they are accused of cooperating with
the guerrillas and are depicted as terrorists. The
international community, on the contrary, ap-
preciates the commitment of the peace com-
munity very much. In 2007 they were awarded
the Aachen Peace Price and nominated for the
Nobel Peace Price. We know that the slanders
are not justified. Colombia should be proud of
such a courageous and internationally acknow-
ledged initiative. By now the peace community
has become a symbol of hope for the nume-
rous suppressed and threatened forces in the
country – and far beyond its borders. In order
to support them, an international peace pilgri-
mage in the name of Grace is taking place at
the moment in the Colombian capital Bogotá,
led by Sabine Lichtenfels (Tamera, Portugal)
and Padre Javier Giraldo (Bogotá).
The power of community that we have seen
and experienced in San José not only gives an
answer to the situation in suppressed coun-
tries, but it concerns all of us, because we have
all forgotten what it means to live in community,
solidarity and charity. In addition to the open
violence in the crisis areas of the world there
is the – mostly hidden – human misery in the
Western societies which all live on the exploita-
tion and suppression of the poor countries. We
are all equally challenged to again understand
and embrace the power of community in its es-
sence as a global source of healing.
Today all over Latin America and in other parts
of the world the forces of a profound change
are sprouting. The creation of models for peace
could now become the trigger of a powerful,
non-violent revolution – a revolution without
losers.
More information:
Movement for a Free Earth • Tamera
Monte do Cerro • P-7630 Colos, Portugal
Ph: +351-283 635 484 • Fax: +351-283 635 374
Email: igp@tamera.org • www.global-grace-day.com
We invite you: Support these models, so that
they become known and therefore get the pro-
tection they need. Support them, so that the
truth about San José becomes known. Help
to save lives. On the 9th of November we are
coming together for the “Global Grace Day”:
People from all over the world will connect in
solidarity with this growing movement in South
America and in other parts of this planet. We
thank everyone who takes part in it.
The sacred matrix, the universal order of love
and union of all beings, still shines behind all
the pain. The goal of our work is to connect
worldwide with the powers of the sacred matrix
and to make a new human civilization possible.
May the blessings of God rest upon our work!
In the name of our children and in the name of
all creatures.
GRACE – Movement for a Free Earth