Peace and Reconciliation United Kingdom Project #25554

The Forgiveness Project

by The Forgiveness Project

Project Report | Mar 28, 2025
New Developments in the New Year!

By Georgia Gill | Administrator

Marina Cantacuzino and Sandra Barefoot

We are delighted to report that the first quarter of this year has already brought us so many exciting developments. We are, as always, grateful for the generous outpouring of support that has allowed these to happen!

Last year marked our 20th Anniversary, and our priority was to establish a boldness in responding to world events that mirrored the very reason our organisation was founded. Following significant organisational changes, that included establishing a new collaborative leadership between our Founder, Marina Cantacuzino, and Executive Director, Sandra Barefoot, our focus became to steady our ground and continue delivering valuable resources on forgiveness and restorative narratives: Our mission remains rooted in the belief that stories have the power to transform.

Our exhibition has been a steadfast pillar of our work for the past 20 years, serving as a key resource that allows audiences to consider peaceful solutions to conflict. We have decided to revise our exhibition strategy, and will begin planning and creating a more accessible, potentially digital, format that better fits the needs of our work. It is currently on show at Frome Kindness Festival, organised by the Good Heart, and St Edmundsbury Cathedral for their annual Lent programme.

This year has also seen the success of some of our more recent events. On the 11^th of December, we delivered our Forgiveness at the Dinner Table event, which explored the ‘smaller’, ‘everyday’ encounters with forgiveness that appear in our relationships with friends and family. The event saw 35 attendees participate and contribute as part of a different format we were trialling. Here, rather than leading with our usual presentation, and then opening to a succeeding Q&A, the event led with questions from the audience that allowed for a sharing of rich explorations and personal examples.

Additionally, on the12th and 19th of February, Sandra facilitated two post show discussions following performances of As Long As We Are Breathing. This play was a deeply moving and immersive production that recounts the true story of Miriam Freedman’s journey from surviving the Holocaust to finding healing through yoga and meditation. For the first, entitled The Transformative Power of Storytelling, Sandra was joined by the playwright, Diane Samuels. For the second, Sandra was joined by Marina in facilitating Exploring Forgiveness - Its Possibilities and its Limits, alongside the play’s producer, Sarah Lawrie.

For our most recent online inquiry, Sandra was joined by Jacob Dunne, eminent forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Gwen Adshead, Anne-Marie Cockburn and Dunia Shafik, for an online inquiry exploring forgiveness and criminal justice. We had identified this topic as being one of our core investigations over the past 20 years, particularly in our prison programme, RESTORE, and we were excited by the opportunity to work alongside Dr. Adshead, who had presented with us before for our 2012 Annual Lecture and who delivered this year’s Reith Lectures. This was one of our most successful online events to date, with 122 people purchasing tickets.

There have also been some significant changes within our team, as we are delighted to have brought in long-time collaborator and storyteller Jacob Dunne as a Creative Strategist. We have also brought in three new trustees, Thea Platt, Helen Walker, and Mary Locke to our Board.

We have so many exciting events in the works for this year! We thank you for your continued support for The Forgiveness Project – we couldn’t do this work without you.

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Nov 29, 2024
Building Bridges with Forgiveness

By Georgia Gill | Administrator

Building Bridges Across the Divide

As this year comes to a close, we've been reflecting on some of the many events we are lucky to have been a part of this year and, as always, we are grateful for the generous outpouring of support from you all!

Our exhibition continues to be popular, and it has been on show in Cornwall and London this summer, and is already scheduled for show in the early months of next year!

In our last report, we reflected on some of the momentous opportunities we have had to enage with our international audience this year. We are delighted to report that we've also enjoyed interacting with supporters at home, and are overjoyed with the reception of our two latest events.

On Tuesday, 24th September, to mark our 20th anniversary, we held our first online space for inquiry, discussing the tricky, enticing and intriguing nature of forgiveness. Titled 'Forgiveness? A Space for Inquiry', the event was also in support of Peace Through Forgiveness, the international organisation founded by one of our storytellers, Azim Khamisa. We were extremely pleased by the response to this event, by both the number of attendees and the depth and richness of the conversations that were had. The Forgiveness Project team, and the rest of the panel, found it to be such a fruitful event. We are now in the process of shaping and planning a new series of themed conversations and reflection sessions for anyone wishing to continue exploring the topic of forgiveness in different scenarios.

Similarly, on October 16th, our founder Marina Cantacuzino hosted a discussion with Jo Berry and Patrick Magee to mark the 40th anniversary of the Brighton bomb. The conversation, a collaboration with Jo's own organisation 'Building Bridges for Peace' was titled 'Building Bridges Across the Divide', and focused on Jo and Patrick’s 24-year journey of reconciliation, which began after Patrick’s release under the Good Friday Agreement. Their work together has become a key example in peace studies and conflict transformation.

We have one final event in the works before the end of the year, and already a plethora of ideas for projects in 2025! We thank you for your continued support for The Forgiveness Project – we couldn’t do this work without you.

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Aug 5, 2024
It's our 20th Anniversary!

By Georgia Gill | Admin Assistant

The first showing of the F Word. London, 2004.

As we arrive in the later half of this year, we've been reflecting on some of the many events we are lucky to have been a part of this year and, as always, we are grateful for the generous outpouring of support from you all!

This year marks the 20th Anniversary of The Forgiveness Project, and we are marking the year with deep reflection and gratitude for the past two decades of work. Over on our Substack page, we are highlighting some of the most significant moments, projects, and events from the past as a way of marking this momentous milestone; from the inception of our charity with the first ever showing of our F Word exhibition in London, to all of our collaborations in the creative arts, film, and documentary and, of course, the powerful work from all of our storytellers, there is much to reminisce!

In speaking of the exhibition, which remains as popular as ever, we are delighted to have seen it in show across England, from Newcastle to Cornwall, and also across Midwest USA as part of a book tour in celebration of Forgiveness: An Exploration.

In our last report, we discussed our want to engage with international audiences, and this year has certainly offered us the chance to do so; since our work in Sydney, Australia, our two Co-Leads, Marina Cantacuzino and Sandra Barefoot were invitied to Kigali, Rwanda, for the international peace conference Listening and Leading: From Rwanda to the World, hosted by the Aegis Trust. Here, the two presented a breakout session entitled Integrity and Dignity: The Ethics of Restorative Narratives. Participating in this conference was hugely fulfilling, and The Forgiveness Project is hugely grateful to have been invited.

We also mentioned our collaboration with long-time storyteller, Jacob Dunne, on the world premier of 'Punch', written by James Graham as a stage adaptation of Jacob's book Right from Wrong. We were incredibly excited to be working alongside Jacob to co-deliver post show discussions exporing the themes of the play, accompanied by 'The F Word Exhibition' in situ, and we are delighted about the show's success and upcoming performances at the Young Vic in London.

As we continue in 2024, we are gearing up for more work and new, exicting opportunities to mark our 20th Anniversary, details of which can be found shortly via our social media platforms and Substack page. We thank you for your continued support for The Forgiveness Project – we couldn’t do this work without you.

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