Peace and Reconciliation United Kingdom Project #25554

The Forgiveness Project

by The Forgiveness Project

Project Report | Apr 5, 2023
The F Word across the world

By Rachel Bird | Director

The exhibition has travelled far and wide over the past few months.

In the UK the exhibition travelled all the way up to Our Lady & St. Bede in Stockton-on-Tees in January. It then made its way to Reading in February and March, visiting both Reading Minster and the Chaplaincy at Reading University.

To coincide with the visit, University of Reading Anglican Chaplain Mark Laynesmith interviewed our founder, Marina Cantacuzino about her 2022 book, Forgiveness: An Exploration; along with guest speakers Riana Taylor of Circles UK and Dan Jones of the University of Reading school of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences. A recording of the event can be seen here.

Over in Europe, we are very honoured that the German version of The F Word will be at the Haus am Dom in Frankfurt for the next two months. This was commissioned to mark the publication of the first German translation of An Interrupted Life: the Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum.

And over the other side of the Atlantic, the exhibition was in the Brunswick Square Shopping Centre in Saint John, New Brunswick in Canada.

Thank you so much for your support for sharing these stories across the world. There is something very special created in this space where people come together to explore these stories and what might be possible for ourselves and our world.

Warmest wishes,

Rachel

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Dec 6, 2022
End of year reflections

By Rachel Bird | Director

As the year draws to a close we’ve been reflecting on 2022 and all the work that your donations have supported.

We published the final three episodes of the second series of the F Word Podcast, talking with storytellers from America, England and Australia:

Episode 8 - Pardeep Kaleka on finding forgiveness after his father was killed in one of America’s deadliest race-based hate crimes
Episode 9 - Mary Foley on faith, forgiveness, and how writing to her daughter’s killer brought her peace of mind
Episode 10 - Ray Minniecon on the power of apology and why ideas around healing and forgiveness can be problematic for Aboriginal people

You can explore all episodes of the F Word Podcast here.

We released our Prison Chronicles series on Vimeo on Demand. Exploring the stories we tell – how we shape them and ultimately how they shape us – these intimate conversations reveal an unexpected space where the line between ‘victim/ survivor’ and ‘perpetrator’ becomes blurred and where telling your story can save you from it.

We delivered five workshops on the theme of Making meaning as a foundation for change, in collaboration with the NHS South West Leadership Academy. The workshops offered a deep-dive into how we might heal, restore and return to ourselves. This exploration of how people can create new meaning after harm and pain provided leaders and those they support with appropriate tools to begin this process. - ‘This was an incredibly impactful and unexpected session. The facilitation was amazing and gentle. I would highly recommend.’

We were delighted to be back in person with The F Word exhibition in Sheffield and with our RESTORE prison programme in HMP Eastwood Park.

We held a series of live conversations looking at shame and the profound impact it has on how we understand ourselves and our lives: Speaking the Unspeakable: exploring shame in the stories of our lives. Understanding how unprocessed trauma can often manifest as shame was a huge part of our learning from our work in prisons and these conversations explore this idea of how shame can cut us off from ourselves and others, reduce empathy and impact how we heal. This series is now available to watch on Vimeo on Demand.

We also created and ran an online training, Developing a Shame Informed Approach, which we will be making available to view on demand in the new year.

As well as this our Founder, Marina Cantacuzino, published her latest book, Forgiveness: An Exploration, which unpicks and debates the limits and possibilities of forgiveness and how it can impact on our lives. You can purchase this along with our other books in our online shop.

Thank you again for all your continued support and as always, if you have any questions on our work please don’t hesitate to contact us.

With warmest wishes and deepest gratitude,
Rachel and all the Team at The Forgiveness Project
rachel@theforgivenessproject.com

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Aug 5, 2022
The F Word back out, new training and a new book!

By Rachel Bird | Director

Dear Friends,

We are delighted that The F Word has finally gone back out into the world! The exhibition went to Sheffield University for a week for the sixth global conference of the International Association of Chaplains in Higher Education (IACHE) and then spent a further week in Sheffield at St Mark's Church, Broomhill and Broomhall.

Throughout June and July we held a series of live conversations looking at shame and the profound impact it has on how we understand ourselves and our lives - Speaking the Unspeakable: exploring shame in the stories of our lives.

This work developed out of our prison work with RESTORE where we witnessed how the unrecognised roots of shame are often enmeshed with pain and trauma, causing difficulties to individuals and those around them.

As part of this work we are offering a new online training exploring how to develop a Shame Informed approach in your work on 26 September.

This training will provide a grounding in Shame Resilience Theory and its application in facilitating a Shame Informed approach, including the use of specific creative techniques to support shame to be expressed safely. You can find out more and book here.

And finally we're delighted to announce the publication of our Founder, Marina Cantacuzino's latest book Forgiveness: An Exploration. The book explores what forgiveness is and what it most definitely isn’t, how it can be an important element in breaking the cycle of suffering, and ultimately how it might help transform fractured relationships and mend broken hearts.

‘This is an utterly memorable book – beautifully written, fascinating in its insights, and extraordinarily moving. We all need to forgive, and this book, through its recounting of the stories of people who have something really significant to forgive, will be an inspiration to help us reach a state of forgiveness. This is a book that will stay with the reader for a very long time’ – Alexander McCall Smith

Thank you again for your support and as always, if you have any questions on our work please don’t hesitate to contact us.

With warmest wishes and deepest gratitude,
Rachel and all the Team at The Forgiveness Project
rachel@theforgivenessproject.com

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