Photo credit: Initiatives of Change/Caux Forum

 

Jon Rudy, Peacemaker in Residence at Elizabethtown College, recently was invited to take part in a Forum in Caux, Switzerland. He writes about his experience and the value he sees for Elizabethtown College students, moving forward.

 

For the first time, an invitation to present/facilitate at a conference came through my LinkedIn profile.

The request was for participation in the Caux Forums’, which are organized for Initiatives of Change (IoC, formerly Moral Rearmament), a Swiss-based organization committed to trust building, ethical leadership, sustainable living, economic justice and environmental sustainability.

Each summer at Caux, overlooking the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the IoC sponsors summer-long gatherings on the above topics. The organization invited me to give some input during the “Just Governance for Human Security Forum” taking place during the week of July 4.

The 200 people present at the forum represented 50 countries.

I met a designated ‘elder’ who had been coming to Caux for the past 50 years! I also met many people who, just like me, were experiencing their first Caux Forum. From the former vice president of Gambia to a Ugandan woman traumatized by violence of displacement, the participants spanned the spectrum of society.

For a panel focused on healing memories, my input centered around my home church congregation forgiving a juvenile member who murdered his parents — also members of our church — in 1991 and the subsequent journey with this young man for the past 27 years. This panel, “Culture of Exclusion: Transforming Society from within a Broken System” presented to about 100 persons in the great hall at the Caux Palace.

I also conducted two workshops for participants. The first, on intercultural/interfaith dialogue, had 24 active persons representing many countries. The second was on deep listening, specifically a listening exercise and then practicing the tool of reframing. There were 14 persons in this workshop.

In terms of my human security work, I made some good connections — a Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officer; an AU Special Representative for Counter Terrorism director based in Algeria, and the Special Director General at the Center for Defense Studies in Senegal. These important connections will further the human security agenda.

The Caux Forum of Just Governance for Human Security offers many opportunities for Elizabethtown College students in terms of internships, training and conference attendance. I am grateful for the support of CGUP in attending this forum.

~ Jon Rudy, Peacemaker in Residence