Unit 6 Key Stage 3 Scheme of Work

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE

DIOCESAN EDUCATION SERVICE

Key Stage 3 Scheme of Work

Unit 6

Are there limits on forgiveness?

Summer Term 2 DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

1 & 2. What is Forgiveness? Resources required Skills Homework Learning Suggested teaching and learning & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points objectives activities strands to note

Ask pupils to visit Selection of Pupils should: Starter Pupils working at level 3 Forgiveness www.cafod.org.uk/homework Newspapers . Display an image of conflict e.g. Creative will: and to look at the Conflict  know: Tiananmen Square (see resource or Thinkers Be able to make the link Sorry homework pack to find out Image for What is meant by download from: between how their more about CAFOD’s work starter the term www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/tianan AT2i feelings, from personal Breakdown for Conflict resolution and activity ‘forgiveness’ men experiences, affected peace building in Rwanda.  understand: their behaviour during or Sin Worksheet: Forgiveness as a or any other suitable image. Ask after those cases. AT2i Stand up/sit universal human pupils to express why a breakdown in Be able to give reasons Beliefs down need. relationship may have occurred. why they they/believers . statements  be able to: Stand up/sit down statements. Read forgive others. AT1iii Relationships Reflect on their pupils a list of wrongs/sins committed Worksheet: own and others’ and ask pupils to stand if they could Pupils working at level 4 Christian ‘Forgiving experiences of forgive that act and remain seated if will: beliefs scale’ forgiveness. they cannot. (Worksheet 1) Be able to show how their own and other Main (select from): Worksheet: peoples’ decision to . “Christian Pupils write about or discuss in pairs Reflective forgive can be informed Teaching in an example in their lives where they Learners by beliefs/values AT2i Forgiveness” have experienced a breakdown in Be able to show how a relationship (They must include: AT2i persons understanding of context, feelings, results, lessons forgiveness can shape learned). Share with class if their life AT1iii confident. As pupils listen to one another ask them to make a note of Pupils working at level 5

1 & 2. What is Forgiveness? Resources required Skills Homework Learning Suggested teaching and learning & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points objectives activities strands to note

similarities and differences which will: are then shared. Team Identify similarities and . In pairs look through a recent Workers differences in people’s newspaper and choose an article or Creative responses to incident which reflects a breakdown Thinkers forgiveness/ breakdowns in relationship and a need for AT2i in relationships from the forgiveness. Pupils use driver various newspaper questions/writing frame to help e.g. articles discussed. AT1iii why the person may or may not AT2i forgive. Present findings to class. . Higher order question: ‘What Independent Pupils working at level 6 qualities, experiences and enquirers will: backgrounds create a forgiving AT1iii Be able to express person’? Pupils are asked to map insights into what themselves, friends and family on a inspires and influences ‘forgiving scale’ and provide reasons them and others to for the differences. forgive. AT2i (Worksheet 2) Effective . Thought shower: what is meant by participators the term ‘forgiveness’?. . Pupils to complete worksheet 3: AT2i “Christian teaching on forgiveness” to come to an understanding of what AT1i Christians believe about forgiveness by looking at the example of Jesus and the teaching of the New Testament.

Plenary Creative

1 & 2. What is Forgiveness? Resources required Skills Homework Learning Suggested teaching and learning & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points objectives activities strands to note

. Design a symbol that can be used to thinkers represent forgiveness e.g. bridge etc. . Return to initial question: Complete AT2i the sentence: Forgiveness is…

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson, 1&2 What is forgiveness? WORKSHEET 1 Stand up/sit down statements. Read these statements one by one Ask the students to stand if they could forgive and remain seated if they couldn’t They can use sides of the room or red/green cards (if you want to keep them seated.)

1. Someone in class reports you for starting a fight. 2. Your best friend steals money from your bag. 3. A neighbour slashes your bike tyres. 4. A classmate puts an embarrassing clip of you dancing on you tube. 5. A street gang murder your dog. 6. Two friends fall out with you and start bullying you.

……………………..add your own

Lesson 1&2 What is forgiveness? Worksheet 2

Stealing money from their purse/wallet, lying about

where you have been, smoking a cigarette, bullying

Who would forgive you? someone, shouting or swearing, skipping school, gossiping behind their back Who would forgive Who is the most What qualities you for the sins in forgiving? (rank make this person the box above? from 1 to 3) able to forgive?

Parents

Brothers and sisters

Friends DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 1&2 What is forgiveness? WORKSHEET 3 Christian beliefs about forgiveness

Jesus’ example

Look at each of the ways Jesus behaves below and in the right hand column write a list of instructions for Christians today to follow if they want to behave like Jesus.

…they crucified him there and the two criminals also, 1. one on the right, the other on the left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:33-34)

One of the criminals hanging there abused him. “Are 2. you not the Christ? Save yourself and us as well.” But the other spoke up and said “Have you no fear of God at all?” he said. “You got the same sentence as he did but in our case we deserved it; we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” “Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)

Then Peter went up to him and said, “Lord, how often 3. must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?” Jesus answered, “Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.” (Luke 18:21-22)

“Neither do I condemn you. Go away and don’t sin 4. anymore.” (John 8:11)

St Paul’s teaching

Look at the advice St Paul gives to Christians and use them to add to your list of instructions above for modern day Christians

“Never have grudges against others, or lose your 5. temper, or raise your voice to anybody, or call each other names, or allow any sort of spitefulness. Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.” (Ephesians 4: 31-32)

“You are God’s chosen race, his saints; he loves you, 6. and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same.” (Colossians 3:12-114)

Now give as many reasons as you can why Christians believe they should always forgive others no matter what they have done. Use the scripture passages above to support your answer. DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

W/sheet 1 Pupils should: Starter: Pupils working at level 3 will: Sorrow w/sheet 2 . Agree/disagree activity. Describe how feelings of Elton John  know: Students go to either side AT2i genuine repentance would Remorse ‘Sorry That being sorry needs of the room depending on affect a person’s behaviour. seems to be to be genuine. whether they agree or not AT2i Repentance the hardest  understand: with each statement. ( See word’ That being sorry worksheet 1) Pupils working at level 4 will: Forgiveness requires a change of Show the difference between Cher attitude/behaviour; Main Independent apologetic behaviours and Metanoia ‘If you the Christian belief in . What does the word sorry Enquirers decisions that show genuine could turn metanoia. mean to you? Create a AT2i repentance and those that are Apologise back time’  be able to: definition wall – students influenced by other motives Explain the idea that write down what the word AT2i Beliefs repentance must be means to them on A4 paper genuine; and stick it to the wall at Pupils working at level 5 will: Values explain that sometimes the front of the classroom. Explain what beliefs and forgiveness may not be Does genuine sorrow values would lead to the need Challenge forthcoming. affect a person’s AT2i for sincerity in any apology. behaviour? Independent AT2i . Acting sorry vs Being Enquirers sorry. Students to complete Pupils working at level 6 will: worksheet 2 on “Pretending Explain why Christians believe to be sorry vs Metanoia” to that external acts of sorrow help them to focus on the are not enough - that difference between repentance requires literally a superficial and sincere AT2i ‘change of heart.’ AT2i contrition. Creative

3. When is sorry good enough? When is it not? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note . What beliefs and thinkers values would lead to the AT2i need for sincerity in any apology? . When will you accept the other person is truly sorry? Myra Hindley case study. Team (RE collection video section Workers in Forgiveness programme AT2i if available or case study with photo projected if not. See worksheet 3). Students examine the question in pairs – ‘Did Myra Hindley have to do AT2i anything more to show she Team was sorry?’ Workers . Choose which questions are suitable for various individuals/groups/pairs to discuss and feedback: Explain why Christians believe that external acts of sorrow are not enough? What beliefs and values was Myra Hindley expressing? Does Myra Hindley’s story and the AT2i reactions of the victim’s Independent families challenge your/a Learners Christian’s beliefs and

Plenary . Students write a lyric expressing either remorse or the reaction to remorse Possible Stimulus – o Cher – ‘If I could turn back time’ o Elton John – ‘Sorry seems to be the hardest word’ . Return to question: When is sorry good enough? When is it not?

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 3 When is sorry good enough? When is it not? WORKSHEET 1 Agree/disagree statements. Read these statements one by one Ask the students to agree or disagree with these statements They can use sides of the room or red/green cards (if you want to keep them seated.)

7. I only apologise when I think it’s right 8. I apologise for things even when I have done nothing wrong 9. If someone else is offended by things I say or do that’s their problem not mine 10. Life’s too short to worry about what other people think 11. As long as I say sorry it makes things ok. 12. No one should be made to say sorry 13. Sorry is just an empty word that people say

Lesson 3. Worksheet 2. When is sorry good enough? When is it not? Pretending to be Sorry vs Metanoia

Below, think of all the different ways someone might have of trying to get another person to believe they are sorry:

Acting sorry/being sorry

Sometimes we want others to believe we are sorry

when really we are not that sorry. Think of

situations when you might not really be sorry but

you might want someone else to believe you are

sorry:

1. ……………………………………………….. 2. ………………………………………………..

3. ………………………………………………..

In Christian belief, it is important to actually be sorry – and not just to act as if you are sorry.

Christians believe that to be sorry you must have a real “change of heart”. The Greek word for this is metanoia. Look again at your bubble map above and compile two lists (one thing could well be in both lists): Things you might do if you were acting sorry: Things you might do if you were being sorry:

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 3 When is sorry good enough? When is it not? WORKSHEET 1 Agree/disagree statements.

Read these statements one by one

Ask the students to agree or disagree with these statements

They can use sides of the room or red/green cards (if you want to keep them seated.)

1 I only apologise when I think it’s right

2 I apologise for things even when I have done nothing wrong

3 If someone else is offended by things I say or do that’s their problem not mine

4 Life’s too short to worry about what other people think

5 As long as I say sorry it makes things ok.

6 No one should be made to say sorry

7 Sorry is just an empty word that people say

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

YEAR 7 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS FORGIVENESS?

Lesson 3 When is sorry good enough? When is it not?

WORKSHEET 3

Myra Hindley

Back in the 1960’s the people of the UK were horrified when a number of young children went missing. It turned out that two people Myra Hindley and Ian Bradey had taken 3 young children and 2 teenagers and killed them. The bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor in Yorkshire. After they were arrested and found guilty they were put in prison. Bradey was judged to be criminally insane and was put in a secure mental hospital. Hindley spent the rest of her life in prison. She eventually died of a heart attack when she was 60 years old. It took many people by surprise that while in prison Hindley found her catholic faith again. She made her confession to the catholic chaplain and received the forgiveness of God. Many people questioned her reasons for Hindley said the following about her doing this. past actions “No words of mine can ever express the deep remorse and regret I feel for what I was involved in over a quarter of a century ago and for the unpardonable length of time it took me to find the courage and decency to confess my part in those crimes.

I shall forever carry the scars I sustained through the wounds I inflicted, whether in prison or outside. But I do believe that God has forgiven me, and I try not so much to look at the past, but to the present and the future. “

What about the families of Hindley’s victims?

They have had to deal with the crime committed against them and their children for 40 years.

Have they accepted that Hindley has said she is sorry and has received the forgiveness of God?

The mother of one of Myra Hindley's victims fears her son's body will never be found now the Moors murderer is dead. Winnie Johnson said the death of Hindley could mean the end of her 36-year search to find the makeshift grave of her son, Keith Bennett.

Mrs Johnson, of Fallowfield, Manchester, said: "I always hoped she would be able to tell me at least something of what I wanted to know and I've never given up that hope."

Pauline's body was recovered but Keith's remains were never found and the search was called off. "Whatever happens, I'll never give up looking for Keith and I'll keep asking Brady," said Mrs Johnson, who said Hindley had not replied to letters she had been sending her since 1986.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

4. Is it fair? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note

Pictures of Pupils should: Starter Pupils working at level 3 will: Prodigal Son the Prodigal . Look at the painting of the AT1i Make links between the three Son by  know: story of the Prodigal Son by Creative main characters in the story Forgiveness Rembrandt The account of Rembrandt and to discuss Thinkers of the prodigal son (Father, (Google the Prodigal Son the depictions of the three younger son, elder son) with Fairness National (LK15:11-32) main characters. (See Power beliefs. AT1i Gallery and Point presentation). Sinners W/sheet 1  understand : Main Pupils working at level 4 will: Power The difficulties . Read the text in Luke’s AT1i Describe and show Rembrandt Point) involved in gospel while looking at the understanding of the forgiveness; picture. (Luke 15:1-32 on characters in the story Character the challenge Power Point). AT1i referring to beliefs, ideas, that sinners can . Body sculpture – working in AT2i feelings and experiences; Beliefs Worksheets be forgiven by pairs one pupil acts as the making links between them. 1,2 and 3 God model the other as the Reflective AT1i Challenge sculptor. No contact is Learners  be able to : needed. Once the position is Pupils working at level 5 will: Reflect upon the correct, then ask the pupil Team Identify beliefs about God measure of God’s to stand in that position for Workers and forgiveness from the forgiveness and a few minutes so that they story of the prodigal son and love can describe the feelings explain how beliefs about having become ‘the AT1i them arise. AT1i character’. Do this for the AT2i three main characters. Independent Pupils working at level 6 will: . Pupils write down how they Enquirers Explain how the story of the

4. Is it fair? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note felt as the character. prodigal son can provide an (w/sheet 1) answer to the question ‘Is it fair?’ in relation to the AT1i forgiveness that God offers. . Listen to some of the AT1i responses. . Thoughtshower: What beliefs about God and forgiveness arise from this story? Where else are these beliefs expressed? Reflective Plenary Learners . The pupils are to write the AT2i answer they would give to the elder son who said ‘Is it fair?’(see worksheet) in relation to the forgiveness God offers. Share their answers.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? The Prodigal Son (LK15:11-32)

Lesson 4 Is it fair? Jesus continued: "There was a man who Worksheet 2 had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son The Prodigal Son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. (LK15:11-32) After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

The Prodigal Son continued… The Prodigal Son continued…

"The older brother became angry and "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How refused to go in. So his father went out and many of my father's hired men have food to pleaded with him. But he answered his spare, and here I am starving to death! I will father, 'Look! All these years I've been set out and go back to my father and say to slaving for you and never disobeyed your him: Father, I have sinned against heaven orders. Yet you never gave me even a and against you. I am no longer worthy to be young goat so I could celebrate with my called your son; make me like one of your friends. But when this son of yours who has hired men.' So he got up and went to his squandered your property with prostitutes father. "But while he was still a long way off, comes home, you kill the fattened calf for his father saw him and was filled with him!' compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw " 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always his arms around him and kissed him. "The with me, and everything I have is yours. But son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned we had to celebrate and be glad, because against heaven and against you. I am no this brother of yours was dead and is alive longer worthy to be called your son.' again; he was lost and is found.' "

The Prodigal Son continued…

"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? By the end of the lesson you should….. Lesson 4 Is it fair? Worksheet 1 Is it fair? • know the account of the Prodigal Son (LK15:11- Reflections of the Prodigal Son 32) • understand the difficulties involved in forgiveness

• understand the challenge that sinners can be forgiven by God

• be able to reflect upon the measure of God’s forgiveness and love

The Prodigal Son (LK15:11-32)

Task: Listen to the story of the Prodigal Son as you look at the painting by Rembrandt.

And now to work…..

• Body sculpture – working in pairs one pupil acts as the model the other as the sculptor. – No contact is needed. – Once the position is correct, then stand in that position for a few minutes so that you can describe the feelings after having become ‘the character’. – Do this for the three main characters. • Write down how you felt as the character.

HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE DIOCESE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 4 Is it fair?

REFLECTIONS ON THE PRODIGAL SON

HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE DIOCESE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 4

What would you say to the

elder son in response to the question, ‘Is it fair?’ Is it fair?

What would you say to the elder son in response to the question, ‘Is it fair?’ Is it fair? DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

5 & 6. How does God offer forgiveness? What’s on offer? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested Teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note

W/sheets Starter Pupils working at level 3 will: Confession Pupils should: Be able to give examples of  Pupils asked to recall AT1i religious actions in the Contrition  know examples of God’s sacrament of reconciliation, The rite of the forgiveness they have and reasons for them, using a Absolution sacrament of done previously. developing religious reconciliation.  In groups of three, Team vocabulary. E.g. The priest Penance numbered 1) Prodigal Workers extends his hands over the  understand son, 2) woman caught in person to take away their sin. Sacrament The meaning and adultery, 3) how many AT1ii purpose of the times must I forgive Rite sacrament of my brother? individuals Pupils working at level 4 will: reconciliation. must explain the Use religious terms to show an Forgiveness example of forgiveness understanding of the  Be able to to their group Creative sacrament of reconciliation. Mercy Reflect upon the  Ask one pupil from each Thinkers (This would include all key significance of group to summarise parts of sacrament CCAP) Change the sacrament what is learned from AT1ii of reconciliation the texts e.g. sinners Transformation for believers are forgiven, Pupils working at level 5 will: (personal and change/transformation Describe what happens during community). of sinner through the sacrament of forgiveness, endless reconciliation and explain the love, mercy and meaning and purpose of the forgiveness of God. rite. AT1ii

Main Pupils working at level 6 will: Explain the significance for  Explain that what we believers of the sacrament of have learned from the reconciliation. AT1ii scriptures about forgiveness is on offer in the Sacrament of reconciliation.  Go through the ‘Rite of Reconciliation’ AT1ii (Worksheet 1) Team  Pupils are given the rite Workers to read (3 mins) and then in teams they answer the questions on the cards which are placed on the teacher’s in desk in packs of different coloured cards in a random order. (Worksheet 2 a). Pupils answer first card, if answer if correct as checked by teacher then they get the next card and son on. There are response sheet for the pupils to fill in answers. (Worksheet 2c). AT1ii Answers for the teacher are found on Independent Worksheet 2b. Enquirers  Link parts of sacrament confession, contrition, absolution and penance (CCAP) to following points, (sinners are forgiven, change/transformation of sinner through forgiveness, endless love, mercy and forgiveness of God). See worksheet 3  Reflect on text on Creative personal experience of Thinkers the sacrament that highlights above points. (Worksheet 4).  Why do you think this Reflective sacrament is Learners significant for Catholics? (Individually, pairs or groups).

Plenary Worksheet 5  1 way that what you have learned connects with what you knew before  2 questions you still have,  3 things you have leaned in the lesson,

FOR LESSON 6 SEE WORKSHEET 6

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 5 How does God offer forgiveness? What’s on offer? Worksheet 1

The Rite (Ceremony) of Reconciliation

A person who goes to this Sacrament is a ‘penitent’.

1. Before the sacrament, penitents then prepare by thinking carefully about their faults. They can concentrate on remembering as many of their sins as possible, or they can concentrate on something in their life that they want to change (for instance, if they are constantly greedy, or if they are frequently ill-tempered or bad mannered or if they continually criticise other people and so on) 2. The priest welcomes the penitent. The priest says a suitable prayer, such as ‘May God help you to know your sins and trust in his mercy’. 3. There should be a reading from the Bible – such as the parable of the lost sheep or part of the account of Jesus’ death, when he forgave those who crucified him. The purpose of the reading is to remind the penitent that God forgives. 4. The penitent confesses his or her sins to the priest and the priest may say some words of encouragement. 5. The priest gives a penance. The priest may make the penance fit the sin, e.g. be kind to your sister. But the penance is more likely to be a prayer the penitent has to say. 6. The penitent expresses sorrow for his or her sins by saying the prayer Act of Contrition. 7. The priest says the words of absolution. This is when God forgives the penitents sin through the action of the priest. He raises his right hand or places it on the penitent’s head and says a prayer of forgiveness: God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself… May God give you pardon and peace and I absolve you from your sins. 8. There is a final prayer of thanksgiving. The priest blesses the penitent. 9. The penitent will say/do their penance. This is to show that they are sorry for the sins they have committed and a time to consider how to avoid those sins in the future.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 5 How does God offer forgiveness? What’s on offer? Worksheet 2(a)

The Rite of Reconciliation

A person who goes to the sacrament of reconciliation is 1 called?

What to people do to prepare for the sacrament of 2 reconciliation?

Name a suitable bible reading for use in the sacrament of 3 reconciliation.

What term is used to describe people telling the priest their 4 sins?

What is the name of the prayer which expresses sorrow for 5 sin?

What is the absolution? 6

What are the words of absolution? 7

Why do priests give penitents a penance? 8

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 5 How does God offer forgiveness? What’s on offer?

Worksheet 2(b)

The Rite of Reconciliation

ANSWERS

A penitent

Before the sacrament, penitents then prepare by thinking

carefully about their faults. 2

the parable of the lost sheep or part of the account of Jesus’

death 3

Confesses

Act of Contrition 5

This is when God forgives the penitents sin through the action

6 of the priest.

May God give you pardon and peace and I absolve you from

your sins 7

This is to show that they are sorry for the sins they have 8 committed and a time to consider how to avoid those sins in the future.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 5 How does God offer forgiveness? What’s on offer? Worksheet 2(c)

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 5 How does God offer Forgiveness? What’s on offer? ness? What’s on offer? kh What does God Offer? What does God Offer?

God God offers; offers;

Forgiveness for sinners , Forgiveness for sinners , To change the sinner through his forgiveness, To change the sinner through his forgiveness, To give us his endless love, mercy and forgiveness. To give us his endless love, mercy and forgiveness.

LINK THESE TO PARTS OF THE RITE BELOW LINK THESE TO PARTS OF THE RITE BELOW

Confession Confession Sinners are made welcome ANSWERS

Contrition Contrition Sinners are helped to change by encountering God’s love and forgiveness.

bsolution Absolution Offers us his love, mercy and forgiveness.

Penance Penance Sinners are helped to change by reflecting on what they need to do and the help that they can rely on to do it

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 5 How does God offer forgiveness? What’s on offer? Worksheet 4

WHAT DOES GOD OFFER IN THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

One of the first evening events at a Youth 2000 retreat is based around the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Everyone present is encouraged to go to Confession with a priest to experience the love and mercy of God. Some people can find this a bit daunting as often this involves talking to a priest face-to-face. But the overall tone of the evening is absolutely non-judgemental. Fr. Stephen Wang, a priest who regularly hears confessions at Youth 2000 events, says:

"Humbled is the one word I would use to describe how I feel when hearing people's confessions. I feel privileged that someone would be brave and honest enough to open their hearts in this way and I try to help them as a shepherd and friend." The service is usually set to the tune of reflective music from the music ministry and often the lights are lowered to give people a chance to be quiet and still before God. Youth 2000, with the Church, views the Sacrament of Reconciliation as an opportunity for healing and as a chance to make a fresh start. Many young people who attend a retreat haven't been to Confession for a long time, whether that's months, years or sometimes never. The service offers them the chance to reconnect with Christ in a peaceful, moving way.

Reconciliation Service at Youth 2000

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING IN PARAGRAPHS What does God offer in the Sacrament of Reconciliation? How does this affect the life of a believer? What impact will this have on others?

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 5 How does God offer forgiveness? What’s on offer? Worksheet 5

Reviewing Reconciliation

Describe one way that what you have learned connects with what you knew before.

What two questions would you still

like answered?

What are the three most important things you have learned today?

Lesson 6. How does God offer forgiveness? What’s on offer?

“Going to confession is a strange way to say sorry!”

Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer showing that you have considered another point of view.

Question Guide – you can use this information to help you

This question requires you to make an informed value judgement about the statement above. By the end of your answer you should have:

o explained the beliefs and values of someone who goes to confession? Why do they decide to go to confession to say sorry? How do their beliefs affect their choices in l life? What was important to and why? What do you think inspires someone to go to confession? What challenges/difficulties could there be to face?

o stated why some people might think that going to confession is a strange way to say sorry, explaining what they may feel or think. Explain how they may live say sorry in other ways, such as directly to God or to a person, through other sacraments or pilgrimage. Explain what would inspire them to live this way and the challenges and difficulties this may bring.

o explained YOUR answer to the question, stating what you believe and why, and why you agree or disagree with other peoples’ view.

TIPS TO GET STARTED

This a suggested way of starting each paragraph. You can write in your own style if you wish.

o Someone who believes that being a missionary is important is Jane. She believes that……

o Others believe that it is too big a sacrifice to be a missionary and live their Christian life in other ways. This is because……..

o I think that I could/couldn’t be a missionary because ……..

4  You have made links to show what a penitent believes and how it affected their choices and decisions

 You have shown another way of saying sorry and made links between their beliefs and the decisions they have made  You have shown how your own decisions are influenced by what you believe 5  You have explained what beliefs have influenced and inspired a penitent in their life  You have explained what beliefs have influenced and inspired a Christian living their faith in another way in their life  You have explained what beliefs have influenced and inspired you in your life 6  You have expressed insights into the reasons why a penitent holds these beliefs and values (what is important) and the challenges he/she may face (e.g. difficulties in going to confession, penance….)  You have expressed insights into the reasons why a Christian living faith in another way holds these beliefs and values (what is important) and the challenges he/she has/may face (e.g. accepting forgiveness, possible lack of reflection….)  You have expressed insights into the reasons why you holds these beliefs and values (what is important) and the challenges you have/may face

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

7. Can we earn forgiveness? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested Teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note

W/sheet 1 Pupils should: Starter Pupils working at level 3 will: Penance W/sheet 2 . Use imaginary scenarios Creative Be able to make links between  know: worksheet where someone Thinkers some biblical stories (e.g. the Guilt Bibles What is meant by has been offended, harmed AT2i Prodigal Son, the Story of the Catholic idea of or damaged by another. Zacchaeus, the Woman caught Grace ‘The “penance”. Students work in pairs to in Adultery) and the Catholic Mission’  understand: evaluate different possible practice of penance AT1i Forgiveness film clip The tension between responses and rank them in Be able to give reasons for the the idea of penance order of best response to Team existence of penances as part Remorse ‘Post it’ and the belief that worst. Students to then Workers of the Catholic rite of notes or God’s forgiveness is move to groups of four and reconciliation AT1ii Rite of stickers a free gift. justify their ranking and try Show how certain human Reconciliation  be able to: and come up with a feelings (guilt, remorse, fear Suggest answers to synthesised priority and of punishment) can lead to Denominations the question: “If ranking. Then feedback to Reflective beliefs about the need for forgiveness is free, the whole class. Ask them to Learners penance AT2i Make amends why is penance suggest another response necessary?” that is not on the card – one Pupils working at level 4 will: better and one worse. Be able to describe and show Main an understanding of the . Use Punishment fits the Catholic practice of penance Crime worksheet. AT1i as part of the rite of

7. Can we earn forgiveness? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested Teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note . Use any text of scripture AT1ii reconciliation. (perhaps a selection) where AT1i Be able to describe and forgiveness is given but an AT2i explain the Christian belief in extra response is offered the free gift of forgiveness by the sinner, or required Independent (and understand why it is by Jesus (e.g. Zacchaeus – Enquirers called “grace”) AT1i who offers to pay back Be able to use theological double all those he has Creative vocabulary to show an cheated Luke 19:1-10). Thinkers understanding of penance as Students to identify the part of the Catholic rite of “penance” and suggest a reconciliation AT1ii reason why it is necessary. Show how the Catholic . Use a parallel activity to AT2i practice of penance is that used as the starter and informed by other beliefs. taking an imaginary scenario, Creative Show how the rejection of the give a list of responses that Thinkers practice by other God could make to the denominations is equally offence and ask the Reflective informed by Christian beliefs students to rank them using Learners that are shared and believed a scale such as: “God is most by Catholics AT2i likely to…” to “God is least likely to…” They need to be Pupils working at level 5 will: ready to justify their Identify why Catholics and response. other Christians would . Use the scene from “The AT2i disagree about the necessity Mission” where Mendoza for penance AT1i chooses his penance. Ask Independent Be able to describe and students to imagine they Enquirers explain the meaning and

7. Can we earn forgiveness? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested Teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note are going to interview purpose of penance AT1ii Mendoza and to think of Creative Explain what beliefs influence some questions they would Thinkers the Catholic practice of like to ask him. Then to penance. Explain what beliefs imagine they are Mendoza affect their own behaviour in and to try and answer the attempts to make amends with questions of other students. others AT2i Some question ideas: o “Why does he choose such a difficult Pupils working at level 6 will: penance?” Explain how biblical passages o “Would God still are used by Catholics to forgive him if he had justify the idea of penance not performed a and by non-Catholic Christians penance?” to reject the practice AT1i o “Why does he go back Be able to explain the down the mountain to significance of penance for reclaim his penance AT2i Catholic belief and worship after it has been cut AT1ii away from him?” Reflective Express insights into the o “Do you think Thinkers Catholic reasons for penance performing a penance and evaluate their own is important?” response with regards to the o “Who for?” necessity for penance in order . Students asked to reflect to make amends after a upon their own experience relationship has been damaged of guilt, to privately AT2i consider something about

7. Can we earn forgiveness? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested Teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note which they feel guilty. They are then to consider what AT1i they could do to get rid of AT1ii their guilt. Or which actions AT2i of others would help them feel relieved of guilt? They Independent are to note this privately, Enquiries and can be invited to share if they wish. Plenary . Students to respond to the question, “If God forgives us anyway, why do we have to do penance?” by using post-it notes or stickers. They have to choose a wall, upon which there are sentence starter responses to this question: 1. We don’t have to because… 2. We have to do penance because God wants us to because… 3. We have to do penance because we need to because…

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 7 Can we earn forgiveness? WORKSHEET 1

Malcolm and Helen are best friends. Helen has the latest mobile When Helen asks for the phone that she got for her birthday that does everything you can phone back, pretend he imagine – it stores music and video, has a 5 mega-pixel digital doesn’t know what she’s camera and digital movie recorder, streaming Bluetooth technology, talking about it. e-mails and web surfing. It’s the business!

One day Malcolm asks if he can borrow the phone to make an urgent phone call because his phone has run out of credit. Helen is worried When Helen asks for the about lending out her new phone but reminds herself that Malcolm is phone back, admit that he’s her best friend so she should trust him with her phone. broken it but say that it was Malcolm takes the phone and goes for a walk around the block with her stupid fault for agreeing it so he can make the private phone call he needs to make. And to lend it to him in the first then disaster – he drops it in a puddle! The phone won’t even switch place. on again. It is a complete write off. What should Malcolm do?

Avoid Helen for as long as possible and when he does When Helen asks for the Say sorry to Helen and offer see her again be mean to her phone back, tell her what he’s to pay to replace the phone so that he won’t have to done, say sorry and forget out of his paper round wages. spend time with her in about it. future. Jade and Kaira are best friends. They share everything and they don’t keep secrets from each other. When Jade asks her if it was One day Jade tells Kaira a very personal secret that she doesn’t she who spread the rumour, want anyone else to know. She tells her that her dad has left them and gone to live with another woman. Kaira is shocked and promises deny all knowledge and pretend it was someone else. Jade that she won’t tell another living soul. Later in that week a group of girls is talking to Jade and Kaira when Jade suddenly runs off very upset. The other girls start calling her for being such a drama queen. Trying to defend her friend, she tells the group of girls why Jade is so upset, telling When Jade asks her if it them all that Jade’s dad has left their family home. was she who spread the rumour, admit that it was Later in that same week, when Jade and Kaira are walking home. but say: The group of girls start shouting insults at Jade: “Her mother‘s so “So what? What difference ugly her dad left them all!” does it make?” Jade looks at Kaira – very hurt. What should Kaira do?

Write a card explaining her Say sorry, try to explain why mistake and explain how she did it and promise that Join in with the bullies sorry she is and ask what she she’ll never be so stupid again because Jade shouldn’t be so can do to put it right. Give in the future. touchy anyway. her a little gift with the card. Jez and Carlton are best friends. They’ve known each other since they were kids, living opposite each other on the same street. Now they play in the same local league team every weekend. Forget Jez – it was his own fault for being injured

One week Jez is not able to make the weekend league match anyway. because he has an injury. Carlton misses the partnership he has

with Jez on the field but he gets on and plays out of his skin. After the match, much to Carlton’s surprise, he is approached by his team manager and told that a local talent scout has watched him

play and wants him to play for the city academy. The scout explains that there is only one space left but that he has been very impressed by Carlton’s skill and unless Carlton knows of anyone Avoid Jez and hope that he

better, he would like to invite Carlton to the Academy. never has to explain himself Carlton knows in his heart that Jez is a better player – but this is to him. He’ll forget about it soon enough. his one chance. So he takes it and the scout gives him his schedule.

When Jez hears about what his friend has done he is angry and hurt.

What should Carlton do?

Lie to Jez and tell him that Say sorry to Jez and in the Say sorry to Jez but explain the manager had not asked meantime retire from the why he wants to stay on at him if there was anyone else Academy, putting Jez’s name the Academy hoping that Jez and hope Jez never finds out forward instead. will understand. the truth.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 7 Can we earn forgiveness? Worksheet 2

Punishment Fitting the Crime The following is a true story:

There was a rich man who worked in the city as a stockbroker. He earned a lot of money and would frequently go out and Lots of people think that this was a very get very drunk with his friends. After one appropriate punishment and was much of these nights out he thought it would better than a fine because the “punishment be funny to tip over all of the bins in a fitted the crime.” street – just for a laugh. He wasn’t thinking about how inconvenient this would be for everybody who lived there. What do you think the phrase “the He also wasn’t concerned about being punishment fitted the crime” mean? arrested and punished because he

assumed that the worst he could be given was a fine – and he had loads of Do you think it is a good idea to make “the money. He was eventually arrested and punishment fit the crime”? Why/why not? found guilty but even during the trial he sat there smugly aware that it didn’t matter how big the fine was he could easily pay it. However, the judge didn’t give him a fine. Instead he gave him a community service sentence. For one whole month this rich stockbroker had to dress in overalls and work as a bin man Finally, after thinking about these for no salary at all! punishments, what do you think the purpose of punishment is? He never tipped over bins again.

Task Here is a list of crimes – for each one think up a punishment that would fit the crime and explain why you think your suggested punishment is “fitting”: 1. School students who drop litter in the yard. 2. Someone who drives their car over the speed limit. 3. Someone who claims state benefits that they don’t deserve. 4. Someone who bullies other people. 5. Someone who shoplifts.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

8. If I’m forgiven, should I be punished? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note

Pupils should: Starter Pupils working at level 3 will: Benevolent Bible . Ask students to do two AT1iii Be able to make links between  know: parallel mind maps. On of AT2ii some biblical texts (e.g. the Punishment Catechism What is meant by the mind maps has at its parable of the sheep and of the the term centre the title Creative goats; parable of the Hell Catholic ‘punishment’. “Punishments used by the Thinkers unmerciful servant; Lazarus Church  understand: UK” and the other has at its and the rich man) and the Retribution The tension between centre “Punishments used by Christian belief in Hell AT1i belief in a this school.” Students to Be able to give reasons why Rehabilitation benevolent, forgiving suggest other punishments Christians who believe in God and the they think could/should be forgiveness still use Literal Christian belief in used. Students to show on punishments in their Hell. their maps which kinds of institutions AT1iii Metaphorical  be able to: punishments the two have in Compare their own beliefs Reflect upon the common. AT2ii about forgiveness and purpose of . Students to recall a time Independent punishment with others in punishment in a when they have been Enquirers their class AT2ii secular context and punished and to reflect upon evaluate how these questions: Pupils working at level 4 will: justified punishment 1. Why was I punished? Be able to describe and show is for Christian 2. How did I feel being an understanding of the individuals and punished? Christian beliefs about Hell institutions. 3. Was my punishment and be able to analyse this

8. If I’m forgiven, should I be punished? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note fair? Why/why not? along side the Christian belief 4. How did I feel about the in God’s unconditional person doing the forgiveness AT1i punishing? Show an understanding of how 5. Do I think that the Christian beliefs about person who punished me forgiveness might well change likes me/loves me? an individual’s or an 6. Can you punish someone institution’s practice with even if you love them? regards to punishment.AT1iii Explain your answer. AT1i Engage with and respond to Main Independent the question of whether . Begin with some key texts Enquirers punishment fits with a from the Gospels that refer Christian idea of forgiveness to Hell (e.g. Matthew 25: AT2ii 31-46; Matthew 13:41-42). Ask students to highlight Pupils working at level 5 will: the descriptive words and Identify why some Christians draw an image of the now reject belief in Hell and combined descriptions. Ask AT1i why other Christians would them whether they believe AT2ii see it as central AT1i Jesus’ language is literal or Independent Identify similarities and metaphorical. Justify their Enquirers differences between secular answer. AT1iii and Christian beliefs about . Use an extract from the Independent punishment and forgiveness Catholic catechism that Enquirers AT1iii summarises the Catholic Demonstrate how the beliefs beliefs about Hell and Creative of some Christians give some suggest ways in which the Thinkers explanation of the purpose of

8. If I’m forgiven, should I be punished? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note scriptural passages might punishment and its have influenced these relationship to forgiveness. Catholic beliefs. (1034-36) AT2ii . Give students a list of the AT1i different possible reasons Independent Pupils working at level 6 will: that a state government Enquirers Explain how biblical passages might give for punishing are used by different criminals. Ask students to Christians to justify belief in evaluate how good each of Hell and compare this with the these different scriptural sources used to justifications is for reject belief in Hell AT1i punishing. They should rank Explain how Christian beliefs them from best about forgiveness and Hell justification to worst would effect the behaviour of justification. individuals or institutions with . Using the same sets of regards to their policy and justifications ask students AT1iii practice on punishmentAT1iii to place them under two Independent Explain with reference to headings “Christian” or Enquirers Christian beliefs their own “Non-Christian” and ask view on whether forgiveness them to justify their and punishment are placement of these with compatible. reference to some other Be able to compare their own key Christian texts about beliefs with other Christian punishment (e.g. Hebrews: views and with the views of “The Lord disciplines those others in their class.AT2ii whom he loves.” And other AT1iii texts that emphasise the AT2ii

8. If I’m forgiven, should I be punished? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note rehabilitative nature of Independent punishment and/or the Enquirers unconditional love of God) . Using the sets of scripture passages, construct some arguments for and against a belief in Hell. Plenary . Students to respond to the statement “Hell does not exist”, providing arguments both for and against their own response to this statement. . Students to choose from a set of images those which they think represent God and those that do not. They pull these images together and try and justify why they have chosen these images. The images will reflect either a loving, forgiving God or a just God who punishes sins.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

Copies of Pupils should: Starter Pupils working at level 3 will: Forgive Our Father . Question – Why do we AT2i Be able to make the link between  know: forgive others? Discuss in Creative how their personal experiences of Forgiven Copy of That everyone needs to pairs or with ‘Just a Thinkers forgiveness affected themselves Catherine forgive and be forgiven. Minute’. (One pupil speaks and others. AT2i Conditions Hill’s  understand: about this. At the first Be able to give reasons for their interview That to be forgiven you pause, repetition or mistake own ability and the ability of Trespass must also be ready to another takes over and so Christians to forgive. AT1iii Copy of forgive. on until the minute is up. Process Gordon  be able to: . Read the ’Our Father’ Pupils working at level 4 will: Wilson’s Explore the conditions of together. Be able to show how their own and The Merciful interview forgiveness. . Highlight and discuss the Reflective others decisions are informed by Servant and info. meaning of ‘Forgive us our Thinkers beliefs. AT2i about trespasses as we forgive Be able to show an understanding Attitude Enniskillen those who trespass against of how the words of the Our us’. Father shape a Christian’s Beliefs Mtt. 18: Main attitude towards forgiveness. 21-35 . Case Study One AT1iii AT1iii Read the story of Catherine Copy of Hill and discuss why she Effective Pupils working at level 5 will: quote from found it difficult to Participators Identify similarities and CS Lewis forgive. In small groups differences between C Hill’s and discuss Catherine’s reaction G Wilson’s attitudes to

9. If We Can’t Forgive, Can We Be Forgiven? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note to the terrorists. forgiveness because of their Q. do you think she Creative beliefs. AT1iii should forgive them? Thinkers Q. One reason Catherine AT2i Pupils working at level 6 will: would not forgive the Effective Be able to explain how religious terrorists was because they Participators beliefs and teachings influence are not sorry. Is peoples’ attitudes towards forgiveness always a two- forgiveness. AT1 iii way process, or can a Express insights into reasons why person forgive someone unconditional forgiveness may be even if the wrongdoer is challenging. AT2i not sorry? . Case Study Two Read the story of Marie Wilson. Discuss Gordon Reflective Wilson’s reaction. Thinkers AT2i Explain how Catherine Hill and Gordon Wilson would describe the process of Creative forgiveness. What are the Thinkers similarities/differences in their attitudes? How do Gordon Wilson’s beliefs influence his attitude towards forgiveness?

Use other stories if time allows (see worksheets)

Link to the ‘Our Father… as AT1iii we forgive others’. Creative Thinkers Matthew 18: 21 – 35 The Merciful Servant – in pairs discuss the need to forgive others as God AT2i forgives us unconditionally. Creative Why is unconditional Thinkers forgiveness challenging?

Plenary . Read CS Lewis ‘Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive’. What does his phrase mean? . Return to initial question: If we can’t forgive, can we be forgiven?

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

YEAR 7 UNIT6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

Lesson 9 If We Can’t Forgive, Can We Be Forgiven?

WORKSHEET 1

GORDON WILSON It was 8 November 1987. The people of Enniskillen gathered for their Remembrance Day service at the cenotaph. It never took place. Shortly before 11.00am an IRA bomb blew up killing eleven people. One of them was Marie Wilson, a twenty-one year old nurse. Her father, Gordon Wilson, held hands with her under a mound of rubble, as she became unconscious. She died hours later in hospital. When Gordon Wilson was interviewed on television he said: “I have lost my daughter, and we shall miss her. But I bear no ill will, I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. Our Lord taught us to pray, “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” We ask God to forgive us, but we must forgive others. When I think of the people responsible for killing Marie I don’t bear them nasty thoughts. As human beings they have their own pieces to pick up. They will ultimately have to face their God, as I will. I still pray for the bombers.”

CATHERINE HILL Catherine is the victim of a terrorist attack. She was involved in a hijack in Karachi when 120 people were killed or maimed. She was badly injured.

INTERVIEWER: What does it mean to forgive?

CATHERINE: To forgive you have to be actively involved. It is something you do, it doesn’t just happen. For example, when I walk I sweat. It takes such energy that I don’t have any left for forgiveness. The first step is accepting what has happened, and once you accept you are able to move on in a positive way.

INTERVIEWER: Do you think about the terrorists?

CATHERINE: I close the door on the question of the terrorists. I don’t want to think about them. I want to use all that possible anger in a positive way. I want to convert it.

INTERVIEWER: Can you forgive?

CATHERINE: They don’t deserve it. They chose to kill and maim 120 people. I’m not vindictive even now. But how can I forgive those people if there’s no relationship? They haven’t even asked for forgiveness. They would do it all over again.

BBC1 Everyman series: ‘As We Forgive Them’, 5th February 1989

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCAST;E KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS

Lesson 9 If we can’t forgive can we be forgiven? Worksheet

Abigail attempted murder 'solved'

The prime suspect in the stabbing of Abigail Witchalls would have faced criminal charges if he had not killed himself shortly after the attack.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said there was Richard Cazaly had "sufficient evidence" to prosecute Richard Cazaly, 23. been hunting in

Mrs Witchalls was stabbed in the neck in front of her young woods on the day son in April. of the attack

Det Supt Adrian Harper said: "The investigation is concluded. All the evidence points to Richard Cazaly as the offender."

The Surrey Police chief said the decision would be "difficult" for friends and family of Cazaly to accept and added: "There is no prior evidence to suggest he was capable of an act such as this."

He said Mr Cazaly became psychotic and violent as a result of long-term abuse of drugs and the alcohol he had consumed on the day of the stabbing.

Mrs Witchalls' father welcomed the announcement and said Mrs Witchalls gave the family extended their sympathy and prayers to the Cazaly family. birth naturally to her second son, He said police had been thorough and sensitive in dealing with the case and asked for continued respect for the family's Dominic privacy.

Mrs Witchalls, 26, was left partially paralysed after the attack in Little Bookham, Surrey, but has since given birth to her second child.

Mr Cazaly, of Fleet, Hampshire, died of a suspected overdose of painkillers on 30 April, having driven to Scotland five days after the stabbing.

He had been living in a house in Water Lane, Little Bookham, while working at a nearby garden centre.

No 'guilty declaration'

CPS principal legal adviser Chris Newell said: "The CPS has advised Surrey Police that their investigation into this offence revealed evidence that would have been sufficient to prosecute Richard Cazaly, if he were alive.

"But this is in no sense a declaration that he was guilty of the offence.

"Had Mr Cazaly lived, our decision would merely have authorised the police to begin the legal process by charging him.

"We agreed to look at the evidence on a deceased suspect because of the very exceptional circumstances of this case."

Sniffer dogs

Mr Cazaly bore similarities to a description Mrs Witchalls gave of her attacker but she was unable to pick him out in a photo ID parade.

However, Surrey Police believed they had evidence which linked Mr Cazaly to the stabbing.

In May, four specialist dogs, one trained to sniff out human blood, searched the route Mrs Witchalls had been walking before she was attacked.

Police did not rule out the possibility that Mr Cazaly's scent was found.

They said in July that the evidence submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service would include information on the "process of the dogs going into the woods".

The file also included elements which could count against Mr Cazaly being the attacker, such as the fact that he was not identified in the ID parade.

Relationship break-up

Cazaly had lived an itinerant life since his late teens and was a heavy user of cannabis.

He normally worked on the other side of a hedge from the path Mrs Witchalls used on the afternoon of the stabbing to walk to a mother and toddler group.

At the time of the attack, Cazaly was breaking up with his Australian girlfriend Vanessa McKenzie, who looked similar to Mrs Witchalls.

Police spoke to Cazaly twice in the days after the attack - during local house-to-house inquiries and at a random road check.

His name was also given to officers by a suspicious neighbour but in the early stages of the investigation he was one of about 40 people police were looking at.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 9 If we can’t forgive can we be forgiven? Anthony’s family ‘still forgive’ By Mark McGregor BBC News, Liverpool

The killing of Anthony Walker united a community Gee Walker's in anger at the ferocity and senseless nature of the racist attack. children attended the same school as Paul Taylor and Michael Barton now face lengthy jail sentences after being convicted of his murder. Taylor and Barton

But for the Walkers, anger gives way to sorrow as they consider his killers - two boys who attended the same school as Anthony and his siblings.

And while they will never forget, his mother Gee and sister Dominique said they had certainly forgiven.

"Why live a life sentence? Hate killed my son, so why should I be a victim too?" said Mrs Walker.

"Unforgiveness makes you a victim and why should I be a victim? Anthony spent his life forgiving. His life stood for peace, love and forgiveness and I brought them up that way.

"I have to practice what I preach. I don't feel any bitterness towards them really, truly, all I feel is... I I don't know feel sad for the family." what hell feels

Her feelings are echoed by daughter Dominique, whose like but I'm appeal in the aftermath of Anthony's death was seen as sure I'm a key turning point in the police investigation. sitting in hell The 20-year-old told BBC One's Real Story that she stood by her decision then to forgive whoever killed her right now brother. "I did say I forgive and I do still stand by that because Gee Walker you have to. That's one of the things I was raised on and what my mum taught me.

"I feel sorry for them because they didn't know what they were doing, they don't understand the magnitude of what they've done."

Daniel Okoro, Anthony's cousin, said the family were satisfied with Barton and Taylor's convictions but would not be celebrating.

"We have no reason to be jubilant because that will not bring Anthony back," he said. The Walkers said "Anthony was a devout Christian and the world is a worse place without him. Our lives will never be the they had forgiven same again." Paul Taylor

Mr Okoro went on to thank the thousands of people across Liverpool, the UK and the world whose support had been a "great comfort" to the family.

Despite that enormous support, Gee Walker said the family was still struggling to cope with Anthony's death.

She said: "Every day we wonder, where is our lad?

"Every day we still wait. We call his name, we hear a ball bounce and we are all looking and waiting."

Mrs Walker said her other son Daniel had been particularly affected by Anthony's death.

"I just feel sad for him, every night climbing into the top bunk and his brother's not there. He is just a shadow of himself. When you say, 'how do you feel son?' He just says, 'lost'."

The time between Anthony's death and the trial was relatively short for a murder investigation and Mrs Walker revealed the hearings had been testing.

"I don't know what hell feels like but I'm sure I'm sitting Dominique Walker in hell right now. Every day you have to relive the pain and I just hope to God no other mother has to sit where feels sorrow for her I am sitting." brother's killers For Anthony's father, Steve Walker, the proceedings brought shock - it was the first time he had seen the kind of weapon used to kill his son.

"When they said to me, 'an axe', at first I thought it was one of those little six-inch or nine-inch things.

"But the handle is about two feet long and I just thought, 'no, you can't use that on somebody'.

"I don't know what was going through his (Taylor's) mind. He couldn't have been thinking like a normal human would."

Dominique Walker and her brother attended the same primary school as Paul Taylor. Her mother said they all grew up knowing one another "in one way, shape or form".

Although they were not friends, they had certainly shared the same playground, Mrs Walker added.

"That's what made it so unbelievable, because they all played together. Was it there all the time? Why didn't they say it? That's a question we will never know."

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 9 If we can’t forgive can we be forgiven?

Robin Oake also worked for Greater Manchester Police The father and wife of the policeman stabbed to death during a counter-terrorism operation in Manchester have paid personal tributes to him.

His father Robin Oake, a career policeman with 30 years' experience, said he was "seeking God's forgiveness" for his son's killer.

Special Branch Detective Constable Stephen Oake, a 40-year-old father-of-three, died after a raid linked to the discovery of the poison ricin in a north London flat last week.

His wife of 20 years, Lesley Oake, said he was a "wonderful father" and a "fantastic You won't husband". find anybody Mr Oake Sr, who is the former chief constable of the Isle of Man and served with with the Manchester force himself, said his son had his heart in all aspects of police work. something remotely 'Christian faith' negative to say about Mr Oake Sr said: "I am praying for the perpetrator of this killing and seeking God's forgiveness for him - praying also that he may now seek God himself and find him peace and forgiveness with him."

He recalled how his son had joined Greater Manchester Police in 1984 and had served in central Manchester before working his way up through the traffic department and into Special Branch. Assistant Mr Oake Sr said: "Following the tragic death of Stephen, my son, and former Minister the colleague in the Greater Manchester Police, I simply want to pay tribute to him, his Reverend forefront work with Special Branch in his latter years and his gracious Christian faith. Mark Elder

"Obviously my first thoughts are with his lovely wife Lesley and their three children Stephen Oake was - Christopher (15), Rebecca (14) and Corinne (12)." killed during counter-terrorism work

Devastation

Mr Oake Sr, 65, added: "When I left the force to come to the island in April 1986, he carried on the family name in Manchester."

He spoke proudly of Stephen's work, including the arrest of two armed robbers in Salford and looking after an Israeli prime minister during a visit to Britain. Scores of His wife Lesley, also praised her husband's love of policing. people have paid tribute to In a statement issued through Greater Manchester Police, Mrs Oake said: "He loved Mr Oake us all so much and brought so much joy and fun into our lives.

"He was also the most dedicated policeman, who was driven by his desire to save the community and protect the public.

"This terrible act has totally devastated our lives, and we are in total shock that someone could do something like this."

Praise for Stephen also came from Greater Manchester Chief Constable Mike Todd, who said: "The Special Branch officers, including Steve, very bravely went to assist their colleagues and that's how he has been fatally stabbed."

Jan Berry, chairman of the Police Federation, said: "Stephen paid the ultimate sacrifice last night for his family and for the families of the police officers who have been injured."

'Respected man'

Stephen Oake had lived in Poynton, Cheshire, with his family and had been a member of the local Baptist Church for more than 10 years.

Assistant Minister the Reverend Mark Elder described the detective as a "respected man of faith" with "so much integrity about him".

As the congregation gathered to say prayers for Mr Oake the minister said: "You won't find anybody with something remotely negative to say about him.

"His Christian faith was the driving force in his life. He had strong family values. He lived by those values and was a devoted family man."

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS

Lesson 9 If we can’t forgive can we be forgiven?

Worksheet

Vicar struggles to forgive the terrorists who killed her daughter

Peace and reconciliation - but Julie Nicholson cannot forgive the terrorists who killed her daughter Jenny, so she has resigned as vicar of a Bristol church. Paul Vallely explores the nature of loss and forgiveness

Tuesday, 7 March 2006

What are these? "It's very difficult to stand behind an altar and lead people in words of peace and reconciliation and forgiveness when I feel very far from that myself." So said the Rev Julie Nicholson, announcing her intention to resign her role as vicar of St Aidan's church in Bristol. What has estranged her from one of the most fundamental tenets of her Christian faith is the killing of her daughter, Jenny. The 24-year-old, a gifted musician, died in one of the four terrorist bomb explosions in London on 7 July last year.

Mrs Nicholson and her husband, Greg, were on holiday in Wales when they found out their daughter had been murdered. She had not publicly discussed Jenny's death until yesterday, declining to speak at her funeral at Bristol Cathedral in August.

She went on extended compassionate leave and has now decided that she is unable to return to her job. She plans to continue working for the Church outside the priesthood, running community arts projects. "I am looking for a way in which I can still have priestly ministry when there are some things I can no longer practise, or I can't currently practise," she said. "For me that's about integrity."

Who could blame her lack of forgiveness? Certainly not Gee Walker, whose 18-year-old son, Anthony, was killed in a racist attack in Liverpool just days after Jenny Nicholson was blown apart at Edgware Road. Yet when two youths were accused of the killing of her son, Mrs Walker astonished the nation by announcing that she forgave the murderers. This week she gave another interview in which she elaborated that she feels "no hate for them whatsoever" and indeed she wanted to find out what lay behind the hate which led them to kill her son. "I just feel like, what's missing in their lives?" she said. "I know it's strange, but it's true. I'd love to do the motherly thing and sit them down and find out why. But as for hate, none at all. I just feel sadness."

Human instinct draws the vast majority of us closer to the vicar's response. Our instinct is to fight hate with hate. So much so that Anthony Walker's mother was actually criticised in several red-tops for voicing sentiments of forgiveness. Murdering scum did not need forgiving, it was said. Mrs Walker's reaction, they implied, while nominally laudable, was somehow unnatural. "Every Christian theologian," one broadsheet loftily - and wrongly - informed us that "forgiveness and rehabilitation can come only after true repentance".

Repentance, of course, is not essential. If it was, forgiveness would not seem so perverse. In the gospels, St Peter asks Jesus how often he should forgive those who wronged him? Seven times? No, says Jesus, 70 times seven. It seems - like Christ's request to God, as he is crucified, "Father forgive them they know not what they do" - just impossible. Counsels of perfection may be OK for the son of God, but we mortals struggle with the notion.

Acts of forgiveness are tremendously costly. One of the most celebrated of the last century was that of Gordon Wilson, who was standing at the war memorial in Enniskillen for the annual Remembrance Day service in 1987 when an IRA bomb exploded. Eleven people were killed, including Mr Wilson's daughter, Marie. The world was touched when, in a voice cracking with grief, he told of how he clutched her hand as they lay beneath the rubble and then said: "I have lost my daughter and we shall miss her, but I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She's dead."

Forgiveness did not diminish his grief, it magnified it. The moment became a turning point in Ulster's history, as the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, was forced to declare that another such atrocity would utterly undermine the Republican cause.

Something is transformed, in such moments, in the soul of society and of the person who forgives. Gee Walker understands the personal dimension of that. "Why live a life sentence? Hate killed my son, so why should I be a victim too? Unforgiveness makes you a victim and why should I be a victim?"

But Archbishop Desmond Tutu articulated the social dimension of the same insight at the weekend in the remarkable BBC 2 programmeFacing the Truth, which brought face to face victims and killers from Northern Ireland's Troubles.

The archbishop, who oversaw the running of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in his South Africa after the end of apartheid, said that for the victims, "holding on to your resentment means you are locked into your victimhood - and you allow the perpetrator to have a hold over your life. When you forgive, you let go, it sets you free, and it will probably set free the perpetrator. There is much to be won from making yourself a little vulnerable." For society that gave a way out of a cycle of recriminations about the past.

It is a truth which reaches beyond South Africa. Forgiveness is a process rather than an act. The theologian Henri Nouwen understood that. His book The Return of the Prodigal Son is a meditation on the gospel parable as illustrated in Rembrandt's painting of the same name. Initially, he explains, we are drawn to the image of the prodigal himself, putting ourself in his shoes, recalling the wrongs we have done in our life, feeling his guilt, expressing his repentance - although we resist the idea that we need complete forgiveness because it goes against our human nature.

It is only later in life that we realise we have more in common with the elder son in the parable, who does not stray, but stays at home and works his father's land - and is deeply resentful of the prodigality of the father's generosity in welcoming back his errant younger son. His self-righteousness is the more common response, and just as in need of the father's forgiveness.

Again it is more difficult to translate this away from the personal, which is what Desmond Tutu has been trying to do. But the wrongs of contemporary society are as much breaks in good relations between classes, races and nations as ruptures in relationships between individuals. So what we need to address that is a politics of forgiveness.

It is important not to confuse forgiveness with pardon. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions will not always be a substitute for justice. Nor does forgiving someone such as Myra Hindley mean it was not right that she should die in prison. And sometimes the time is not right for forgiveness.

On Facing the Truth Clifford Burrage was brought face-to-face with Mary McLarnon, whose brother he had shot as a young soldier in Belfast in 1971.

The ghosts that haunted them were laid bare in what Desmond Tutu called the ritual of forgiveness. But though Mr Burrage asked to be forgiven, Mary McLarnon could not give it. Even so there was a clear sense of progress made. It may yet come. As it may for the vicar in Bristol.

Not everyone is convinced. The psychiatrist Professor Roy McClelland chairs an organisation in Northern Ireland called Healing Through Remembering. He has reservations about the BBC's Irish experiment.

"The BBC may have offered some [counselling] support to those in the programme," he said, "but there will be no support mechanisms for the hundreds of viewers who could re-live their individual experiences and trauma within their own living rooms ... Dialogue and discussion are parts of the healing process, but this takes time and can not be achieved during a series of one-off broadcasts."

Perhaps so, but there is an important sense of something exemplary here. Social justice - as distinct from the narrower criminal kind - is about creating a system which recognises that the perpetrator and the victim are members of society and that both need reintegrating into something like normality.

Forgiveness is a moral act of gratuitous love that introduces an opportunity into history. It opens up a possibility in relations between individuals, and between an individual and society. It attempts to break the repetitive cycle of hate. It does not deny that a rupture in the right order of things has taken place.

But it refuses to be bound by the logic of hatred. It is not about the erasure of truthful memory; it does not deny what has been done or its consequences. But it is determined that the event or action should lead to new possibilities.

At the heart of that is a key insight of Desmond Tutu's. His experiences in South Africa, he says, have made him believe that there is no such thing as an "evil" person - only evil deeds. "Perpetrators don't have horns, don't have tails, they are as ordinary looking as you and I."

Perhaps that is what makes it so hard to forgive them.

'Anger begets hatred, begets more violence'

Marie Fatayi-Williams, Mother of July 7 victim Anthony Fatayi-Williams

The parents of Anthony, 26, an oil company executive from north London who died in the Tavistock Square bus bombing, have said they forgive the bomber. Described by his family as a "world citizen", Mr Fatayi-Williams had a Muslim father and a Catholic mother. He was educated in Nigeria, Paris and Britain.

Mrs Fatayi-Williams said at the funeral mass in Westminster Cathedral: "I am distraught, but I'm not angry. What would that do? Anger begets hatred, begets more violence, so let's forgive."

His parents launched the Anthony Fatayi-Williams Foundation for Peace and Conflict Resolution in his memory.

Gee Walker, Mother of race murder victim Anthony Walker

Anthony, 18, was killed with an ice axe in Huyton, Merseyside, last July. Paul Taylor, 20, and Michael Barton, 17, were jailed for life for the racist attack. Outside court, Mrs Walker said: "At the point of death, Jesus said: 'I forgive them for they know not what they do.' I have got to forgive them.''

Last week, she added: "I feel no hate for them. I just feel like, what's missing in their lives? I'd love to do the motherly thing and sit them down and find out why. But as for hate, none at all. I just feel sadness." The Walker family set up the Anthony Walker Foundation to promote racial integration.

Colin Parry, Father of IRA bomb victim Timothy Parry

Mr Parry has devoted himself to peace work since Timothy, 12, died in an IRA bombing at Warrington in 1993. He set up the Tim Parry-Johnathan Ball Trust, to persuade young people "that they can resolve any problems without violence".

'They were evil and they are still evil'

Aileen Quinton, Daughter of Enniskillen bomb victim Alberta Quinton

Ms Quinton's mother, Alberta, was killed in the Enniskillen bombing in 1987 and has been a persistent campaigner against the IRA, which carried out the attack, and similar organisations.

Last month she attended a Protestant protest in Dublin, and in 1997, on the 10th anniversary of the bombing, staged a protest outside Sinn Fein's offices there.

She said: "Am I meant to be grateful because the IRA says it is going to stop doing something that it had no right starting? It will have no compunction in starting up again ... Some will dismiss my opinions as 'coloured by her grief'. The ultimate victory for terrorism is when we give up on our values."

Denise Fergus, Mother of murder victim James Bulger

Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, the two-year-old who was murdered by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both aged 10, in Liverpool in 1993, has said that she can never forgive her son's killers. James was abducted while his mother was shopping. He was taken to nearby railway tracks, tortured, sexually abused and then murdered with bricks and pieces of metal.

In 2001, when Thompson and Venables were released from prison with new iden-tities eight years after the murder, she said: "I never knew I had so much hate in me ... They were evil and they are still evil.''

Winnie Johnson, Mother of Moors victim Keith Bennett

Winnie Johnson, 72, mother of the only victim of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley whose body has not been found, said she could never forgive. Keith was 12 when he disappeared in 1964. After Hindley's death in 2002, Mrs Johnson said: "I hope she goes to hell."

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

10. Can only God truly forgive? Resources Skills Homework required Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note

Copies of Pupils should: Starter Pupils working at level 3 will: Divine Matthew’s . Discuss ‘To make mistakes AT1iii Be able to give reasons why Gospel or  know: is human but to forgive is Reflective people find it difficult to forgive Difficult Gospel That it is never easy to divine’. Thinkers in some situations. AT1iii passages forgive. . Q1. Why do we Forgiveness

 understand: sometimes find it Pupils working at level 4 will:

difficult to forgive? Be able to demonstrate an Christians believe that God Reflect Forgiveness . Q2. Can only God understanding of Gospel passages forgives them for what quotes. they do wrong and that forgive? on forgiveness; Respond they are called to pass on Main Be able to explain Jesus’ message String and God’s forgiveness. . What did Jesus teach AT1i of forgiveness; Psalm knots  be able to: about forgiveness? AT1iii Be able to discuss how an activity Reflect on and discuss In small groups look up the AT2 individual’s willingness to forgive Healed their experience of following passages and is based on Christian beliefs. AT Psalm 32: 1- forgiveness. make a list of the things 1iii Consequences 7 and which Jesus said: reflection a) Matthew 5:38-42 Creative Pupils working at level 5 will: Punishment b) Matthew 5:43-45 Thinkers Be able to identify different c) Matthew 18:21-35 responses to the idea of Choose one thing from reconciliation. AT1iii your list and discuss how Christians today may Pupils working at level 6 will: respond to Jesus’ message. Be able to how explain how the . Jesus taught that if Christian belief and teaching on AT1i

10. Can only God truly forgive? Resources Skills Homework required Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note someone has done AT2iii forgiveness and reconciliation something to you, you must AT2i influences their own and others’ not wait for that person to moral values and behaviour. AT1iii come and ask forgiveness, you must go out of your Effective way to make peace. Participants Read Matthew 5:23-24. AT1iii Q. What do you think AT2i and why? . Christians believe that, like God they are called to forgive people. Use the five quotes on Worksheet 1 to write a paragraph to explain what forgiveness means. Plenary In knots: AT1iii . Q. How should we respond to people who have Reflective behaved badly towards Thinkers us. . in groups attempt the knots activity. (Worksheet 2) . Psalm 32:1-7 read the passage and reflection. . Return to the initial question; Can only God truly forgive? Justify your answer.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

Lesson 10 Can only God truly forgive?

WORKSHEET 1

Forgiving Others

It is never easy to forgive. However, anyone who has benefited from being forgiven may be moved to forgiving someone who has made a mistake like their own. Christians say that knowing God has forgiven them helps them be more forgiving to others.

“Me Dad went to prison and we have to keep remembering to love him.” Jean, 7 (from Lots of Love by Nanette Newman, Collins)

“Although a person is forgiven they still have to live with the consequences of their actions. For example, if someone has been violent to another person, it is right that they receive punishment, in prison for example. We believe in a God of justice. But this does not mean that they cannot be forgiven and given a fresh start as well. The same with me: God has forgiven me for the things I have done wrong in the past but I have to live with the emotional scars of what I have done. I learn from them.” Sonia, 25

“To forgive someone is not the natural thing to do. Some years ago my wife left me. I was so angry and felt rejected. The bitterness kept gnawing away at me until one night I could stand it no longer. Although I didn’t want to forgive her I knew I had to if the anger was not going to destroy me. But I couldn’t forgive. I prayed to God to take away the bitterness and to help me to forgive Ann. That night I slept peacefully for the first time in months. God’s love helped me to forgive.” James, 34

“Being forgiven is like being healed.” Craig, 16

“In order to keep our forgiveness up to date we should be doing it every day.” Chuck

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS? Lesson 10 Can only God truly forgive? Worksheet 2

Group activity Give each group a piece of string. Ask them to tie as many knots in the string as they possibly can. When they have finished explain that unresolved situations can become like knots. They tie up our thoughts, our emotions and our actions until we are nothing more than a collection of knots.

Read Psalm 32:1-7 God sets the ball rolling by choosing to forgive us for the way we’ve behaved not only towards him but also towards each other. If God can choose to forgive, surely it’s easy for us? Don’t you believe it.

The psalmist goes into some detail about how he feels when he’s chosen not to forgive someone or he’s behaved in a way that is far removed from how God wants him to behave. His behaviour makes him feel totally drained; he can hardly put one foot in front of the other.

Each of us knows how it feels to have things weighing on our mind. The thoughts rattle around our heads until we can’t see or think straight. Sleep escapes us and we spend the night going over the events and re-enacting the whole scene until it merges into dreams which continue to torment us. Eventually we wake up feeling as if we never went to bed in the first place. God is only too pleased when, bleary eyed and on our knees through tiredness, we hand over the whole problem and ask him to forgive us. The relief hits us like a bucket of cold water.

None of us is so near perfect that getting things wrong never enters our head. It’s easy to get messed up with things that are unhealthy for our hearts and minds, but it’s just as easy to prevent all the hassle that accompanies the mess and chat the whole thing through with God.

We all know how we feel when we’ve got involved in situations that mess our heads up.

And, just because we know that feeling, it’s important that we don’t make other people go through the same trauma. Forgiving somebody doesn’t make their actions right but it goes a long way to restoring the relationship and then trying to sort out the difficulty. Don’t forget, when you’re trying to deal with the hassle, get God involved. You know it makes sense!

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

11. What is the effect of forgiveness on the individual and communities? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note

Worksheet Pupils should: Starter Pupils working at level 3 will: Forgiveness ‘character Pupils have 5 minutes to Team Be able to make links to show how cards’  know Reconcile write down a word Workers Alistair’s feelings and beliefs About the life of connected to ‘forgiveness’. affected his behaviour before Alistair Little Faith position Each word should begin and after the killing. . with a different letter of Be able to make links to show how Catholic the alphabet. feelings and beliefs affect the  understand behaviour of people in ‘structured The effect of Protestant Briefly recap previous debate’ AT2i forgiveness and learning. how this can free a Conflict Pupils working at level 4 will: person. Be able to show how Alistair’s Violence Main decisions were informed by his

beliefs and values, before and  be able to 1) Read the life story of AT2i after the killing Explain the Alistair Little. Be able to show how the people in challenges of How did Alistair’s feelings the debate’s decisions were belonging to a and beliefs affect his informed by their beliefs and Catholic or behaviour before and Independent values. AT2i Protestant after the killing? Enquirers tradition in 2) Students are to produce a Pupils working at level 5 will: Northern Ireland. factfile on his life. (Who? Creative Be able to explain what beliefs

When? What? Where? Thinkers and values inspire and influence

How? Why?) the characters in the debate 3) Structured debate ‘Should Effective AT2i

violence be used to defend Participators faith positions?’ Pupils working at level 6 will: 4) Six pupils to be given be able to express insights into character cards. They reasons for their own and others’ present their characters beliefs and values and the to the class and pupils in challenges of belonging to the class ask questions. Catholic or Protestant tradition in areas of conflict AT2i Choose ONE of the characters in the debate. What are the key challenges of belonging to the Catholic or Protestant faith for them? (Explain what inspires and influences them) Plenary  Class vote and sum up

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

Lesson 11 What is the effect of forgiveness on the individual and communities?

WORKSHEET 1

Alistair Little

Alistair Little joined the Protestant paramilitaries at the age of 14. Three years later, too young to receive a life sentence, he was detained under the Secretary of State’s Pleasure (SOSP) and served a 13-year prison sentence. Since his release he’s been working for projects that aim to tackle the causes of violence.

I joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) when I was a lad. I joined because I wanted to avenge the death of my friend’s father, who had been shot dead by Republicans. I remember going to the funeral and seeing his young daughter. She had been shot in the legs screaming for her daddy. I thought my father would be next, and at the age of 14 I vowed that if I ever had the opportunity to retaliate, I would. My experience is that people easily turn to violence when their voices are not being heard or when they feel under threat. It’s a human response to pain and hurt.

So, when I was 17, I walked into the home of man I didn’t know and shot him dead. I had asked to do it.

My journey to renouncing violence took place during my 12 years in the Maze Prison. It was a slow and painful process. There was huge cost in terms of loneliness and isolation. But I came to realise that people who use violence – myself included – see things only from one angle only. They don’t see that if you use violence yourself, you encourage revenge and hatred in others. You end up with a never-ending circle of violence.

I live with the consequences of my actions every day. I know what I have lost in terms of inner peace. If I were able to live that moment again, I know I would do things differently. But I don’t think I have a right to ask for forgiveness. It only adds insult to injury, and places yet another burden upon relatives and family members.

And some people can’t forgive. But that doesn’t mean they’re weak, or that they’ll be consumed by bitterness or anger. I’ve met people who haven’t been able to forgive, but who haven’t allowed the event to destroy them. It just means that as human beings they’ve been hurt beyond repair. Who are we to say they should forgive?

Three years ago I was sitting opposite a Catholic woman whose husband had been targeted by paramilitaries. After listening to my story, she told me she had come face to face with the thing she feared most, and what she found most disturbing was that she didn’t hate. A few months later, when tensions were high in Northern Ireland, she was the first person to ring me to let me know she was thinking of me.

ROLEPLAYS FOR LESSON 11. WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF FORGIVENESS ON THE

Name and age: Alistair Little Age 50

DESCRIPTION Protestant para-military who is in prison for killing a catholic man aged 17

BELIEFS

I joined the para-military at the age of 14 because I wanted to avenge the death of my father’s friend who had been killed by the republicans. I believe that people easily turn to violence when they feel under threat. Over time I have come to realise that people use violence when they look at things from one angle—myself included. They don’t see that if you use violence yourself, you encourage revenge and hatred in others. You end

up with a never ending circle of violence.

Name and age: Prison Officer Dermott McKenna Age 48

DESCRIPTION Protestant Christian whose faith motivates him to help the inmates, he is against violence

BELIEFS I believe I have responsibility for the security, supervision, training and

rehabilitation of the people committed to Maze Prison by the courts. This includes motivating prisoners to do what is best for themselves, and others around them, within a safe and healthy environment. In addition I want to able to establish and maintain positive working relationships with prisoners, balancing authority with a large amount of understanding and

compassion, in order to effect rehabilitation.

Name and age: Prison Chaplain Fr. John O’Sullivan Age 52

DESCRIPTION A Roman Catholic Chaplain who has been working in Maze Prison for 8 years

BELIEFS This job's not a cop out. As a Chaplain I'm always here for all the prisoners – whatever their faith – day and night. The joy of it to me is sharing the lives of people you wouldn't ordinarily meet, including killers. Everyone's important to God – especially people who are at the lowest

ebb in their lives. But being there for people in their darkest moments of their lives is what its all about. Violence can destroy the offender as well as the victim.

Name and age: Shelia Murphy Age 38

DESCRIPTION A practising Catholic and struggling to come to terms with the loss of her son, and the fact her husband is failing to cope.

BELIEFS I lost my son in the Omagh bombings. The memories of it all are so painful. My husband could not find words to speak to me. He just felt very sick. My thoughts were filled with bitterness. I hated life and wished that I had just been killed. All I wanted was to die. I find it hard to see the bombers as a human beings. I can’t find it in me to forgive.

Name and age: Siobhan Kelly Age 28

DESCRIPTION Catholic woman whose husband was shot by a Protestant Para-military

BELIEFS

It has been very difficult to come to terms with the death of my husband and why he had to die. I decided that I was not going to be responsible for more hatred and the continuing violence. I have drawn great strength from my faith, which has helped me through the darkest times. The words of Jesus helped me to forgive the man who shot my husband.

‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do.’

Name and age: Anonymous IRA member Age 24

DESCRIPTION

A young man who has been brought up an Irish Catholic with strong military roots which he does not want to give up

BELIEFS Irishmen and Irish women, in the name of God and in the name of dead generations, Ireland, through us summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. We believe in the right of the Irish to ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies. We will not accept discrimination and violation of Catholics. We will continue to fight.

Observing the Debate ‘Should violence be used to defend faith positions?’

As you are watching the debate, for each character, write down: o Details about who they are o What they believe o A question you would like to ask them based upon what they have said

Alistair Little Dermott McKenna Fr. John O’Sullivan PERSONAL DETAILS PERSONAL DETAILS PERSONAL DETAILS

BELIEFS BELIEFS BELIEFS

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS

Sheila Murphy Siobhan Kelly Anonymous PERSONAL DETAILS PERSONAL DETAILS PERSONAL DETAILS

BELIEFS BELIEFS BELIEFS

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

12. Can communities be reconciled? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note

Pupils should: Starter Pupils working at level 3 will: Corrymeela Scales  Can communities be AT1iii be able to give reasons why the  know: Reconciliation reconciled? Using the Effective people of Corrymeela work for About the debate from the previous Participators peace. AT1iii Corrymeela Peace lesson pupils are to put Community. forward reasons for and Pupils working at level 4 will: Divisions against. Weigh the be able to show understanding of  understand: answers on the scales! how religious belief helps to bring How communities Dialogue (Worksheet 1) peace and reconciliation for some Information can be reconciled. (but not for others.) AT1iii on Main Mercy

Corrymeela  Students to read about Pupils working at level 5 will: Community  be able to: the work of the Independent Be able to identify similarities Explain how the Corrymeela community in Enquirers and differences between peoples’ Quick on Corrymeela Northern Ireland in responses to the conflict in the Draw Community brings silence for 4 mins Northern Ireland because of cards reconciliation in (Worksheet 2) Northern Ireland. their beliefs. AT1iii  Quick on the draw

questions on the text. (Paul Pupils working at level 6 will: Ginnis ‘The Teachers’ Be able to explain how religious Toolkit’ (Worksheets 3a beliefs and teaching influence and b) moral values and behaviour.  ‘The Corrymeela AT1iii Community has reconciled

12. Can communities be reconciled? Resources required Skills Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note Ireland’ – pupils to list arguments for and against using the scales above and AT1 iii the new information on Creative Corrymeela. (Identify Thinkers similarities and differences between people’s responses to the

Northern Ireland conflict)

Plenary Pupils to choose their Reflective strongest argument to Learners feedback back to class (be prepared to justify your answer)

Homework ‘The Corrymeela Community has reconciled Ireland’ Do you agree? Give reasons for your view showing you have considered the opposite view. Refer to Christian beliefs in your answer.

WORKSHEET 1 LESSON 12 CAN COMMUNITIES BE RECONCILED?

For Against

Can communities be reconciled?

The Corrymeela Community—Northern Ireland

Corrymeela is…….

People of all ages and Christian traditions who individually and together are committed to the

healing of social, religious and political divisions that exist in Northern Ireland and throughout the world

Founded in 1965, Corrymeela’s objective has always been, promoting reconciliation and peace- building through the healing of social, religious and political divisions in Northern Ireland. Corrymeela’s history is built upon a committed work with individuals and communities which have suffered through the violence and polarisation of the Northern Irish conflict. Our vision of Christian community and reconciliation has been expressed through a commitment to encounter, positive relationships between all kinds and conditions of people.

The Corrymeela Community currently has 150 members and over 5,000 friends and supporters throughout the world. Corrymeela works throughout Northern Ireland and beyond, developing and delivering focused community relations work through cross-community and cross-border community and residentially based programmes.

Each year over 6,000 participants take part in programmes at the Corrymeela Ballycastle Centre which has facilities for over 100 residents in 3 units. This work can be categorised under 5 strands:

Schools work which seeks to address community relations issues often through citizenship

Family work providing respite and development work with groups

Faith and Life seeking to support individuals and church communities in their journey of faith and to support encounter with different traditions

Youth work primarily focused on marginalised young people

Community work looking at issues of inter-community relations, both on a single identity and a cross community basis

WORKSHEET 2 LESSON 12 CAN COMMUNITIES BE RECONCILED?

We also have an international reputation for our work and we believe that our 40 years of reconciliation practice has brought with it considerable learning.

We believe in the importance of the residential experience. A residential experience can create a new openness to deal with issues that people find difficult in the ‘home’ territory – often issues of reconciliation and community relations. A lived residential experience together allows old patterns and ways of viewing one another to change. It allows different ways of meeting to invade the world of fixed expectation or old ways of being with one another in a youth group, a school, a church, etc. Thus a residential experience opens up new possibilities in ways that cannot be easily done in peoples’ day-to-day world. The type of work we do on a residential experience is to organise training and workshops to give people the confidence to initiate their own projects. Many members of the community groups are enthusiastic and committed but may lack experience or tend to overextend themselves. Groups like this can benefit from Corrymeela’s experience and objectivity as we work in partnership to empower them to plan their own future strategies and development plans;

To assist groups in setting up projects which meet the needs of prisoners, ex- prisoners and their families.

To establish a network of contacts between the leaders of groups on both

sides of the community to facilitate the development of cross-community

partnerships.

To encourage dialogue between the communities to break down long-held myths and begin to develop trusting relationships.

To help groups develop leadership and co-counselling skills among their members.

To assist in designing and developing family programmes in their centres.

To reduce feelings of being pushed aside and encourage positive, co-operative relationships among ex-prisoners, their families and among families living in interface areas.

I’m convinced that what we lived will stay with me and

so will the belief in tolerance that I hope will fuel us

for the rest of the year to move forward with our lives, together with the knowledge that in Northern Ireland and all over the world there are young people like us, who make an effort to change things, who are not

The Corrymeela Community—Northern Ireland

WORKSHEET 3A CAN COMMUNITIES BE RECONCILED?

The Corrymeela Community—Northern Ireland

The Corrymeela is ………... 1

The work of Corrymeela is based upon commitment to help 2 individuals and communities which have suffered what?

Our vision of Christian community and reconciliation has been 3 expressed through ………….

How many members and friends does the Corrymeela 4 community have?

Name three types of work the Corrymeela community do. 5 E.g. youth work

A residential experience is important because…….. 6

Name ONE way residential experiences help families. 7

Name ONE way residential experiences help communities. 8

WORKSHEET 3B CAN COMMUNITIES BE RECONCILED?

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

13. How do Christians make the peace of Christ a reality? Resources required Skills Learning outcomes Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT (Not to be formally Key words Points learning activities strands assessed) to note Taize music All outcomes are from the Pupils should: Starter Progression strand on progression in Peace Images  Listen to Taize chant – ‘My in reflection reflection and  know: peace’ while watching and Taize contemplation. Worksheets How peace and slides/images of Northern contemplation reconciliation is Ireland Reconciliation made a reality in Pupils working at level 3 will: Taize Main Show understanding of Lectio Divina Active  From ‘active resources’ CD the importance of Reflective resources – Brother Emile from stillness and quiet during Learners Ecumenism  understand: Taize talks about his faith times of reflection and

The need for peace journey, the work they do prayer

and reconciliation in for peace and

Reflection our own lives and reconciliation and Pupils working at level 4 will:

the lives of others community life. Demonstrate an ‘In prayer we discover appreciation of the that we are made for more elements needed for  be able to: than material things, we reflection and Reflect upon our are made for God’ Br.Emile contemplation or prayer

own ability to make (See worksheet 1) (places, times, foci,

peace a reality  Or information about the stimuli) work, structure of the their day and prayer life Pupils working at level 5 will: of the Taize community Explore how different can be found on situations are conducive

13. How do Christians make the peace of Christ a reality? Resources required Skills Learning outcomes Homework Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT (Not to be formally Key words Points learning activities strands assessed) to note www.taize.frDivina to reflection and  Introduce idea of Lectio Reflective contemplation or prayer , reflection on John Learners

14:27 “Peace I leave with Pupils working at level 6 will: you; my peace I give you. I Discern how different do not give to you as the forms of reflection and world gives. Do not let contemplation or prayer your hearts be troubled can be important in and do not be afraid.” people’s lives (Worksheet 2) Plenary  How do Christians make Independent the peace of Christ a Enquirers reality in their lives? (Worksheet 3)

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 YEAR 7 UNIT 6 FORGIVENESS Lesson 13 How do Christians make the peace of Christ a reality? WORKSHEET 1 My Journey – to be a Brother in Taizé

What happens in Taizé? About Taizé

In 1940 one man, Roger Schultz settled in a small village, Taizé, in France. Here Schultz hid Jewish refugees from the Nazis. After the war had ended he made a commitment to help bring peace and reconciliation to the world. By 1952 others had joined Brother Roger (as he was now known) and took solemn vows as monks. Nowadays Taizé is a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of young people, from up to seventy nations. The young people come to join in the life of Taizé, to take part in prayer three times a day, in bible reading and in reflection. In the information that the Brothers send out to groups they describe Taizé as allowing young Summarise what is said about the prayer people to ‘look for a meaning for their life.’

Read what three 15 year olds said after a week’s Pilgrimage in Taizé.

This week I have got things sorted in my head on how and who I want to be. As you listen to the Taizé Taizé has made me realise the really important chant, complete the

things in life…I thought of these as microwaves boxes above. and hairdryers, etc. but I now realise that it is After the music has friendship, love and community. finished, listen again to I cannot explain how, but I just feel at peace Brother Emile, then with myself and know that God is truly there. answer the questions on the next sheet.

Describe Brother Emile’s ‘calling’ to be a brother in Taizé, and his own journey of life.

What aspects about the life in Taizé appeal to you?

What aspects do not appeal to you?

WORKSHEET 2 LESSON 13 HOW DO CHRISTIANS MAKE THE PEACE OF CHRIST A

Reflection of John 14:27

Lectio Divina is an ancient tradition of the Church. The term was used to describe the liturgy of the word, but as spirituality developed it has taken on

new meaning. St. Benedict thought that it was important that the word of God did not just occupy the body, but occupied the heart and so made Lectio Divina part of the life of a Benedictine. It is a prayerful meditation on the text of sacred scripture or other writings. The process of Lectio Divina is reading,

meditation, prayer and contemplation. It goes beyond what is written on the

page, as the word of God is meant to give life to a person.

Let us explore Lectio Divina together.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Read the quote above quietly yourself

Reader one to read quote out loud Three minutes silence to reflect

Reader two to read out loud and lead reflection Possible questions to reflect on; What peace is Christ giving you in this story?

Where do you need peace in your life? What is troubling your heart?

What burdens would you like to let go of? What fears do you need to let go of? How could the peace of Christ help someone? 6. Finally end with the quote.

LESSON 13 WORKSHEET 3 HOW DO CHRISTIANS MAKE THE PEACE OF CHRIST A A?

How do Christians make

the peace of Christ a reality in their lives?

How do Christians make

the peace of Christ a reality in their lives?

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

14. What is the Jewish experience of forgiveness? Resources Skills Homework required Learning objectives Suggested teaching and & LAT Learning outcomes Key words Points learning activities strands to note Pupils working at level 3 will: Tube of Pupils should: Starter Be able to use a developing Judaism Toothpaste – religious vocabulary to give toothpaste  know  Ask a student to come to reasons for the religious actions Rosh Hashanah About the festival the front and hand them a and symbols used during Yom of Yom Kippur as small tube of toothpaste. Kippur and make links to show how Spoon part of the Jewish Tell them they have 10 feelings and beliefs affect their Yom Kippur New Year seconds to squeeze as behaviour and that of others. much toothpaste out and AT1ii AT2i Atonement  understand into a tub as they can.

Worksheets That Jews need Watch them do it. Ask Pupils working at level 4 will: forgiveness from them to tell the rest of Use religious terms to show Synagogue God and from the class how easy it was an understanding of individuals on a scale of one to ten. Yom Kippur and show how own and Repentance  Give them a spoon. Ask others’ decisions are informed by  be able to them to put the toothpaste beliefs and values. AT1ii AT2i Reflect upon the back into the tube and let significance of Yom them have a little go. Then Pupils working at level 5 will: Kippur for believers ask them to tell the rest Describe and explain the (personal and of the class how hard it meaning and purpose of Yom community) was on a scale of one to Kippur and explain what beliefs ten after they have had a and values inspire and influence little giggle. them and others. AT1ii AT2i  - to begin to reflect upon the difficulties of being forgiven and forgiving Pupils working at level 6 will: others. Explain the significance for

(Worksheet 1). Stress believers of different forms moral of the exercise. of religious and spiritual celebration and express insights into the reasons for their own and Main others’ beliefs and values and the  ‘Run and reveal’ on Yom challenges of belonging to a Kippur. (Worksheet 2). AT1ii religion. Groups of four, each child AT1ii AT2i has a number. Each group Team has a piece of paper. The Workers groups have to reproduce the poster. All the ones view poster for one minute then go back to group to draw. Then the twos and so on. AT1ii  Mini-white board quiz – give pupils a copy of the poster and 2 minutes to learn it. Remove posters and give a test to check AT1ii learning. (Worksheet 3). AT2i  Jewish survivor story of Reflective Yom Kippur – read story. Learners (Worksheet 4)  Learning matrix – reflect on the experience of the Jewish survivor and relate to own life. (Worksheet 5). AT2i Plenary Reflective  Reflection on testimony of Learners Regina Franks. (Worksheet 6) What is the Jewish belief about forgiveness and what challenges does it bring?

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3 UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

Lesson 14 What is the Jewish experience of forgiveness?

Worksheet 1

Thinking things through – the toothpaste challenge!

Ask a student to come to the front and hand them a small tube of toothpaste. Tell them they have 10 seconds to squeeze as much toothpaste out and into a tub as they can.

Watch them do it. Ask them to tell the rest of the class how easy it was on a scale of one to ten.

Give them a spoon. Ask them to put the toothpaste back into the tube and let them have a little go. Then ask them to tell the rest of the class how hard it was on a scale of one to ten after they have had a little giggle.

MORAL OF THE STORY – IT IS EASY TO LET THINGS HAPPEN WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT THEM BUT IT IS HARD TO TAKE THEM BACK.

When people have opinions it is easy for them to voice them without thinking of the effect it could have on people who hear.

This is good for use with topics like forgiveness or prejudice.

Worksheet 2 LESSON 14 WHAT IS THE JEWISH ENESS?PERIENCE OF

FORGIVENESS?

10 Days of Repentance

Jews say sorry to the people they have sinned

against

God will write their names in the

‘Book of Life’ or the ‘Book of Death’

at the end of Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur—Day of Atonement

The most important day in the Jewish calendar

To say sorry for the sins of the WHY? past year

On Yom Kippur—DO On Yom Kippur—DO NOT

Say sorry to God Work Go to Synagogue Wash

Wear white Wear leather shoes

Fast from food and drink Wear perfume or make-up Have marital relations

At synagogue they confess sins

as a community. The service ends with a blast on the shofar

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS

Lesson 14 What is the Jewish experience of forgiveness?

Worksheet 3

White Board Quiz

1. What is the name of the Jewish New Year? Rosh Hashanah 2. How many days of repentance do Jews have? 10 3. Who do Jews say sorry to during the days of repentance? People 4. Who do Jews say sorry to on Yom Kippur? God 5. What is the other name for Yom Kippur? Day of Atonement 6. What do they say sorry for on Yom Kippur? The sins of the past year 7. Name TWO things Jews do on Yom Kippur. 8. Name TWO things Jews do not do on Yom Kippur.

DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE KEY STAGE 3

UNIT 6 ARE THERE LIMITS ON FORGIVENESS?

Lesson 14 What is the Jewish experience of forgiveness?

WORKSHEET 4

Jewish Survivor Reflects on the Meaning of Forgiveness

It is the beginning of a ten day period that we usually call “The High Holy Days,” marked at the beginning with Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and at the end with Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). The entire ten days are referred to as The Days of Awe, or sometimes, The Ten Days of Repentance. Tradition holds that during these initial ten days of the year, God considers who will live through the year to see the next. Those who are clearly good will be written into the Book of Life on the first day, while those who are clearly wicked will be written into the Book of Death that day. For the rest of us, who fall somewhere in between, the Days of Awe are a time to make it all up, so to speak, so that God might finally write us into the Book of Life before sealing it on Yom Kippur. It is a time for us to closely examine our behaviours in the prior year, to evaluate our ethical and moral and religious standing, and to make repairs and repentance. Thus, the High Holy Day period is all about repentance and forgiveness, a topic that is so much at the core of the pain felt by victims/survivors of professional exploitation.

My very first Jewish service was the eve of Yom Kippur 15 years ago, which I attended with several Jewish friends. I was deeply moved. What most stands out in my memory is the part of the service in which the congregants recited what I now know to be Al Khet; this prayer is essentially a confession to a litany of sins committed during the prior year. Everyone in the congregation names every sin; some prayer books are more specific than others in the naming of the sins, but the implication is that we are all part of a community that has sinned against God in each and every one of these ways. So, on this first Yom Kippur, I stood with my friends as they set pride aside and spoke aloud all of these sins against God and asked for God’s forgiveness. What freedom, I thought, to let go of the chains of silence and secrecy and to say the shame out loud, as a group, acknowledging that we all have sinned.

So much of the Jewish theology speaks to me. But the part that was most healing for me, that brought me closest to my spiritual centre, was the theology around repentance and forgiveness. For me, it all went back to that first Yom Kippur: the healing power of open acknowledgement of wrongdoing.

But, there is a catch in Judaism. Yom Kippur only allows atonement for sins we commit against God. God does not grant forgiveness for sins that we commit against other people. For that, we must approach and make repentance to the person whom we have wronged; then it is up to that person to grant forgiveness. I took to heart this teaching. I searched inside myself, I let go of my pride, I faced my shame and I sought out people, some of whom I hadn’t had contact with in years, and I acknowledged my wrongs. Some responded favourably, some did not. It was a gift to me when they responded with acceptance and forgiveness. I felt more relaxed, more at ease in all my relationships than I had in so many ages. It was a sweet and joyous time in my life, a time of connection with people and with God.

Jewish Survivor Reflects on the Meaning of Forgiveness

Worksheet 5 LESSON 14

How did the Jewish survivor feel How did she ask for forgiveness from How did she receive forgiveness from when she confessed sins as a others? How did she feel? God? community?

Imagine your class admitting all the Imagine asking forgiveness from How would you feel about asking sins they had committed during people you have hurt during the past God for forgiveness? the last year. How would you feel? year. How would you feel?

Worksheet 6 LESSON 14 WHAT IS THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE OF FORGIVENESS?

From the ‘People often ask me if I can forgive the Nazis for what happened. testimony of This is what I say to them. I can try to forgive what they did to me, Regina Franks but I have no right to forgive nor to forget what they did to my mother, father, two sisters and brother. Only they can forgive. My Mother and Father had always told me that the person who hates is eventually destroyed by his own hatred. I lost all hope in Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen, but I never lost my human spirit. I never lost my sense of what is right and wrong, and I never learned to hate as Hitler and the Nazis hated.’

What do you think?

LESSON 15 Review of Learning

In this you will reflect upon what you

have learned about forgiveness and have an opportunity to express what you have learned in written format.

Task

You are to write a brief account of what you have learned after following this course.

You should refer to:

The content of the course The skills you have learned

You must include:

Title ‘Review of Learning’ 150-300 word limit

You could:

Hand write your work Word process your work Discuss what you have learned with others Produce a ‘concept map’

How successful do you think your learning has been?

What questions remain for you at the end of this unit?

Tips!!

What did I learn about the concept of forgiveness?

What did I learn from the biblical stories I

studied?

What did I learn about forgiveness within the Catholic Tradition?

What did I learn about the difficulties involved in

forgiving others?

What did I learn about the effects of forgiveness?

What did the course mean for me personally?

How did it change my thinking and attitudes?

How will this course influence my decision making in life?