---

Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently declared, "There can be no future without forgiveness." We believe that forgiveness is a powerful tool for personal transformation and healing and is the culmination of the grief process. It is a means through which we create the future--a future free of repaying violence for violence and pursuing any desire for revenge. We are honored to present the Garden of Forgiveness initiative, inspired by the Garden of Forgiveness in Beirut, Lebanon. Gardens of Forgiveness will be peaceful places for reflection where we acknowledge the hurts that can befall us as human beings, either as individuals or as communities, and then choose to make the world a better place by refusing to reciprocate violence for violence. Each Garden of Forgiveness will be part of the Global Gardens of Forgiveness Network ©, a network that will create a future beyond violence, with gardens serving as venues for conflict transformation and healing in communities around the world.

“It is not ‘forgive and forget’ as if nothing wrong had ever happened, but ‘forgive and go forward,’ building on the mistakes of the past and the energy generated by reconciliation to create a new future.”

– Carolyn Osiek, Beyond Anger