International Women's Day falls on 8th March each year. To mark it, we gathered the stories of seven women peacebuilders from our global network.
Name: Jacci Bulman
Location: Cumbria, England
Religion: Christian
Programme: Journey of Hope
"Hello. My name is Jacci Bulman, and I live in a converted chapel by a wonderful river in Cumbria, England. My work includes writing poetry and non-fiction, with my newest book ‘Talking God: Daring to Listen’ (Lion Hudson, 2021) having taken me to Iona Island, and spurred me on to really explore what my own personal faith means, to me. I discovered it is about love. And reconciliation to God’s love."
There has been a natural, if stormy, passage of events teaching me God’s love in my life, from discovering the cruciality of love for self-healing, while enduring a breakdown at university, and brain tumours, to enjoying the capacity of love to teach us forgiveness and co-founding a charity for disabled young people in Vietnam (The Kianh Foundation).
I began to realise more that a loving relationship with oneself, with the world, and especially with God, is about reconciliation. To see that hope comes from this loving action. So, I attended courses to help me learn facilitation skills for reconciliation, with ‘Place for Hope’ in Glasgow and then with ‘Journey of Hope’, connecting to a co-supportive network of ‘reconcilers’ which includes the Rose Castle Foundation.
I then began to set up the Hope Centre, in Penrith, Cumbria, for people to come together, of all faiths or none, to enjoy exploring the love of God that we are made from and live within. I developed a website www.thelovethatweare.org and began giving out leaflets in town and city centres, encouraging people to simply consider the unconditional ‘no ifs and buts’, forgiving, all-inclusive love of God.
This is not easy! I stand with an open hand with leaflets in the streets, usually met with kind curiosity, but sometimes with challenges. And I try to encourage practising silence together at meetings, which for many people is a strange thing. But I love silence held together in a group, so I keep going! Even if just one person comes, the silence is so much more powerful than when held on our own. It is a church! I feel very much guided by Jesus and Mary Magdalen, and try not to think too much about plans, just be brave with my faith and ‘go for it’! I want to encourage people in the streets that people giving out leaflets about faith don’t always want to preach about ‘hell and damnation and sin’...so I write simply about God’s love. I want to help people reconcile to the love that has given me so much healing and courage, taught me serenity and acceptance, and shown me the power of forgiveness. And still does.
I’m currently creating a new booklet, ‘Talking Unity’, to be freely downloaded on the website soon. This talks about the love that we all exist within, and I asked, as I usually do, a big group of inspiring people to write their own pieces about God’s love, as a collective collaboration for the booklet. Again, this takes bravery, takes up energy that I source from my faith, but I love doing it, so I do. I feel powered on by God’s love, as alone I would get too tired!
Here is a short section from the booklet, which describes why reconciliation healing means so much to me:
What can it mean to be ‘reconciled’ to God’s love? The Oxford Dictionary (old and new editions) defines the verb ‘reconcile’ as ‘to make friendly after estrangement’, to ‘purify’ a sacred place after desecration, to ‘heal’, ‘harmonise’, even (and this is a challenging one for us humans) to ‘make contentedly submissive’.
The word originated from the Latin ‘re’ (back, with some intensive force), ‘conciliare’ (bring together).
Harmony.
It could be that when we are reconciled to the love that we are, in God, we make sacred again our belonging, our part in this whole wonder. When we step forwards from our binary-thinking minds and begin to understand the One great non-duality of all things, do we then move forwards in our human evolution, spiritually? Do we move closer to home, to bringing heaven to earth?
And when we reconcile with the love inside us, own it with honesty, bravery, forgiveness, can we then more easily reconcile with, love and forgive our fellows, see what we share rather than what divides us? I think so. Do you?
And how does being a woman affect me in my working for reconciliation? I have thought about it and, just like in my life at Oxford, in Vietnam, in and out of hospitals, and now in my work for my faith, I can see no time when being a woman has made this any harder. The importance is to be strong inside. And when you feel weak, to find strength in your faith within – in the love you are made of. There has in truth been times when being a woman has helped, in my dealing with difficult officials or in giving care or a listening ear. To be strong and gentle at the same time. The only times I have ever felt vulnerable or ignored have been in dealing with people who think they are superior, as males or females. And then you just need to forgive, if you can, and stand up tall! Being a woman is, for my life experience, an honour.