A SHORT HISTORY OF NATIONAL FORGIVENESS WEEK

AFRICA

Forgiveness Week began with an unknown African tribe sometime in the 19th Century, where each tribe member pledged to forgive any neighbour any wrong, either real or imagined. They forgave misunderstandings, grudges, cold-heartedness, quarrels and outright sins, both small and large. The week was held annually and culminated with a festival of happiness and rejoicing.

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FIJI

In 2002, after reading an account of the African Forgiveness Week, and after an extended period of prayer, two Australians namely Rob Warren and David Newby, were commissioned by God to take a message to Fiji. Backed by a prayer team in Sydney, they departed to Suva, not knowing anyone in Fiji, and having had only a brief communication with one Fijian pastor.

On arriving in Suva, they were taken to a meeting of the Assembly of Christian Churches in Fiji (ACCF) where the heads of eighteen Christian denominations were sitting around a table. This meeting had been convened to discuss the mitigation of judicial sentences handed down to a Fijian commando unit which had been involved in a military rebellion in November 2000.

When invited to speak they told the chairman they were not there to discuss the topic at hand. The chairman, Ratu Epeli Kanaimawi, asked them why they had come. They told those present that God wanted them all to hold National Forgiveness Week (NFW) across the country, not confined to churches, but out in the open, to teach people the principles and value of one-on-one forgiveness.

Every denominational leader at that meeting voted to hold NFW throughout the island nation of Fiji! The Rob and David returned many times over the next eighteen months to encourage the churches in their endeavour. In the end, the ACCF reluctantly admitted that the idea of NFW was too big, and they could not do it.

Then Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, heard about National Forgiveness Week. He liked the idea and passed it through his cabinet. He organised it and funded it from the government purse with a $700,000 budget! It was held in 2004 in all the cities of Fiji and in twenty regional centres.

Immediately prior to the inaugural National Forgiveness Week Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was invited to address the United Nations in New York. He told them about the impending eight-day event. After speaking, a long line of people formed wanting to congratulate him and shake his hand in response to the National Forgiveness Week initiative.

Fiji National Forgiveness Week (which they called National Reconciliation and Forgiveness Week) addressed issues of forgiveness at multiple levels in society through cultural gatherings and public events where ministers spoke openly to the unchurched about the importance of one-on-one forgiveness. They encouraged the practice of forgiveness in local communities, businesses, schools and families. The effects of forgiveness were felt nationwide, with positive daily reporting in print and broadcast media throughout the week. It was received and celebrated with great effect as the ‘food’ of forgiveness was laid at the feet of 850,000 people!

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VANUATU

Back in Australia, the prayer team perceived a line of latitude running from Fiji into Australia. When they checked an atlas, the line went through Vanuatu. So, the two men travelled to Port Vila, not knowing anyone there either. Through a chance meeting in the main street of Port Vila, they were introduced to the Ministers’ Fraternal unity group. The ministers had heard about what happened in Fiji and were quick to adopt National Forgiveness Week into their calendar. But as with Fiji, the churches of Vanuatu were unable to outwork such a large vision.

The two Australians went back to Vanuatu on numerous occasions to encourage the churches but to no avail, until the same thing happened … the Prime Minister, Edward Natapei heard of it and funded it with a budget of five million Vatu. In 2010, Vanuatu held their inaugural National Forgiveness Week (which they called Vanuatu Forgiveness Week).

During the week people reconciled with one another as the message of forgiveness was put into practice throughout the community. A failed marriage was restored, resulting in the two retaking their marriage vows before the entire village.

In the village of Pango, on the outskirts of Port Vila, a contingent from the small island of Moso arrived. The two communities had been feuding over the killing of 22 villagers back in the 1850s! Then after 160 years, they had come to forgive and to be forgiven. They publicly repented before one another and exchanged gifts. Many tears of repentance and joy were shed that day.

After sharing a meal they formed two lines and progressively embraced. It was a truly wonderful sight to behold.

Vanuatu Forgiveness Week provided a platform for many families and villagers to forgive and reconcile.

It was held predominantly on the two islands of Efate and Espiritu Santo but fell away when the PM lost office shortly afterwards and, to date, has not been held since.

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AUSTRALIA

After rechecking the line of latitude on a map of Australia, which the prayer team had perceived earlier, they found that the ‘line’ ended in the desert region of the Northern Territory. But there was nothing at the end of the line, so they got a more detailed map. There in the desert was a small remote Aboriginal community called Beswick. So, in 2005, concurrent with their efforts in Vanuatu, Rob and David went to Beswick to give the same message.

The local Aboriginal Church had ears to hear and began Beswick Forgiveness Week the following year. This spilled over into surrounding communities but was mainly confined to Beswick itself. Year after year, the Beswick Church faithfully held Forgiveness Week in September prior to the onset of the wet season.

Gradually, the NFW prayer team disbanded, and in 2014 David Newby passed away. Rob tried to generate some interest in National Forgiveness Week but to no avail. Although never forsaking what God had told him to do, he could not see any way forward and began to lose heart after trying and failing so many times.

In 2020, he was invited to lunch with a prominent prayer leader in Australia, Sue Tinworth. She offered her assistance and called for a new prayer team to be formed, drawing on her array of contacts. People joined from all over Australia and the prayer team grew to 70 people who regularly came together on Signal and Zoom to support a fresh push towards an Australiawide National Forgiveness Week.

After five years, the NFW prayer team felt it was God’s timing to stimulate Beswick Forgiveness Week. The Katherine Show Ground was booked for 2025 and a number of churches from the Katherine Ministers’ Fraternal agreed to assist the Beswick Church to bring the heart of forgiveness out beyond Arnhem Land. However, unbeknown to the NFW team at that time, the Beswick Church had already begun organising NFW on their own initiative. They had approached the Roper Gulf Regional Council and had secured grant funding for chairs, portable toilets and showers to expand the reach of National Forgiveness Week.

The NFW team bowed their knee to the Aboriginals and linked arms with them to launch NFW in Beswick in the new time slot of 27-29th June 2025. Beswick Forgiveness Week was assigned its full name of National Forgiveness Week … the inaugural national initiative of the Aboriginal people to Australia. The final three days of NFW were planned as the culmination of a community outreach in Beswick in the earlier part of the week, just as the African tribe, who started Forgiveness Week, had done so long ago.

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SOUTH PACIFIC

The team continues to work towards introducing National Forgiveness Week to other countries, including Papua New Guinea, Bougainville and Fiji after an eighteen-year hiatus brought about by the Bainimarama government’s cancellation of Fiji National Reconciliation and Forgiveness Week in 2007.

For detailed information and stories see:
When Angry Hearts Forgive by Robert Warren

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