Shownotes Transcript
Well, I cannot forget because I'm involved almost in daily work of seeing people who suffer. That's the voice of Dr. Sergi Temchenko, a Ukrainian citizen and president of the Rialis Christian Center. Those 80-plus rockets that hit Ukraine means people who were killed and people who lost their dear ones.
But then in the next few days, we'll have meetings with some people from several villages that are almost constantly, almost every day under the shelling. And there are many children who live there. When the Russians invaded his home city of Kiev last year, Dr. Timchenko was in the middle of a global scientific study on forgiveness. And those children, more and more of them now need psychiatric help.
And when I talk to their parents, it is impossible to talk with them about forgiveness now. So yes, this is not the time about this. But this is the time to keep gathering it in my heart. And I only hope and pray that I will have enough space for everyone.
Dr. Timchenko is joined in his research on forgiveness and on our special podcast series on forgiveness by Dr. Lyudmila Shtanko, another Ukrainian citizen who is wrestling with the complexity and necessity of forgiveness as she continues to cope with the reality of war. Perhaps no other city name calls to mind the anguish of cruelty as Dr. Shtanko's hometown of Bucha does.
Even while she experiences her own suffering, Dr. Shtenko says: It's a real hope for me that my family can stay normal people who can understand another people, who can forgive, who can continue to provide relationship with another people. And I hope we can stop this war.
and we can build a new relationship with Russia, with Russian people. It's my hope.
The Stories of Impact podcast is coming to you for the next two weeks for a special exploration of forgiveness. And longtime listeners to the podcast may recognize Dr. Everett Worthington, who returns to us for this series. The work of Dr. Worthington, whose pioneering workbook helps people reach forgiveness, is at the heart of the largest ever scientific study of forgiveness in the world. Dr.
He adds his voice to this important subject. Forgiveness is close to my heart for a lot of different reasons. One, I really experienced a personal time in which my mother was murdered and forgiveness meant a lot to me personally.
I've seen it work marvels in the life of couples that were in couple therapy with me. And also, I think it really makes an opportunity to further the likelihood of world peace. So I think it's really important.
Thinking about war and murder, it's not for the faint of heart, but it leads us to a discussion that is so important and so timely. And we will be honored to bring you the voices of these three courageous and thoughtful experts and introduce you to their colleagues as they discuss applying the science of forgiveness to their own pain and heartache and share the findings of their research.
We'll be back with the first of our two special episodes next week. And in the meantime, we hope you'll consider registering for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Human Flourishing Conference, " Forgiveness: Interdisciplinary Perspectives." On April 21st and 22nd, eminent scholars and practitioners from philosophy, theology, psychology, law, peace studies, and public health will gather together to consider forgiveness.
The conference, co-hosted by Templeton World Charity Foundation, will be hosted in Harvard's Memorial Church and is open to the public, but registration is necessary. To register, visit hfh.fas.harvard.edu forward slash forgiveness dash conference dash Harvard. We'll add a link to that registration page in our show notes. We hope you can join us there and that you'll be with us for the next two weeks.
Thanks for listening.