Healing Painful Memories through Storytelling Cultivated by Vivid Images of Remembrance in Liturgy: Why the Liturgical Acts of the TRC (SA-1996) Did Not Produce the Healing Expected

Abstract

This article elucidates the idea that opportunities for remembrance should be cultivated within liturgy. No participant within liturgy enters a worship service as a tabula rasa. People enter the worship service with all kinds of memories, some of which may be painful memories of the past while others may be good memories. People’s memories could influence their participation in liturgy profoundly. The following research question was identified: What is the role of storytelling cultivated by vivid images of liturgy in healing painful memories in a post-TRC South Africa? The authors contextualize this idea by scrutinizing the praxis within a South African context nearly 25 years after the activities of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the memories around it continue to be critically interrogated. The authors’ main focus is the communicative-liturgical approach that the TRC adhered to and why this approach seems to demonstrate shortcomings. This article examines the idea that the choice to remember will always be an ongoing process, mainly because a faith community is a remembering community. Three aspects are linked in a three-stroke relationship, namely liturgy, remembrance, and storytelling. Inter-disciplinary perspectives on remembrance and storytelling are offered while theological reflection reveals that remembrance and storytelling are interwoven. Two aspects in which remembrance and liturgy are connected, namely Passover and Holy Communion, are scrutinized and it is proposed that the idea of storytelling could be an intriguing aspect for further reflection within a Reformed tradition. We conclude with the idea that people’s memories are in need of editing through the process of remembrance. The telling of stories provides opportunities to do exactly this. We have explored the recognition that South African society needs people that continuously tell their stories of painful memories, while liturgy could cultivate vivid remembrances that will inevitably lead to healing.