Graham Staines and his family, wife Gladys, daughter Esther and sons Philip, left, and Timothy

Gladys Staines appeals for peace in Orissa

According to a news report carried by www.persecution.in, Gladys Staines, widow of the slain Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines, has expressed concern over the recent clashes between the Hindu and Christian communities in Orissa's Kandhamal district and said “people need to learn to forgive each other.”

“This news causes me great concern and I am deeply grieved,” Gladys, now in Australia, said in letters sent to Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the aftermath of the Kandhamal incidents since December 24.

“People need to learn to forgive each other. Forgiveness brings with it healing, as I have experienced following the deaths of my husband and two sons,” Gladys said in her letter, a copy of which was made available to us here today.

Stating that the news about the violence in Kandhamal district had reached her, she said her prayer and desire was that the communities would live together in peace and communal harmony.

Gladys had shown her spirit of Christian love when she said she had forgiven the killers of her missionary husband and two minor sons Timothy and Philip who were burnt to death.

By James Varghese

Special to ASSIST News Service

New iPad POLL! VOTE NOW! Will you buy new iPad?

[01/03/2008]

Print Version