On June 30, the principal stage of the international research project “Reaching Forgiveness” launched in Ukraine.
About 5,000 Ukrainians will participate in the project, whose principal part is under the supervision of the Realis Christian Center and another NGO. Almost half of them are residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The initiative aims to provide people affected by war, violence and atrocities with tools to restore their psychological and emotional balance and to embrace the possibility of forgiving offenders with Everett Worthington’s method (see Help below).
Welcome to the project “Reaching Forgiveness”!
You are expected to:
– be ready to complete two research tasks within 40 days: 1) to fill out the questionnaire 3 times with a 15-days interval. Work with each questionnaire takes about 40 minutes; 2) working through the “Reaching Forgiveness” workbook (2-3 hours).
– In general, participation in the study will take about 4-5 hours of your time.
What will you get?
– Deeper understanding of forgiveness (health and mental benefits, and practical steps);
– Free electronic workbook on forgiveness;
– Material reward of UAH 600.
Briefly about the project:
- The “Five Steps to Forgiveness” concept was developed by Dr. Everett Worthington, a world-renowned clinical psychologist and author of more than 30 books on forgiveness.
- His method is used worldwide in rehabilitation Centers, family and parental counseling, and the like.
- For those wishing to take part in the next stage of this research, registration is open via Facebook-event or on the website forgive.org.ua from 1 to 30 August.
- The total number of participants in the world is about 17,000 people.
- Realis has been operating in Ukraine since 1999. The organization specializes in the integration of Christian theology and research, in particular in culturology, psychology and social ethics.
- The project takes place simultaneously in Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and South Africa, where Worthington’s method is being studied as applied to local conflicts.
- The results of the research obtained in Ukraine will be studied at Harvard and Stanford universities, as well as the City University of Hong Kong.
“The doctrine of the importance of forgiveness is at the heart of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount – it is added to the Our Father prayer as an explanation and practical reasoning for our relationships with others,” says Sergiy Tymchenko, Ph.D. and director of the Realis Educational and Research Center. “Western civilization inherited the radical ideas of Christianity for society – a combination of principles of forgiveness and justice. This is what we want for Ukraine as well. Forgiveness does not eliminate the need to defend our state from Russian aggression. But it is a tool for both the restoration of the spiritual and emotional state of man, and relationships between people.”
Any further questions? Please, contact project coordinator Sergiy Tymchenko: 067 501 70 15, s.tymchenko@realis.org, or visit the relevant Facebook-event, where you can find more details about the “Reaching Forgiveness” project.