Events

12 May 2010

Is Non-Violence Politically Viable?

Lecture

Canon Emeritus and retired Director of the Centre for International Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral; founding Chair of Amnesty International; Vice President, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Quaker Chaplain to the University of Sussex and a lifetime worker for peace and social justice.

Paul Oestreicher was born in Germany in 1933 and arrived in New Zealand as a refugee in 1939. He completed a BA at Otago in 1953 (editing Critic for a year) and an MA in Political Science at Victoria University of Wellington in 1955.

His life-long advocacy for peace and reconciliation has been shown in many ways, including being vice-president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Chairman of Amnesty International UK, a member of the British Council of Churches working parties on Southern Africa and Eastern Europe, Chairman of Trustees, Christian Institute for South Africa Fund, and a member of both Action By Christians Against Torture and Jews for Justice for Palestinians.

His publications, such as What Kind of Revolution: A Christian-Communist Dialogue (edited with J Klugmann), The Church and the Bomb, and The Double Cross illustrate his concerns with the role of the spirit in political life. He is an outstanding graduate of the University of Otago.

Religious studies