Pastor teaches the power of forgiveness

Americans are lightweights when it comes to forgiveness, says the Rev. Arthur Rouner. Somebody cuts you off in traffic or sneaks 15 things into the "10 items or less" lane? Getting past that is pure fluff compared with what he's seen in such places as Rwanda: A 15-year-old girl is forced to watch her sister get beaten to death. Then the body is decapitated, and the girl is forced to carry her sister's severed head for three days under the threat of being killed herself if she fails.

"We, as Americans, can't conceive of forgiveness on a scale like that," he said.

Nonetheless, for the past 15 years, it has been Rouner's mission to bring the healing power of forgiveness to Africa through the Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation, a Twin Cities-based outreach center. He launched his new career at age 65, when he retired after 32 years at Colonial Church in Edina.

This week he was saluted with a "milestones" party: He turned 80, the center turned 15 and the 9,000th person went through one of the center's "healing and reconciliation" training retreats in Africa.

"The first step in moving forward is to forgive others, and we try to lead them, one step at a time, to consider the possibility of forgiveness," he said.

Rouner still makes at least two trips a year to Africa, where he often leads the three-day retreats himself.

"It helps being old," he said. "Life expectancy there is 40 to 50 years. They don't know what to make of me."

"I thought they were going to go attack," Rouner said. "But they said, 'We're not going to let the old man or God down.' They negotiated with the other tribe and got their cattle back."

He has gotten the leaders of warring factions to sit down together. Partway through one of those retreats, he noticed that a United Nations peacekeeping team had posted an armed guard outside the room -- whether to protect the leaders from an outside attack or from one another, he didn't know.

The guard understood the importance of what was happening, he discovered.

"As I was walking into the room one afternoon, I looked down at his gun -- it was a machine gun -- and said, 'That's a very powerful weapon you have there,' " Rouner said. "He looked down at the Bible I was carrying and said, 'That's a more powerful one.' "

50 and counting Temple Israel is throwing a two-fer celebration. The Minneapolis synagogue is honoring the combined 50 years of service of Cantor Barry Abelson (30 years) and Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman (20 years).

The event takes place Friday at the synagogue, 2324 Emerson Av. S., Minneapolis. It starts at 5:15 p.m. with an oneg (for non-Jews, that's basically a reception with snacks), followed by a service at 6 p.m. and a dinner (reservations required) at 7:30 p.m.

Running for a cause Runners and walkers from throughout the metro area are invited to take part in the Go! 5K and Finish Line Festival next Saturday in north Minneapolis.

"This is a fantastic way to start dispelling some of the perceptions about north Minneapolis," said Ryan Peterson, development director of Urban Homeworks, a nonprofit organization that works with a cross-section of faith communities to buy foreclosed homes, refurbish them and make them available to low-income families.

The run starts at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at North Commons Park, 1801 James Av. N., and ends with food, drinks and family-friendly games at the North Community YMCA, 1711 W. Broadway. The entry fee is $25, with a $10 discount for residents of north Minneapolis. Proceeds go to a collaboration of organizations working in the area. The registration deadline is Wednesday at www.gonorthside.org.

Burying the past In 2006, vandals using baseball bats damaged several icons at the Hindu temple in Maple Grove. Damage was calculated at $200,000.