Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/102968
RELIGION BRIEFS The Rev. Philbert Kalisa will speak at the Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota on Jan. 20. Contributed photo RWANDA GENOCIDE RECONCILIATION WORKER TO SPEAK IN SARASOTA The Rev. Philbert Kalisa, founder and director of REACH (Reconciliation Evangelism And Christian Healing) Rwanda, a nonprofit organization working to promote healing and reconciliation among Rwandan people in the aftermath of the African country's period of violence and trauma, will preach at the 7:30, 9 and 11 a.m. Masses at the Church of the Redeemer on Sunday, Jan. 20, the church has announced. He will also speak during the 10:15 a.m. Rector's Class the same day, a news release says. Estimates say that as many as 1 million Tutsi Rwandans were massacred by militant Hutus "within the shockingly brief period of 100 days in 1994," the release adds. The genocide was the subject of the 2004 Academy Award-nominated film Hotel Rwanda, starring Don Cheadle, Joaquin Phoenix and Nick Nolte. "Father Philbert's organization works to reconcile family members of the victims with those who murdered their loved ones," explained the Rev. Fredrick Robinson, rector of Redeemer, in the release. "Through reconciliation comes understanding and from there we can work to forgive and heal not just our relationships with those who have done us harm, but we can work to heal the world." This will be the fourth time Kalisa has visited Redeemer, which has supported REACH Rwanda for several years via donations and REACH Rwanda was founded in 1996 by Kaother initiatives of its Missions and Outreach lisa, an ordained minister of the Anglican programs, a news release notes. Church of Burundi. He was born in 1966 to