75 Years of Stories: Caux 1946-2021, by Initiatives of Change Switzerland

Author: Initiatives of Change Switzerland. Review by Daniel Clarke-Flynn.

This is a remarkable book of personal stories, all of which took place at the Caux Palace Hotel in Switzerland. In 1946 this 500-bed hotel was about to be pulled down. It had been a refugee centre through much of world war two, and was in disrepair. But 100 Swiss who were active with Moral Rearmament (MR), today known as Initiatives of Change (IofC), bought and rehabilitated it as an international conference centre for peacebuilding. It has been doing that ever since.

75 Years of Stories is a succinct and inspiring presentation of IofC values, but also a plea for its mission: to inspire, equip and connect people to address world needs, starting with themselves.

Given the decision to allow our revered Woodbrooke Centre to revert back to the Bournville Trust, 120 years after George Cadbury had gifted it, Friends may find this a timely read. Woodbrooke has always been financially challenged, and Covid made it impossible to continue as a physical location. The good news is Woodbrooke’s online courses have more than tripled. With its ‘On the Road’ and ‘Where you are’ offerings, Woodbrooke Learning will continue. Might Caux be on the same trajectory? IofC’s excellent ‘Learning to be a Peacemaker’ training program went online during Covid, and reached people who would have otherwise not been able to participate.

Here is some of the inspiration sown throughout the book: ‘We can’t build a new world with only one class of humanity, all are needed’; ‘It is much harder to love a person than to hate them’; ‘Bury the hatchet or bury the dead’; ‘Art must be dangerous to evil’; ‘Hope never dies’; ‘As you serve, you discover your identities are not conflicting, but complementary’; ‘Across the walls of fear, I just want you to listen’; ‘For me there are no sacrifices in life. Only choices’; ‘When people are angels to you, you want to pass it on’; ‘We need spaces where proper dialogue can happen.’

This history of Caux and MR/IofC provides a wonderful selection of stories. But it’s much more than that. The stories tell of an amazing diversity of great human beings, large and small. One storyteller says that ‘Ubuntu’ – our shared humanity – is the way forward to a better world, to healing the wounds of history. It’s another timely remark, given the theme of next year’s Friends World Committee for Consultation plenary in South Africa: ‘Living the spirit of Ubuntu: Responding with hope to God’s call to cherish creation – and one another.’

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