Michael Henderson (born 15 March 1932) was an English journalist and the author of 14 books. ''No Enemy To Conquer – Forgiveness in An Unforgiving World'' (2009) had a foreword by the
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...
. The former BBC war correspondent Martin Bell described the book as "a thoughtful guidebook to the troubled times we live in". Henderson's books on forgiveness are regularly used in academic courses on conflict resolution.
North American Institute for Conflict Resolution. FORGIVENESS OVERVIEW
/ref> He lived in Westward Ho! in North Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, and Taunton, Somerset, from 2018.
Henderson was born in Ealing
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was histor ...
, London. Due to evacuation he attended many schools: Durston House
Durston House School is a private preparatory school in the UK for boys aged 4–13. It is a leading west London prep school and is a noted feeder school of Merchant Taylors’, John Lyon, Hampton and St Paul's School. Day fees range from £4,3 ...
and Ripley Court in Britain, Milton Academy Junior School and Rectory School
The Rectory School is an independent, coeducational, junior boarding (5–9) and day school (K–9) in Pomfret, Connecticut. The school was founded by the Rev. Frank H. Bigelow in 1920. It has expanded to , 26 buildings, 250 students, and 65 facu ...
in the United States, and The Hall School and Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School is a 13–18 mixed independent, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
History
A committee of Nonconformist me ...
after he returned to England.
From 1979 to 2000 he and his wife Erica (nee Hallowes) lived in Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
where he was president of the World Affairs Council, the English-Speaking Union
The English-Speaking Union (ESU) is an international educational membership organistation. Founded by the journalist Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1918, it aims to bring together and empower people of different languages and cultures, by building skill ...
and Willamette Writers.
In the US he was a columnist for ''The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
'' and ''The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'' and ''Union Jack'' and contributed op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
articles to many papers including the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...
'', the ''Milwaukee Journal'', ''The Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of Ma ...
'' and the '' Washington Times''.
He was a London correspondent for the ''Religion News Service'', the ''West Indian Digest'' and ''Himmat'' and had articles published in dozens of papers around the world including the Jamaican Sunday Gleaner
''The Gleaner'' is an English-language, morning daily newspaper founded by two brothers, Jacob De Cordova, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova on 13 September 1834 in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica. Originally called the ''Daily Gleaner'', the name ...
, the Japanese Mainichi Daily News, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post
The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...
, Canada’s Calgary Herald
The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network.
History
''The ...
, and the Nigeria's The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
.
His books include ''All Her Paths Are Peace – Women Pioneers in Peacemaking'' (1994), ''The Forgiveness Factor- Stories of Hope in a World of Conflict'' and ''Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate'' (2002). His book ''Experiment with Untruth: India under Emergency'' (1978) was an expose of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Emergency period of dictatorship and censorship.
He is also the author of the autobiographical ''See You After the Duration – the Story of British Evacuees to North America in World War II'' (2014). He and his brother, Gerald, spent five years at that time in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. A practising Anglican, and a supporter of the secular Forgiveness Project, he had a respectful regard for people of other faith and beliefs. "Forgiveness," he said, is one of the few concepts which, like love, are respected and encouraged by all the world's religions."
He was for 35 years on the British Council of The Oxford Group
The Oxford Group was a Christian organization (first known as ''First Century Christian Fellowship'') founded by the American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. Fur ...
and 20 years on the American board of Moral Re-Armament, now both known as Initiatives of Change and worked in more than twenty countries in the last 50 years.
Following the onset of Alzheimer's disease, he died in a care home in Rochdale, Lancashire, on 6 May 2022. He is survived by Erica, their daughter Juliet and two granddaughers.
References
External links
Michael Henderson websiteInitiatives of Change
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Michael
Writers from Portland, Oregon
Living people
1932 births
The Oregonian people