All great truths begin as blasphemies.
~ George Bernard Shaw
I like your Christ;
I do not like your Christians.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
~ Mohandas Gandhi
2 comments:
These sayings,again, bring me back to the concept of the two camps in many churches.The Paulinians , who like the Pharisees of years gone by, wish to follow many rules which cause great arguments and debate;(waste of time) and the Christians who wish to try to follow the teachings of Jesus: love God and love your neighbour as yourself.(for directions see Matthew 25:35-40)
Congregations ,which we will call communities, which have suffered anger, hurt feelings and division could try the restortive justice approach for problem solving.
The restorative justice concept is Christian in nature. The objective of this approach is to restore harmony to a community that has been harmed in some way.
The problems or challenges with the restorative justice approach are few.It requires people to be humble, respectful,honest, courageous...
There are some requirements for the restorative justice process:
People first of all must admit that harm to the community has occurred and be willing to participate in the restorative process.
Secondly,they must be willing to listen to each other respectfully.
Thirdly ,paticipants must be willing to work towards a peaceful resolution to their differences.
The ultimate goal is to try to bring harmony back to a community.
By suggesting the restorative process I am attempting to offer, in a positive manner, one possible process and/or solution for any community that has suffered harm in some way.
Peace Be With You
Cynicus has an excellent suggestion to use the Restorative
Justice approach. This process originated in native communities as "Circles" and is now used with young offenders and more recently in churches.
It is a respectful and, provided all participants are of a mind to desire to be restored to peace among the group, is successful.
The overriding priority is to find a person who is experienced in this process.
Is this a process that EXETER CRC Council would consider and organize?
If not, the disunity will continue to fester and more members may leave or be at Exeter CRC part-time , as is the case now.
An unfortunate situation for many.
Also unfortunate that some? many? don't care that families have left!
I sincerely hope that Council will take note of Cynicus' proposal.
C.
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