Of dreams and visions: people-to-people reconciliation
By Henry Smidstra

The prophet Joel writes of old men dreaming dreams and young men having visions. The preacher warns that without a vision, people perish. Allow me to show you, or you remind you of a vision of "daily-lived" peacebuilding, known as "restorative justice."

Ernie Regehr already illustrated restorative justice in his December 2008 Mobile Justice article, "Thoughts on peace, from a messy dorm room":

A broad range of Afghan voices expresses an urgent need for dialogue, trust building, and other efforts toward political accommodation. Civil society organizations and educational institutions, they say, have important roles to play in promoting people-to-people reconciliation and programs that build a culture of peace. The needs are of such a scale that they cannot be met without direct public support. Thus the international community should promote and fund reconciliation efforts and especially encourage the government of Afghanistan and opposition groups to embrace such opportunities.

What are the foundational elements of this "people-to-people reconciliation" Regehr describes? Face-to-face communication; community-based programming; listening to stories of pain, frustration and powerlessness; affirming and validating broken brothers and sisters. These are peace-nurturing actions, and they are the keys to restorative justice.

Is not this—this nurturing, this binding of emotional wounds—at the heart of the calling of the church? I believe that the church, the centre Kingdom of Christ, has a vital role in ministries of reconciliation. My work in the restorative justice field for 25 years has given me a confidence in, and a vision for its ability to heal, reconcile, and create a will for peace expressed in a transformation of hostile behaviours.

The term "Restorative Justice" may first suggest that we are speaking of responses only to criminal justice-related issues. But as I wrote above, restorative justice is a "daily-lived" reality, addressing all kinds of conflict by building community peace and nurturing healthy relationships. Restorative justice has inspired reconciliations in Ireland, South Africa, Nicaragua, and other places in the world that have suffered intense conflict. I believe these acts of peacemaking can inspire hope, and lead to an alternative vision for peace and top-down diplomacy in war-weary communities of Afghanistan, Gaza, Israel, Congo or Darfur.

Peace is more than the cessation of warfare. It is a mindset, a campaign to be "waged" in daily opportunities and obligations to resolve conflicts as they arise—being wise also to the root and structural causes of conflict, both globally and at home. Face-to-face meetings increase a sense of mutuality among neighbours which, research has shown, results in reduced hostility, conflict, and crime. Thus, facilitating and empowering individuals and their communities in conflict, facilitating the exchange of stories of hurt and need, and sharing in common humanity, are basic ingredients in peacemaking, in people-to-people reconciliation.

The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) recommended restorative justice—in both perspective and practice—to its churches in its 2005 CRC Synodical Study on Restorative Justice. The report recommended that restorative justice principles and practices be used in addressing not only crime in the community, but also conflict in workplaces, schools, and homes. Restorative Justice Initiatives (RJI), formerly called the Restorative Justice Advisory committee, has since the 2005 synod been promoting awareness of restorative justice, and searching for ways to assist churches and communities in their practice of restorative justice principles and values.

The impossible becomes possible

Reconciliation is the central thrust of the Gospel, according to John Paul Lederach, professor of International Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame. Lederach writes from his experience in mediation and peacemaking during the Miskito-Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua. We must, he writes, continue to be moved by the passion of the Gospel, continue to dream dreams and ". . . move towards those who have experienced the deepest division and separation, because this is God's mission and Christ's example." Today, we can perhaps see redemptive mystery with President Obama in office—a culmination of racial struggle and reconciliation, unthinkable only 30 years ago.

I believe that with small acts providing a reconciliatory context for conflicted peoples, we can create space for hope and positive change; the impossible becomes possible, for it is of God.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu characterized the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa as an example of restorative justice. "Restorative justice gives up on no one," he wrote in Justice Reflections in 2004. "[Its values] helped South Africa to avert a catastrophe of monumental proportions in substituting forgiveness for revenge and reconciliation for retribution."

It becomes clear how valuable the participatory and reconciliatory practices of Restorative justice are, as contrasted to the exclusionary and "winner-takes-all" actions of conflict and war. Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, also influenced by the vision of Bishop Tutu and by his own experience of conflict under Idi Amin, stresses the importance of applying restorative justice values and principles, both at home, where it begins, and in international conflict.

Inherent in international conflict Sentamu sees the common belief that "might makes right", as governments and militants alike mistakenly trust that retaliation with a show of violent force will bring peace and security. Rather individuals—isolated and demonized, separated from positions of power or influence in conflict—often resort to drastic, desperate and deadly measures. They must be brought into the circle of stakeholders in the conflict, not to excuse violence, but to make resolution more likely. Both in the domestic and international arenas, Sentamu argues, we fail if we build justice on the cornerstones of punishment and retribution.

Sentamu writes:

What might have been the result if John Major after the Gulf War in 1991, and Tony Blair in 1997 had tried to deal with Saddam Hussein in the same way they bravely undertook to enter into talks to bring about community responsibility and peace in Northern Ireland?

Like Tutu, Sentamu—referring to the inherent connection of all people (Ubuntu)—warns that retaliation and brutalizing those who have brutalized us, ". . . dehumanizes the perpetrator, as much, if not more than the victims." Not only is peacemaking a participation in the very mission of God, it is practically the only way to end the cycles of retaliation and war. Reconciliation comes not with a deadly violent confrontation, nor with remote bureaucratic diplomacy, but rather it comes in bits and pieces as people struggle together to find solutions to address their own future, the future of their children and grandchildren.

"Restorative justice is a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future," Sentamu continues. The work of peacemaking is harder than the work of declaring or waging war, but it has a future and it is God's desire that people live in shalom, not perpetual conflict.

Quoting from Glen Stassen's Book, Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War, Wayne Northey notes that peace, like war, must be waged "courageously, persistently, creatively, with imagination, heart, and wisdom." After detailing the futility of war, Northey states, "There will be no war to end all wars".

We must stop rationalizing and justifying wars, but work at waging peace with creative and prayerful persistence. We must have the vision that God has in Christ, dream like Martin Luther King, and work out our dream—perhaps one person at a time, or one reconciliation at a time.

Wayne Northey, as the director of M2W2 Restorative Ministries, knows of the many stories of prisoners and released prisoners, and of some "crashed" attempts in reconciliations. But he knows also of inspiring stories of courage and of once bitter enemies now living in peace with each other. Writing of international peacemaking, Wayne too has a dream: a dream to create a coalition of peacemakers—"The International Cooperative Conflict Resolution agency (ICCR)," he imagines the name—with former U.S. president Jimmy Carter as its head, and Nobel Peace Prize winners in its employ. An impossible dream? With God anything is possible! I can imagine the inspiring power such a high profile organization could have, dedicated to working actively with the U.N. and other agencies to make peace.

I believe that any small group working at making peace, locally or abroad, can cumulatively build peace, because it flows out of the vision of God and His creative Spirit of peace. Mr. Northey likens a group dedicated to peace to an agricultural test plot, a demonstration plot: groups working for peace and reconciliation demonstrate another way, an alternative to war, and act as catalysts for others to try the same strategy for waging peace.

We know that peer mediation and community empowerment and training are important strategies to facilitate people-to-people reconciliation. Locally-trained peacemakers can minimize power imbalances and transcend cultural barriers created by the darker sides of colonialism, imperialism and war. Thus we can train and give peacemaking skills to local people in communities affected by war.

It is a vision of Restorative Justice Initiatives that the CRC can find trained and gifted peacemakers and support them as they work at "the home front" in resolving domestic and community conflicts, thus making healthier homes, families, churches, and communities. We can also send people to the "front lines" internationally to work for reconciliation and peace, in places where peace seems to be mere wishful thinking. In Christ, we dare to dream dreams and have visions.

© 2009 Committee for Contact with the Government. All rights reserved.

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