Reflections

Restorative Practice in the Church

“Christians are nothing if not a narrative people. We engage with story each and every time we meet for worship and whenever we go to Scripture. The story becomes the bedrock for healing and ‘setting relationships right’. Story moves the people from individual experiences to shared experiences; from individual guilt to shared guilt; from individual responsibility to shared responsibility. This movement empowers those storytellers to move from hurt to solutions. Out of the shared story and the shared embrace of the issues emerges shared commitment to new ways of being. Forgiveness emerges. Restoration emerges.”

Peacemaking in a Polarising World

“How have we come to this: as Christians whose faith commits us to be active peacemakers in Jesus’ way? How has it come to pass if I talk about peace from the pulpit, I may be subjected to abuse, hatred and threats of violence? We are faithfully required to share peace from the position of powerlessness, humility and vulnerability and instead, we comprehensively fail, embedded as we are in a church flourishing among the established powers and principalities of the ruler of the world .”

There are no exits from history: the trauma of Gaza and dispossession

“While working in the Holy Land, I distinctly remember reading a six-word sentence written by a historian. The words are these: There are no exits from history. I believe these words are pertinent to us here in Australia, where our history is haunted by the historical killings carried out against its Indigenous people. A history of which so many Australians are ignorant, or we continue to avert our gaze from its reality.”

To be with one another

The Life Work of the Holy Spirit in the Church of England Today: Some Factors in Occlusion. An essay by the The Very Revd. Prof. Martyn Percy, former Dean, Christ Church, Oxford