I Believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of Sins…'
In the last number of years, our church has taken to asking for forgiveness from those we have harmed. The greatest amount of time, energy, and money (millions of dollars) has been dedicated to Aboriginals whom we as a church have taken responsibility for harming through our lack of discernment in seeing that what we were doing was wrong.
We simply let our confidence in our government and societal mores determine what was acceptable to us as church. I suspect some of the things we are doing now will have the same judgement of history on us in the future. One thing for sure we need to ask forgiveness for is all the people we in the church have wounded and in fact whose souls we have put in jeopardy by our often arrogant and callous dealing with them. We have sometimes been accused of “eating our own kind.” It grieves me, as I watch the actions of congregations, presbyteries and other courts of our church at times of disagreement, that there is so often a lack of grace and mercy. Some say the court system itself is set up to create winners and losers instead of a win/win solution and at times I have observed this to be true. In congregational conflict, people go ballistic in their vitriolic attacks without the faith community holding them in check. This is a serious failure for us as Christians in community.
Sometimes it is only the fear of civil lawsuits that seems to restrain us at all. This is not what I believe church should be. This is not what Jesus would do.
What can be done to work for reconciliation?
It is not what was common a few decades ago when there was a conspiracy of silence and issues were hidden under the table so there was a facade of everything being fine. It is also not an expanded Book of Forms with more rules and regulations. It is instead, I believe, a matter of renewed hearts and minds in the church. It is having the boldness and courage to forgive those who treat us shamefully and to turn the other cheek. It is even to be so gracious (some would say crazy) as to give the benefit of the doubt to believe that maybe our enemies (those who have wounded us to the core) can change and perhaps on reflection even acknowledge that what they said or did was not what Jesus would have wanted. It is to believe that the power of God is so great that even prodigals can be given another chance. This will cost us both as individuals and as church communities – it is risk-taking – it is acting in faith! It will cost us more than money; it will cost us time and
emotional energy. Time taken as a community together to learn how to behave in times of conflict. Time to be in earnest prayer so we can truly discern the spiritual issues and address them openly. Time taken to work closely with those wounded and those who have wounded them. Time to commit to symbols and actions of reconciliation.
Many, many people have left our church or are on the verge of leaving, not because there is conflict but because we have not addressed the conflict as Christians should. Many are not willing to pay the price anymore of hanging in there when the outcome is not often one that demonstrates an amazing love but is only a compromise that gets us one more period of armed peace. Being a true church will cost – it always has. I pray we will be willing to pay the price and that we will be willing to press on for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus as Paul urges us in scripture.
A few years ago in the midst of the sex scandals, the Roman Catholic church had a campaign urging those who had left to return to their home church – to be reconciled again with the faith community.
Perhaps we should have a similar campaign to invite those whom we have wounded to come home again. Perhaps it needs to begin with a confession and an apology. I am not so naive as to think everything will then be perfect. Perfection waits for heaven and the renewal of all things, as Jesus says, but at least for the spiritually discerning we would be one more step along the way.
