Faithfulness and Restorative Justice: A Call to Action

Prepared message given as part of Three Rivers worship on Zoom, 15 May 2025.

Bearing witness isn't passive. It calls us to acknowledge the harm, not just individually but systemically. It connects, I believe, to our value of decolonization and racial justice. Recognizing how these systems disproportionately impact marginalized communities. It asks us to consider what true accountability looks like, moving beyond punishment, towards repair, towards restoration.

When speaking of moving beyond punishment towards restoration, what does that mean in practice? Our current justice system often focuses on assigning blame and meting out punishment for broken laws. Restorative justice, however, offers a different lens. It asks: who was harmed, what are their needs, and whose obligation is it to address those needs and repair the harm?

Restorative justice review, views wrongdoing primarily as a violation of people and relationship, rather than just a violation against the state. Instead of focusing solely on what rules were broken and what punishment is deserved, it seeks to understand the impact of the actions and to involve all those affected: those who were harmed, those who caused harm, and the wider community. It finds ways to make things as right as possible. This often involves dialogue, empathy, and commitment from the person who caused harm, to take responsibility and make amends, not just to an abstract legal system, but to the people in community they impacted. It shifts from an adversarial process to one that seeks healing, understanding, and reintegration of all parties into a healthier community fabric. It calls us to imagine and build systems that are not about retribution, but about accountability Uh. mends and justice that truly restores.

So the query arising in me, which I offer to the meeting, is this: as we seek to be faithful, how are we led to respond to the witness of suffering within systems of injustice, and how might an understanding of restorative practice guide us? How does the spirit move among us to build communities that foster not only radical pathways for genuine healing and restorative justice for all involved? Where do we find the strength, wisdom, and collective will for this difficult necessary work of systemic change? Thank you.