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Showing posts from April, 2019
Circles for Peacemaking You have probably heard of at least some of the elements that go into peacemaking circles and perhaps you have used some of them in discussion groups or decision-making exercises. The elements - a talking piece, a facilitator or keeper, guidelines that all agree on, and consensus decision-making - are simple; used together they create a powerful and effective way to make decisions, do restorative justice, and build community. Circles can be used for purposes such as community-building, healing, decision-making, transforming conflict, celebration, and more.   In some communities, courts will participate in restorative justice circle processes to decide on sentencing for certain types of crimes.   Some schools use circles to handle school discipline.   Circles have been effective in working with rival gangs to reduce violence.      The circle process draws directly from the traditions of indigenous people who use a Talking Circle to discuss communit

Liberation is Costly -- Reverend Dr. Linda Anderson

South African bishop Desmond Tutu said: “Liberation is costly.  Even after the Lord had delivered the Israelites from Egypt, they had to travel through the desert.  They had to bear the responsibilities and difficulties of freedom.  There was starvation and thirst and they kept complaining.  They complained that their diet was monotonous.  Many of them preferred the days of bondage and the fleshpots of Egypt.  We must remember that liberation is costly.”   Liberation is costly.  A rebirth into freedom requires courage and it requires sacrifice. Think about your own lives. Are you in the midst of breaking free from something? Breaking free from the circumstances, the situations, the conditions, the patterns, the work, the people that keep you enslaved?  Are you in the midst of experiencing new growth, in the midst of your own particular exodus?  For some of us rebirth into freedom is major.  We are liberating ourselves into different work states, different relationship states, diff