One of the key values for the R Ch website project is collaboration. The hope now is to include content recommendations and submissions from diverse partners who can make this site fuller and relevant to broader audiences in the church world. As a Euro-descended white man, I am limited in what I can do to generate and guide new content for this site. I seek partnership with brothers and sisters in faith who represent communities of color to create meaningful content that is relevant to wider audiences. As a male, I seek stronger involvement of women in this collaborative effort.
It is clear to most that race relations and racial reconciliation are central issues to our current times. This of course is a large topic, and this site is not aiming to replicate what is already out there. The parameters of the Restorative Church project limit content that includes all three of the following aspects: (restorative / church / dialogue)
- Restorative justice / restorative practices, either relational or systemic
- Church related, either communal (inward), inter-group, or missional (outward)
- Dialogue-based, either with prevention or intervention focus
If you have recommendations for new content or written pieces that move between all three of these areas, please send your initial thoughts to Ted Lewis through this site’s Contact system. Forthcoming content can include stories, links, programs, articles, etc., that serve to inform and inspire the imitation of good work being done.
This fall, a team of diverse people will also be put together to select and steward all new content for the R Ch website, and steer related projects and events in the future. If you are a writer, practitioner or educator who weaves together the above three areas, please contact Ted.
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Howard Thurman Quote
“Look well to the growing edge! All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of the child — life’s most dramatic answer to death — this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!”