The Art of Peace: From “Conflict Resolution” to “Conflict Transformation”
Be sure to visit the On Being Blog and listen to Krista Tippett’s most recent interview with John Paul Lederach as he talks about his work in conflict transformation.
As we’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, from when he was on Krista Tippett’s program last time, Lederach who is now a professor of conflict transformation at Notre Dame, was part of the design team for this organization and argued successfully at its inception for its name to be “JustPeace”.
Below is from the introduction on the On Being blog:
John Paul Lederach is one of the most esteemed names in conflict mediation in the world today. He is also Mennonite, an icon of this tradtion that passionately embarces the biblical command to “be peacemakers.” In our conversation in “The Art of Peace” he calls his work “conflict transformation” rather than the more commonly used term of “conflict resolution.” Across three decades, in over 25 countries on five continents, he has sought to help people transform their relationships with their enemies.”
The interview is well worth your time. You can listen by clicking here and/or read the transcript of the interview here.
Holy Conversation About Challenging Issues – Pre-General Conference News Briefing
During the next few days, the Rev. Stephanie Hixon, Co-Executive Director of JustPeace, will be joining United Methodist General Conference delegation leaders and delegates from around the world to prepare for the upcoming 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Florida April 24 – May 4. She will be participating in a panel discussion entitled “Holy Conversation About Challenging Issues” being moderated by Bishop Sally Dyck of the Minnesota Episcopal Area and Unity Team Chairperson of the Council of Bishops. It is taking place on Saturday, January 21st at 9:50 a.m. in Rooms 13-16 in the Tampa Convention Center.
Also on the panel will be the Rev. Thomas Lambrecht, Vice President and General Manager of Good News, Erin Hawkins, General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion and Race and the Rev. Mike Slaughter, Lead Pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio.
JustPeace will also have a table at the Issues Fair. If you’re in Tampa, please stop by and introduce yourself!
Bishop Hope Morgan Ward: Being Close Together
Dear Friends,
Grace and peace to you as Jesus Christ comes bringing peace on earth.
Sharing the rich experience of pilgrimage to Palestine last month with women bishops from the Wesleyan and Anglican traditions, I experienced immersion in peace-building communities of people who live in the midst of ongoing and intractable conflict.
Bethlehem remains imprisoned behind a fortified separation wall. The people of the city of Christ’s birth live under constant threat and intense pressure. One statistic demonstrates the incarnate reality: eighty percent of the children in Bethlehem show signs of trauma, anxiety and fear.
In Bethlehem, in the shadow of the wall, there is a center called Wi’am, which means “being close together” in Arabic. Wi’am is a place for conflict transformation, restorative justice and mediation, countering overwhelming challenges with hopeful work among women, men, youth and children.
In this and in every place of conflict, we are called to be peacemakers. In this holy season of Advent hope, we give thanks to God for the presence of an indispensable resource for The United Methodist Church and the world - JustPeace, The Conflict Transformation Center of The United Methodist Church
JustPeace was born out of a yearning for life-giving ways of engaging conflict and a hope for conflict transformed. The needs in our world continue and we respond with confidence through the one who said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.”
JustPeace seasons the life of our church through teaching and resourcing, advancing our capacity to engage conflict constructively. Through the ministry of JustPeace, United Methodist people are increasingly a healing and reconciling presence, drawing from the JustPeace well of guidance, training and coaching as we navigate conflict as faithful leaders.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of JustPeace, I invite you to year-end generosity to this essential ministry of The United Methodist Church. Your gift can be made by check or on-line by credit card at:
http://justpeaceumc.org/donate/
The song of the angels resounds in every place of anxiety and conflict – “peace on earth, good will to all.” Thank you for your partnership and generosity in this good work.
With gratitude for our life together in this holy season,
Bishop Hope Morgan Ward
Alexandria Skinner: Intervention in Church Conflict
(This post by Alexandria Skinner of Just Mediation, LLC was originally posted on the Just Mediation website on November 28th, 2011. Skinner is a certified mediator and licensed attorney based out of Columbia, South Carolina. She is also an active Presbyterian and writes about faith, peace and social justice issues on her blog Peaceworks.)
There is no such thing as a church without conflict. If your church has a conflict, that is something to be thankful for! Conflict means that people are engaged in the life of the church and that they have interests they care about. It is healthy for a church to acknowledge that it has some conflict, for then the causes of conflict can be brought to light and addressed, hopefully in a way that leaves people feeling like they have a better understanding of each other, of each other’s goals, and happy about the end result.
Indeed, the goal of peacemaking in a congregation is not to snuff out conflict and pretend that it doesn’t exist. Nor is it to go to war to route out various factions. In between these two options is a middle ground.
Conflict actually provides the opportunity for us to communicate, to discuss differences and similarities, to really listen to and hear each other, and to forge solutions which meet the needs of the congregation without harming each other and which actually lead to healing and reconciliation. The goal is not simply to “resolve” conflict by putting a lid on it. Rather, the goal is conflict transformation: to transform the conflict into an opportunity for growth and healing.
In the meantime, how to do achieve such an idealistic result? Is it possible? In one word: yes! If conflict is dealt with appropriately.
Conflict in a church is like a flame. It can feel like a nice, warm campfire – nicely contained in the fireplace and providing enough heat to fuel the popcorn popper — or it can feel like a house fire raging and destroying the entire structure. Obviously, it is easier to tend the fire when it has not blazed out of control.
Where is your church conflict on the scale of conflict? If you feel your congregation may need help dealing with the effects of conflict, this blog post may help you decide whether to bring in outside help.
Reactions to conflict proceed in predictable stages. A prior blog post described various stages of conflict. At low levels, conflict is healthy. It means people are involved in the church and have projects they care about. If conflict is not handled appropriately, however, it can become toxic and lead to division in the church.
Conflict handled poorly causes needless pain and alienation from the church. A statistic by the Alban Institute indicates that a significant number of unchurched people in the USA say they are Christian, but they report that they no longer attend church because of some “painful event”.
The goal of Just Mediation is to stop that from happening. We are concerned for the sheep that has been lost from the flock. Our goal is to contribute to the health of the Body of Christ, by acting as professional peacemakers to help transform conflict from painful event to an opportunity for growth and learning among Believers.
Regardless of what level of conflict your congregation may be experiencing, the professional peacemakers of Just Mediation want to help you. There are three main ways we can help:
1. Training and Education of Congregation and Congregational Leaders in Healthy Conflict Resolution Skills
Training and education of members and leaders in healthy methods of decision making and conflict resolution imparts helpful skill in tending the campfire. If the fire is not already out of control, all it needs is to be cared for properly.
It is important that conflict associated with normal and natural transitions be addressed in ways that are healthy and healing, and not in ways that create more divides. When serious conflict does emerge, leaders need tools to respond to these challenges before they escalate into conflict that engages the entire community. The mediators of Just Mediation, LLC, offer training in healthy, Biblical responses to conflict through on-site consultation, workshops, and leadership retreats.
We are happy to speak to your group and lead a workshop, whether for an hour or a weekend.
2. Assessment and Recommendations in Situations Involving Conflict
Ideally, conflict in faith-based organizations will be identified and addressed before it reaches a flashpoint of causing a crisis. However, it can be helpful to have a fire extinguisher on hand.
No matter how positive it may be overall, change in culture and the worldview of members or leadership can create tension in the healthiest of organizations. Or conversely, refusal to change may create stress. Intervention at this stage of conflict can improve communication and help people adjust and work things out peaceably.
Perhaps your congregation doesn’t need full scale crisis intervention, but it would benefit from clear intervention, education, and minor mediation that would help your congregation navigate these tricky periods.
We would be happy to consult with your leadership team and engage in individual mediations or facilitation of group meetings to address important sources of conflict.
3. Crisis Management and Congregational Mediation for Highly Conflicted Congregations
If conflict is not addressed early, it can build to crisis levels. Changes in leadership, building programs, worship innovations and capital campaigns often expose fault lines not apparent under normal circumstances.
Often these problems are ignored until these issues are out of control and have escalated into a major conflict. Is the conflagration to the point where your congregation needs a fire truck and firefighters? We can help with this, too.
The professional mediators of Just Mediation, LLC, are equipped by training, experience, and calling, to intervene and guide in crisis laden situations and assist your church in healing from the inside out.
A Future with Amahl – Bishop Hope Morgan Ward
(The following blog post was written by Bishop Hope Morgan Ward during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with 10 other ecumenical female bishops. Ward is the presiding Bishop of the Mississippi Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and serves as the President of the JustPeace Board of Directors For more information about the pilgrimage, click here).
Amahl is the Arabic word for “hope.” As we look toward a Future with Hope, a remarkable pilgrimage is unfolding in the place Jesus knew and loved. The first experiences have been in the Galilee — the areas of his birth and childhood and 80% of his ministry.
The pilgrimage is remarkable in several ways: the pilgrims are 10 women bishops from the African Methodist Episcopal, Christian Methodist Episcopal, Episcopal, and United Methodist Churches. The pilgrimage links us with Arab Palestinian Christians, “a minority within a minority” in the country of Israel, as well as Jews and Muslims. The pilgrimage focuses on the leadership of women in empowering women, developing economic opportunities for women, creating a compassionate and just future for children and families, and weaving peaceful communities.
We have visited with remarkable leaders, women and men who are persistent and persevering in the way of peace, reaching from both sides of the great divide between the dominant Jewish communities and the minority Arab communities. Palestinian and Jewish women are working together, creating economic opportunity in the production and selling of baskets, honey, olive oil, and soap. They are not learning a new way of life together; rather, as Father Elias Chacour observes, they are living as they lived side by side 60 years ago
“We want you to know that there is a community in Israel that believes in a shared future.” This observation of a young woman leader has been echoed in our first two days here.
In story after story, we have heard faith journeys from people who are not looking for headlines but who are working in humble places. They live a vibrant witness of faith. A woman rabbi chooses to shop on the Palestinian village rather than drive farther as other Jews do to shop in a Jewish area. Palestinian and Jewish women work together to open a cooperative. Palestinian Christians educated in the United States return to Nazareth in faithful response to God’s call to participate as leaders in the hope for peace.
The reality is powerful: we are among the “living stones,” to use the words of Father Chacour.
Beautiful lives inspire even more than beautiful churches.
John Meunier: 5 Dysfunctions of a Church: Conflict
(This post by John Meunier originally appeared on his blog on October 26, 2011. John Meunier is a part-time United Methodist pastor serving Wesley Chapel UMC and a prolific blogger. You can find his blog here atwww.johnmeunier.wordpress.com)
Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is a readable and useful guide to building effective teams in any organizational setting. I am sharing a series of observations from the book. My aim is to provide some food for thought for congregational leaders, as well as reflect on the challenges confronting the United Methodist Church as a whole.
Dysfunction Two: Fear of Conflict
This dysfunction grows right out of the first dysfunction, absence of trust. When we cannot trust others in the group, then conflict becomes scary and dangerous. But groups require healthy conflict to grow and mature over time. Any group that cannot engage in constructive and healthy conflict is doomed to stagnation or implosion when unhealthy conflict takes over.
Groups with a fear of conflict
- Have boring meetings
- Create environments where back-channel politics and personal attacks thrive
- Ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success
- Fail to tap all the opinions and perspectives of team members
- Waste time and energy with posturing and interpersonal risk management
Having productive conflict can be especially difficult in church settings because the issues involved are often quite personal and we have unwritten norms that say good church people should not disagree or argue with each other. We fall into the trap of confusing silence and stagnation with peace and harmony. Or we adopt modes of authority that abuse rank and call any disagreement rebellion against God.
Here is Lencioni’s advice to leaders in dealing with this dysfunction:
[I]t is key that leaders demonstrate restraint when their people engage in conflict, and allow resolution to occur naturally, as messy as it can sometimes be. This can be a challenge because many leaders feel that they are somehow failing in their jobs by losing control of their teams during conflict.
Finally, as trite as it may sound, a leader’s ability to personally model appropriate conflict behavior is essential. By avoiding conflict when it is necessary and productive — something many executives do — a team leader will encourage this dysfunction to thrive.
It is important to remember in this that an essential foundation for what Lencioni writes above is the trust discussed in the first dysfunction. Without trust, productive conflict is often impossible.
It teams, congregations, and denominations have not built vulnerability-based trust with each other, then it requires nothing less than a miracle for sustained, productive conflict to take place.
Dr. W. Craig Gilliam: Where Peace, Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation Begin
(Dr. W. Craig Gilliam is the Director of the Center for Pastoral Effectiveness of the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church; is a member of the adjunct faculty at Perkins School of Theology, SMU, and has a private practice. He is an ordained Elder in the UMC, and serves as an educator, facilitator, and consultant. This reflection originally appeared in the October 2011 of Reflection for Leaders: A Leadership Resource from the Center for Pastoral Excellence.)
Where Peace, Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation Begin
By Dr. Craig Gilliam
I know conflict.
And not only because I have lived among
or observed it.
I have felt it within me, even towards those I love,
even toward those with whom I worship,
even toward those with whom I work,
even toward those with whom and to whom I minister.
If my heart can rise in anger even toward those
I care for deeply, how much easier must it be to rage
toward those I have never known
or taken the time to get to know.
Ah, but I do know them.
The recognition is where peace begins.
They, too, are people with whom I am called to relate to in an I-Thou way.
Our looks, our religions, and our languages may be different.
We may eat different
foods and play different games. But these and other
outward differences obscure a landscape of inward
similarity.
For while our beliefs may be different, we share
reverence for belief.
While we may use different words, we use them to
express similar thoughts and feelings.
While our favorite foods may very, we are each
sustained by the generous fruits of the earth.
And our games–while they may be different,
do they not reveal that since childhood
we have each loved to play?
Those who look back at me from beyond human made
barriers of separation are very much
like someone I know well.
They are very much like me.
“Fair enough,” one might say, “But I am a builder
of peace, not a purveyor of conflict.
I work with but am not myself one of those
who are embroiled in conflict.”
No? Is that what those who have lived, worked
and ministered with me would say?
Have I been a builder of peace in the corners
of my own life?
Have I been a builder of peace and reconciliation
In the shadows of my own soul?
“Charter for Compassion” resolution passes in Desert Southwest Conference
On this 2nd Anniversary of the international launching of The Charter for Compassion, it is exciting to report that in June, the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church passed Commitment to Kindness – Living an Ethic of Reciprocity, Resolution (resolution added below).
The passage of this resolution is the result of the passionate and sustained focus that one congregation, St. Francis in the Foothills UMC in Tucson, AZ, gave to the Charter for Compassion.
The Charter, which YOU can affirm by going to www.charterforcompassion.org, urges everyone, yes everyone, to move the Golden Rule to the top of their priority lists.
The words of this Challenge from the Charter are:
We therefore call upon all men and women
- to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion;
- to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate;
- to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures;
- to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity;
- to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.
Now St. Francis is in the process of being sure that the “Be It Resolved’s” of this resolution come alive!
First, preparations are underway to submit a similar resolution at the General Conference in 2012.
Secondly, because we believe that working from the ground up is a good strategy, we are doing the following in the SW District and then hopefully it will light the fire for the Desert SW Conference to play copycat:
Mike Pearson, District Superintendent, has agreed to do a monthly e-blast to Pastors in our District. This will consist of one action (similar to the following list of what one church did) with respect to the Charter’s challenge and to share some resources/links available to accomplish it.
Here is the list of what our local church, St. Francis in the Foothills, Tucson, has accomplished:
- Distributed the Charter and asked the congregation to affirm it online.
- Distributed Commitment to Kindness: living the Ethic of Reciprocity (The Golden Rule)* to congregants
- Adult Education Series on Compassion (at the workplace, for the marginalized, etc.)
- Prepared and delivered in several arenas (internally and in the community) a series of Compassion Circles topics so that any group could study the history of The Golden Rule and the difficulties in trying to live it as discussion topics.
- Prepared bookmarks to distribute widely in our community.
- Nominated Pastor Rev. Dr. David Wilkinson to become a recipient of the AZ Interfaith Movement’s Annual Golden Rule Banquet Award….he received it in Mesa, AZ for the arena of Religion.
- Distributed the Passed Resolution and The Charter for Compassion to each member of the congregation in July 2011.
- Gathered curriculum for Children (Children’s Charter for Compassion and activity book) and for youth (movie, guides, etc. from Canadian Scarboro Mission
Now that the Resolution has passed, the challenge is to get all the Methodist Churches in the Conference to act on the items listed in that Resolution. Then we will be more than ready to see that it gets to the General Conference….and gets acted upon.
It is great that the framed Charter for Compassion hangs in the JustPeace Board room; now let’s make it come alive.
Commitment to Kindness Resolution
Living an Ethic of Reciprocity
Resolution passed by the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church, June, 2011
Whereas… the “Ethic of Reciprocity,” better known as “The Golden Rule,” is embraced by, and transcends every major religion in the world, and…
Whereas… the “Gold Rule” requires that we use empathy and imagination to place ourselves in other’s shoes, and..
Whereas… a cornerstone of the teachings of Jesus was to act toward others as we would have them act toward us, and…
Whereas… we, as followers of The Christ should refuse, under any circumstance, to dcarry out any action that would cause another harm, and…
Whereas… the legislature of the state of Arizona has already passed a resolution that this state be a “Golden Rule State”…
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Desert SW Conference of the United Methodist Church affirm this “ethic of reciprocity” by joining with other faiths and denominations around the world in affirming “The Charter For Compassion” as a helpful guideline for creating peace on earth and as an educational tool for congregations throughout our Conference.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Charter for Compassion be sent to every church in our Conference where it may be used as a focus for children, youth and adult education, and…
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Conference develop a plan to invite a diverse array of religious leaders to share with United Methodist congregations how compassion is lived in their own traditions, and…
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Desert SW Conference, will, out of its experience of implementing this resolution, a submit a similar resolution to the General Conference in 2012, requesting that the General Church affirm the Goldren Rule as a foundational expression of Christian living.
Del Jones, a member of St. Francis in the Foothills UMC, is involved in many efforts which support the Golden Rule: Culture of Peace Alliance Coordinating Council; International Peace Center BOD; coordinator, Elder Circles, The Wisdom Journey (www.oureldersvoice.com); Founder, Peace Circles, Peace Practices for Peacebuilders; instigator for Community Circles for Peacemaking (Our Family Services); cheerleader for Charter for Compassion! She was formerly a National Trainer for Children’s Work, American Baptist Convention; Asst. Director, Inner City Protestant Parish; Program Director, Greater Cleveland Council of Churches.
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