Joining A Community of Practice

In April 2006, I was a teenager at home watching the CBC News as they reported from a land dispute in Caledonia, Ontario. On the screen, a reporter talked about escalating tensions between townspeople and the Indigenous protestors who had taken over a development site that lay between the town and the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. Behind the reporter a tire fire blazed. I looked through our living room window and I could see the billowing black smoke over the houses and trees. It was surreal to me that my hometown was national news. 

This beautiful town that I have always loved is on disputed land

A few years ago, my husband and I were looking to buy a house and Caledonia was where we could afford to live. We bought a house in the neighbourhood that I grew up in. But now that I have a greater awareness that this beautiful town that I have always loved is on disputed land, I also felt uncomfortably complicit in the Canadian settler narrative.

As a group, we recognize that these issues are complex and often interconnected

When I received an email from my pastor this spring asking if I wanted to be part of a community of practice looking at justice and reconciliation, I felt compelled to be part of it. I wanted a chance to learn more, to come to terms with these uncomfortable ideas of privilege and complicity, to listen to other people’s wisdom and experiences, and to find out what I can do moving forward to make change. The people that have come together in this group are Christian Reformed people looking to explore many facets of justice and reconciliation: reconciliation with Indigenous people, between LGBTQ Christians and the church, with those living in poverty or struggling with mental health, and with our environment. As a group, we recognize that these issues are complex and often interconnected and therefore simple solutions are hard to find, but we have come together because we feel strongly called to follow in the footsteps of Christ the healer, wanting to see justice done in these areas of brokenness and discord.

We have come together because we feel strongly called to follow in the footsteps of Christ the healer

Some of the questions we have asked ourselves seem abstract – what IS justice? – but we also discuss practical ways forward – how do we become advocates for the marginalized or oppressed? how can we use our privilege to change unjust systems? Can charity be a necessary response that helps without hurting? What might we be called to give up to be people who live and breathe God’s love for our neighbours? 

We know that as imperfect people we need to be convicted of our own biases and blind spots, and as a group we have also been reflecting on and questioning our cultural assumptions as Christians living in an affluent country. Ultimately, we ask these questions knowing that we live in an already-but-not-yet world, where Jesus has already won the battle for redemption once and for all, but our work as believers is to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God” until he returns. Our prayer as a community of practice is that the Spirit will shape us and lead us in the discussions we have together and as we go out from the church building, seeking to be people of justice in our daily lives. 

The Justice & Reconciliation Community of Practice is a pilot project in partnership with Resonate Global Mission and the Canadian Justice and Reconciliation Mobilizers. This coaching opportunity is designed for church leaders as a discipleship journey where they vulnerably enter a circle of integral and holistic learning, with the desired outcome of a broken heart and humble spirit, and a faith formed on practices and actions of justice and mercy.  Contact publicdialogue@crcna.org with questions.