|
This is the ministry to which the
Reconciliation Team has been called. By talking with
pastors and congregations—and, importantly, by helping them
talk to one another—the Reconciliation Team seeks to
identify and help remove the fear, anger, and anxiety that
often accompany conflict, so that all parties are better
able to hear the Holy Spirit guiding them to a new hearing
and understanding of God’s Word.
Conflict affords us with a
wonderful way of identifying and resolving our differences
by hearing how the Word of God speaks to us through the
voices of others—especially, perhaps, those voices with whom
we disagree. Successful conflict resolution can ensure that
that different voices and perspectives—including God’s—can
safely be heard. This can open us up to the Holy Spirit
and, ideally, help us mature spiritually in Christ. The
Reconciliation Team seeks to provide a safe venue in which
the Word of God may prayerfully be discerned by all.
The goal of the Reconciliation
Team, then, is to guide participants through a process in
which they agree to discern, together, how God may be
calling them to live together in relationship. This
requires willingness on the part of both parties to
change—to see that the ways in which they are
currently interacting are not working, and to help them
explore new ways of interacting that, ideally, will allow
each of them to grow in the ways in which God may be calling
them to grow. Evidence of this growth, then, would be seen
in the ability of the parties to learn how to successfully
be in relationship with one another—in other words,
successful reconciliation would result in restored
relationship.
It should be noted, however, that
not all conflicts are reconcilable. There are times, for
example, when justice demands that one or both of the
parties change before reconciliation can take place.
And, if the parties are unwilling or unable to change in the
ways that the Committee on Ministry recommends and/or the
Book of Order mandates, then reconciliation in terms of
restored relationship may not be possible.
At that point, the best possible
outcome may be the creation of an administrative commission
to assist the parties in understanding the changes that need
to be made to resolve the conflict, with the goal being
eventual reconciliation through the joint efforts of COM
cluster and the Reconciliation Team. COM may, however,
determine that dissolution of the relationship between the
parties is needed in order to protect the health and
well-being of the church, as well as the parties
themselves.
In any event, it is up to the
Committee on Ministry to recommend the most appropriate
course of action to the presbytery in any given situation.
|
