Reconciliation and restoration

Over the long weekend Bella and I attended a conference on reconciliation hosted by the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand. The Anabaptists, a small group within the Christian tradition, have always been known for their work in peace-making, non-violence and community-building. (See What is an Anabaptist Christian?)

The conference touched on many aspects of reconciliation, but two ideas stood out to me in relation to our anti-slavery project.

1. The idea of restorative justice. We will say a lot more about that over time because restoration seems to us to be one of the most significant "gaps" in current anti-slavery work.

2. A commentary by one of the conference speakers about something written about Jesus in the Bible.

   • Slavery affects all people and our anti-slavery work treats all as equal, with no judgement about people's religion. But you don't have to know Bella and I for too long before you understand that our underlying motivation comes from recognising that all people bear the image of God.

   • I believe with Paul that “It was in Jesus that the full nature of God chose to live, and through him God planned to reconcile in his own person, as it were, everything on earth and everything in Heaven by virtue of the sacrifice of the cross" (Colossians 1:19-20). The goal of Jesus - and supposedly of the Christian church! - is to reconcile, that is to set things right. In the Freedom Keys Research project we are following that mandate, looking for ways to set things right for all those affected by slavery, including the victims, the traffickers and slaveholders, and the consumers.