The 6 Rs of restoration and healing

At a webinar I attended in 2021, my attention was captured when Elona Street-Stewart, one of the speakers, spoke about the 6 Rs of restoration and healing.[1]

Remembrance

Remorse

Repentance

Repair

Reconciliation

Resurrection

Street-Stewart is co-coordinator of the 224th general assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, the first Native American to hold this position. She is also Ruling Elder and Synod Executive for the Synod of Lakes and Prairies.

Recently I have felt my hackles going up when I hear the word “reconciliation.” For example, I struggled when I read it in an email from Mennonite Central Committee board chairs Gilberto Perez and Ron Ratzlaff on Oct 21, 2024. Referring to a possible facilitated conversation between John and me and MCC board members, which church leaders have been working on arranging since September (and which still has not happened, though we hope it will happen soon), they wrote, “our hope is that all sides are able to acknowledge legitimate concerns that occurred. Our prayer is that reconciliation can occur and that everyone involved can feel heard and the issues be resolved.”

Street-Stewart’s insistence that there are several steps prior even to getting to repentance – let alone reconciliation – helps to explain my discomfort.

She made the following remarks as part of her greeting to a webinar organized by the World Council of Churches to celebrate its centenary, on Nov. 17, 2021 (start viewing at 3:12):

“Healing can only begin with truth-telling. Healing can only begin when the injustice of the past is recognized. It takes a sequence of spiritual transitions and generative power to practice justice, shalom and faithfulness before we can reconcile. So our first step is remembrance. Then we can move to the remorse and acknowledging of what happened in those areas that we remember. And now it’s time to look at our repentance. Because that enables us to move to repair and then to reconciliation.

Remembering is truth-telling, remorse is to feel the pain and the loss or the trauma that was caused. And then repent to ask for forgiveness. Our repair helps us reach out to heal and restore what was broken. And if you stumble on any of them in the process, go back! It’s important to do that and start over until you have truly identified, owned and accepted the truth of our histories. Then and only then can we reconcile. And after reconciliation comes resurrection. Amen!”

As we begin 2025 and move toward a first meeting with MCC leaders as part of the conciliation process offered by the Tribunal Administratif du Travail of Québec, on January 14, our prayer is that MCC will accept to walk on this path – without skipping any of the steps along the way.

[1] Elona Street-Stewart, “Greetings” (International Missionary Council Centenary Webinar “What happened at Lake Mohonk and its outcome,” Online webinar, November 17, 2021).

This post first appeared on Facebook on January 2, 2024 at https://www.facebook.com/anicka.fast/posts/pfbid023ofbcy2RzkfhaNKemosRL8ub7oHKGjj3q4tpaTk85ETqbtnFWJWB2MhDfc9tAhazl.