[ hold :: this space ]

we’ve spent the last two days with Elaine Enns at a staff retreat, talking about restorative justice, and making links between the ethos and values behind RJ and our work within the church and community.

it’s been a provocative and inspiring couple of days - in the midst of all the stories of transformation and restoration, we also did a lot of thinking about power, working around or with both imagined and real opposition, the [false?] dichotomies that shape our thinking and our work. we imagined new ways of relating, and of holding our work accountable to the ethos of restoration.

the stuff that i think will be most confronting for us is the critique of power that restorative justice demands. restorative justice has at its core a re-balancing of relationships, a reclaiming of life and identity, and our understanding of power is a major part of that.

It goes without saying that we act out of our perception of our power, and that we largely define ourselves and our capacity to act by our perceived place on the power continuum. our normal critique of power is to believe we need to open up one end of the continuum to allow more people to be part of it [for example, males 'move over' to allow space for females to participate; we decide that someone can be in leadership in the church 'in spite of' their sin]. we’re still working off the same continuum, but the ‘other’ is allowed in by virtue of the power-holder’s generosity. at the heart of a transforming gospel, though, is the idea that the very continuums themselves are challenged: people are no longer defined as good or bad, in or out, worthy or unworthy, male or female, prisoner or free, jew or gentile… it’s not that we all end up at the same end of those continuums, it’s that the continuum itself is questioned. so, it’s not that we make everyone worthy of a leadership position - it’s that worthiness is no longer part of the equation. if we challenge the continuum, one end of it can no longer have privilege, and those who hold it no longer have the power to include or exclude.

there’s nothing new about any of that, but the last few days have made me analyse how much of the language we use is power-based. i’ve talked often about how the most important message in the workshops we host on alt worship is about permission-giving… but wordy, that’s terrible language. it assumes that permission is someone’s [mine?] to give, which means, by extension, it’s also mine to withhold [even if i would never choose not to]. it’s generous language, but it still holds people within a power relationship.

i’m not sure if the connection between that and what follows will be clear yet, and i’ll elaborate in a week or two with something we’re working on here… but it reminds me of the story i’ve loved most in the book the starfish and the spider. It’s of Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez, who heads up Goodwill Industries in San Francisco. This is a bit of her story:

The moment Deborah set foot inside [Goodwill], she began to enact massive changes. “I realised that I had to create a certain level of chaos,” she told us. Her board, her management team, and the employees were scared. “Do you have to be so disruptive?” one board member asked. “Yes, I do,” Deborah replied.
“We’d been such a hierarchical organisation,” she told us. “We needed to get people into a conversation and get them to be innovative and creative. People in positions of power needed to understand that great ideas come from people who are closest to the ideas.”
…
This type of leadership isn’t ideal for all situations. Catalysts are bound to rock the boat. They are much better at being agents of change than guardians of tradition. Catalysts do well in situations that call for radical change and creative thinking. They bring innovation, but they’re also likely to create a certain amount of chaos and ambiguity. Put them into a structured environment and they might suffocate. But let them dream and they’ll thrive.”

- p. 130f

i think she’s describing an organisation where the continuums are being redefined. so much creativity and imagination in the church is constrained because people hold the power to give permission, or people are waiting for permission. it’s still based on a power continuum. it’s only possible by virtue of someone else’s generosity…. how do we create a system, or a network that isn’t based on permission giving, on one person or group having the right to validate another’s work? can we actually do it within an institution that has been shaped so tightly by the continuums we’re actually trying to redefine?

we’ve got so, so much work to do on all this…

The Werribee Banner did an article on the communal justice workshop last weekend. It’s online here.

The workshop on Saturday was excellent. A couple of stories… Alf who wrote some psalms with us was released last week. i so hope the world is treating him gently… [i wish i had more faith we were]

Kerry was one of the speakers at the workshop - she was an inmate in the women’s prison until 4 months ago. While she was in prison she completed an arts degree, then got her masters degree in creative writing, and is now half way through her PhD. She’s one of the rare ones - someone who prison didn’t beat. People kept saying to me through the day that it was rare to hear stories that are told with such integrity and dignity. But she told us the story of another woman who was released from the prison a week ago, someone who was so looking forward to being out… who died, terribly, on Friday night… Hers is a story that’s repeated way too often: when you’ve been in prison for a very long time, getting out of prison is all you live for. You think prison is the hardest thing to cope with; you have no idea how difficult re-entry will be. When you back into the world which has got used to living without you - after the initial celebration and your family and friends have gone back to their lives, when the hardness of everything becomes all-consuming, when you miss those who are inside who have become your family - you no longer have anywhere you belong. She survived a week.

It was, overwhelmingly, a day for older people. Out of the 35 people who came to the workshop, there would have been two who were under 50. I wonder if social activism that moves beyond protests, internet action and donating money is becoming less common than it used to be - or if protests, internet action and donations have given us the mistaken belief that that’s all we need to do to change the world. I wish that anyone who believes that young people are the hope of the world could have seen the energy for action amongst that group of people - and their hands-on commitment to change the world.

It was, overwhelmingly, an optimistic day.

i’ll write more about what comes next, next week. We had some local media come along [the journalist arrived just as we were sticking it to the Herald Sun, for the damage they cause by sensationalising and reporting from ignorance. i had to do a quick check as to whether the local paper was a Fairfax or Murdoch publication... luckily the former. I'll put their stories up if they come my way.]

A large amount of money was set aside for more prison beds in last night’s state budget… still more money for the court system, but I can’t find mention of any for alternative forms of criminal justice.

We have just over 96% occupancy in Victoria’s prisons at the moment. In the ten years between 1997 - 2007, the prison population in Victoria increased by 1750 to 4183 people [41.8% increase]. You’d think we must have had an explosion of crime in the state, but actually the rate of crime per head of population has decreased 23.5% since 2001.

The greatest increase in imprisonment is for those convicted of assault or motor traffic offenses.

[source: Statistical Profile of the Victorian Prison System, Department of Justice]

The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country. A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the state and even of convicted criminals against the state, a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry of all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment, tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerating processes and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if only you can find it in the heart of every person – these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and criminals mark and measure the stored up strength of a nation, and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it.

Winston Churchill

It’s busy at the moment. I got into the office this morning while it was still dark, and i’ve been watching the sun come up over the buildings outside my window - Melbourne glows in autumn. The other afternoon we had a fierce storm - thunder, lightning, hail… I could see everyone in the office block over on the next street  lined up against their windows watching it. It was a shared moment of awe: the city needs more of them.

Anyway… as I said, it’s busy. Here are a few of the reasons why there won’t be much action on the blog over the next few weeks.

Don’t tell Grace who’s processing the registrations, but I’m willing to extend the deadline to register for the Communal Justice Workshop on Saturday. A few people have asked if we’ll be filming sessions - we will be, but due to privacy issues [respecting those who are telling stories - particularly ex-prisoners and victims of crime] we won’t be able to make them widely available.

I’m speaking at the Progressive Christian Network gathering in St Davids UC, Canterbury on May 18.

The Urban Ministry Forum seems like it is shaping up nicely. It’s here in Melbourne, from May 29 to June 1. Jonny Baker will speaking at that - he arrives in just a few weeks.

There are a small number of spaces left for the alt worship nosh… I’m so looking forward to this. Registration forms can be downloaded here:  altworshipnosh.pdf.

The first half of this year has been a relentless flow of events… all good, but at almost all of them i’ve been talking about alt worship to interested onlookers, rather than working with people who live and breathe it. Most of the events are with church groups [conferences, workshops, etc.], and i have to remember a whole different language in those contexts. It’s like i’m searching in my memory for my rusty schoolgirl french [and i never was so good at that - all i have left is 'je voudrais un espresso, s'il vous plait', on which i've survived whole weeks in Paris].

I think humans are hardwired to create - something dulls in me when i don’t have the space to do that…  it’s been a good few months, but i’m a little tarnished. The second half of the year is shaping up quite differently, and already it feels like it will be much more like home…

From the Victorian Parliamentary Hansard

It is fair to say that there is a widespread perception in the community that the sentences delivered by our courts are too lenient, that they do not reflect community views as to the gravity of the offences concerned and that they are failing to exercise an adequate deterrent effect or to take offenders out of circulation, thereby removing their capacity to cause further harm. I think there has been justifiable community concern that lenient sentences, whether through the court system or through what happens after sentences have been handed down, have resulted in offenders being released back into the community and then going on to reoffend when they may well not have done so had they continued to be kept behind bars. That is certainly a very strong concern coming from the community about the judicial system.

- Robert Clark, MP. Victorian Shadow Attorney General.

[This made me stamp around the office for a good 10 minutes.]

I’m writing to Mr Clark to ask the following: What makes this fair to say? Where is your evidence for any of this? [and we need something a little more substantial than a Herald Sun poll]. If it turns out that the community perception is as you describe, is your role to give voice to that perception, or to change it? Is the community necessarily versed in the nuances and subtleties of punishment and rehabilitation, in order to be able to make informed and helpful judgements? Perhaps we’re wrong and the judges are right. Perhaps they know a little more than we do already. Have you done any research at all into causes of recidivism? They don’t seem to be reflected in your statement…

It would all be so much less bothersome if the legal system worked in the same way that Clark’s speeches are crafted: “There’s a widespread perception in the community that Smith’s a murderer, so of course he’s guilty.” Imagine all that time we could save if we didn’t have to bother finding out the truth.

i read statements like this and i feel like our task is a little like trying to destroy Mt Everest, and we only have plastic spoons at our disposal.

Not to worry, though, i have a drawer full of them.

There’s an excellent opinion piece in the Herald Sun today about the prison system and communal justice. It’s written by Father Joe Caddy, Catholic prison chaplain in Melbourne.

[that's a first from me! 'excellent opinion piece in the Herald Sun'!]

I’ve been reading prison statistics this morning over breakfast, in preparation for the communal justice workshop we’re running on May 10th. Over 85% of the prison population didn’t finish secondary school. It reminds me of some research I read earlier in the year which said that in many US states, projections about the number of prison beds required in 10 years are calculated using the current rates of illiteracy in 11 year olds.

I was reading the Transition from Custody to Community report last night, which describes the issues surrounding re-entry to the community in Victoria. It highlighted the problem that most information about transition programs is communicated via written resources. A large number of prisoners can’t read them.

The whole system is fundamentally flawed.

don’t forget about these things…

Grassroots festival and the holy ground :: holy city space this weekend

The communal justice workshop at Crossroads Uniting in Werribee, on May 10.

The alt worship nosh with Jonny Baker in Queenscliff, on June 6-9 [i'm so looking forward to this! hope you can come...]. download registration forms here: altworshipnosh.pdf

The Urban Mission Forum, with Jonny Baker is happening on May 29 - June 1

I’m speaking at a Progressive Christian Network gathering in St David’s Uniting Church, cnr Burke and Mt Albert Roads Canterbury; Sunday 18 May 2008 at 3:00pm

[I'm also leading a workshop on worship for all metro prison chaplains [a multi-faith group] on April 23, but that’s a closed workshop.]

and stuff happening in other places…

it seems Tassie is the mecca of all things alternative at the moment. 2 things coming up that i’ve been asked to mention:

Response worship in Hobart on April 26

Lacuna worship in Kingston on April 20

[both of those communities have websites - bookmark them if you're interested in following their adventures from here...]

taken from Laura’s story

sometimes i wonder what right i have to ever talk about hope or forgiveness, about crucifixion or resurrection.

I met with John Steward this morning. John lives in Melbourne but spends two months in Rwanda each year, assisting Rwandan community workers in reflecting on how the Rwandan community heals and builds peace. The project is described in more detail here. We were talking about processes of restorative justice, of how communities and individuals learn to forgive, and begin restoration.

If you have a moment, listen to Josephine’s story… I’ve been thinking this week that words like ‘forgiveness’ and ‘hope’ are sacred, and maybe should be reserved for defining only by those who need them like oxygen…

As part of the communal justice project, we’re beginning to roll out a series of workshops around presbyteries in Victoria. The first of these is on May 10th at Werribee for the Port Phillip West presbytery - there are 6 prisons within the presbytery, and thousands of people in the community who are - directly or indirectly - linked to the prison community.

These workshops are to help congregations explore what it means to be communities of reconciliation within our society.

Registration forms are available for download here.