“Not Enough!” and International Restorative Justice
Colloquium on Violence & Religion (COV&R) Presentation, May 31 – June 4, 2006, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada WN: When I finally decided to register to present a paper at my friend Vern Redekop’s urging (he was the Conference host), there was only a slot left under French language workshops. I immediately asked two bilingual colleagues about […]
Restorative Justice Stories – MCCC 50th Anniversary, December 14, 2013
WN: This paper was presented in Winnipeg exactly 50 years after 40 men(!) gathered to establish Mennoninte Central Committee Canada: 43 years after its US counterpart had been founded. It was a privilege to have been part of the “story-telling” on that occasion. (If the notice is kept on the website, see: MCCC 50th Anniversary.) […]
Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins
November 19, 2004 WN: I cannot recall where this was published/presented. A similar article also on this website (“Restorative Justice Stories – MCCC 50th Anniversary, December 14, 2013”) was presented nine years later in Winnipeg exactly on the MCCC 50th anniversay weekend, and on the occasion of the launching of Esther Epp-Tiessen’s book, Mennonite Central […]
Restorative Reintegration
Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice, “Best Practices in Restorative Justice”, June 1, 2003 photo above: reintegrationaustralia.com.au An excerpt: For over 25 years, the terminology of “Restorative Justice” has had increasingly wider acceptance and resonance within criminal justice jurisdictions around the world. As has come widely to be acknowledged, Restorative Justice is more than an […]
Restorative Justice Vision and Spirituality
Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Presentation, Langley Canadian Reformed Church, March 5, 2005 WN: I was grateful to co-present at this evening with current MP Mark Warawa, a former volunteer with M2/W2 Association. It was politically a stretch, but the church is all about “strange bedfellows” brought together in the messiness of God’s grace. […]
René Girard and Violence
WN: The paper below was (re)written just for my own joy in 1997, with subsequent rewrites. A version was prepared for a Fraser Valley BC “Christ and Violence” conference in 1998. It almost got me fired before hired! One of the interviewers for my (new) position as Executive Director of M2/W2 Association had taken exception […]
Punishment and Retribution
By C.F.D. Moule WN: The following is from the “Preface” of the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee “Occasional Paper” Publication, 1990) edition: Ever since I first saw a footnote about this essay (in William Klassen’s Release to Those in Prison, Herald Press, 1977), I was very taken with its central thesis “…that the word ‘punishment’ and […]
Spirituality Evaluation of Restorative Justice
Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice, “Best Practices in Restorative Justice”, June 4, 2003 An excerpt: A few years ago, at a VOMA (Victim Offender Mediation Association) conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I saw a plaintive note on a bulletin board: DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY RESTORATIVE JUSTICE VIDEO RESOURCES THAT ARE NOT RELIGIOUS?! Restorative […]
Restorative Justice and Prison Visitation
WN: The following was written for the Mennonite Brethren Herald, and published August 2001. This was also typical of similar articles and presentations while I worked with M2/W2 Association (eventually known fully under my leadership as Man-To-Man/Woman-To-Woman – Restorative Christian Ministries). I was a volunteer with the program beginning in 1974, and never stopped visiting prisoners […]
The Spirituality of Penal Abolition
ICOPA IX Presentation 2000 Noted Canadian Quaker activist and author Dr. Ruth Morris was the main organizer of the above annual event, that year in Toronto. She later was a recipient of Correctional Services Canada’s Restorative Justice Award, and of The Order of Canada. Her death from cancer (September 17, 2001) was a huge loss […]
Creating New Hearts: Moving From Retributive to Restorative Justice
New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference: A Pastoral Letter to the Catholic People of New Zealand Wednesday August 30, 1995 – Wellington. Signed, The New Zealand Catholic Bishops This call was powerful and prophetic. An excerpt: Restoration was the primary focus of biblical justice systems. Despite the widely popular misuse of the concept of lex talionis, […]
A Brief Look At Restorative Justice
NOTE: This was written several years ago to give a basic look at Restorative Justice. It has been slightly updated, August 2013. An excerpt: To set a context for the programmatic emergence of Restorative Justice late in the twentieth century some historical and anthropological comments are helpful. Please click on: A Brief Look At Restorative […]
Towards A New Paradigm of Justice
WN: Contemporary Western Restorative Justice theory and practice were not first developed by Americans, though they have greatly contributed to its worldwide expansion. In particular Howard Zehr’s name stands out in the earlier and subsequent years; but not as theory originator, or first practitioner. From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, […]