Association of Unity Churches International

Making Peace with our Past

The Making Peace With Our Past process brings the entire church community together to tell their story, and to begin to see the ways the congregation has created identity, continuity, meaning, as the context from which they orient themselves to present circumstances and future possibilities. The process helps them become aware of how their story has been compelling, limiting, diminishing, wounding, or fragmenting. By understanding their story as the rich framework for their life orientation, the community discovers that they are greater than their story.

Historical events and the facts that characterize them are less important than the meanings attributed to the defining moments of a community's evolution. The concern is whether or not perceptions of the past and the meanings that encapsulate them perpetuate patterns of dysfunction.

How it Works
Peacemaking is creating a pathway to God. Making peace with the past is finding the activity of God at the heart of a church's story. When this becomes the intention, the context of meaning making shifts. Past hurts, conflicts, and difficulties can be seen as effects of not being connected to wholeness and not living in congruence with principle. When issues are seen as symptomatic of what's missing in the capacity to relate to life from a place of authenticity and wholeness, a community can begin to choose to relate differently. The telling of the church's story releases pent up energy and begins the healing process because community members can see themselves and the events that have impacted them in the context of their communal journey-their struggle to demonstrate authentic community. It is because of the missing resources and lack of awareness that past circumstances were mismanaged and people seemed to be the blame.

As the community acknowledges how it has participated in creating the very circumstances that produced pain and difficulty in the first place (that it was because of what was missing interpersonally, organizationally, or systemically that hurt or distrust was created to begin with), it can enter into an authentic healing process. Healing and reconciliation then becomes the true test of ownership and taking responsibility for the conditions that created the past.

What's Involved in the Process
The Making Peace with Our Past process consists of a Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon congregational process of discerning what is truly important to the community (Who Have We Come Here to Be?), telling the church's story, and a structured healing and reconciliation process for those wishing to release past hurts and begin to create a vision for the future.

For more information regarding this transformational process, contact Stephanie M. Seigh, PCC, Director of Peacemaking & Transitional Services.