principles of reconciliation

In the spring of 1997, I spent a week living and serving in Jackson, Mississippi with a dynamic racial reconciliation ministry called Voices of Calvary. Two families--one white, one black--shared a split level house as a witness to the transforming power of Christian community to overcome generations of racial division. John Perkins and Chris Rice were my first introduction to racial reconciliation--and my encounter with their ministry began my journey of understanding how through Christ, God desires to reconcile all things (Col 1:19-21) to Himself by restoring right relationships both vertically and horizontally in the world.

Authors Glen Kehrein and Raleigh Washington identified 8 principles for reconciliation in their work on the subject, Breaking Down Walls (1993). They are:

-Commitment to relationship
-Intentionality
-Sincerity
-Sensitivity
-Interdependence
-Sacrifice
-Empowerment
-Call