Church Council on Justice and Corrections:
Who We Are:
We are a national faith-based coalition of eleven founding churches, created in 1974, to promote a restorative approach to Justice with an emphasis on addressing the needs of victims and offenders, mutual respect, healing, individual accountability, commuity involvement and crime prevention.
We believe there can be no criminal justice without social justice; we can only deal with crime by building a peaceful, safe and just society. The foundation of building healthy relationships in our communities is a focus on the common good rather than satisfying our individual needs and desires.
When crime happens, we need to name and struggle with the harm done to people and attend to healing for people on all sides. This expression of restorative/transformative justice focuses on the needs of victims, on meaningful accountability and help for offenders, and the involvement of citizens in creating healthier, safer communities. Community members are accountable and committed to one another and the community as a whole.
Our motto is “pushing the edge”. We want to hold up the human dimension of justice. We never want to forget those on the edge of society and our communities, those marginalized and too readily forgotten. In the Christian tradition, the edges are also holy ground where Jesus preached and lived.
It is primarily by education, advocacy and community development initiatives that we try to foster healthier communites and crime prevention through social respeonsibility.
Since 1974, the Church Council has demonstrated in publications, pilot projects and numerous other initiatives how to strengthen community through its understanding that real justice requires the pursuit of wholeness for all.
The Canadian Council of Churches and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops co-founded the church Council on Justice and Corrections in 1974.
Monthly Electronic Newsletter: The Well
Resources:
Video and Bookstore
Church Council News
Links
For more information please visit the website.