Lunch Time Chat at St James Ethics Centre

Wednesday March 15th 2000

The issue we discussed was  Reconcilation and all that might mean to us.

Penelope Grace opened the session for us with one of her poems and I recommend a visit to this in our 'Features'  section

Some quesions came up for us around Reconciliation.

• What is it we are reconciling?
• What are our feelings about that? 
• Are we reconciling as individuals?  Groups?  A Nation?  
• What ideas do we carry about the meaning and implications of Reconciliation?
• Is it differences in our values that neee reconciling?
• What exactly is it that we want to do?

What is most certainly necessary is the need for us to sit down together and talk to each other.  To share in a  meaningful way, just what is going on for us.

We also need to create in ourselves and our partners the skills of empathy and listening.  To know that it's about understanding and not about judging, and making them 'like us.'
So let's raise the question, "What are the gaps in our listening and hearing and perception skills and the gaps in our ways of doing things.

Noted that the advent of the media has spread and popularised the scene of Reconciliation.  The differences have long been there but modern media has helped us reach an understanding and awareness of  that and helped us to create the language of conversations.

There was a little said on the politics of this issue and noted by a number how they felt let down by the Prime Minister especially by his separation of the spiritual and the material aspects of our lives.

The next conversation at the St James Ethics Centre will be in on
Wednesday April 12th 2000