Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this lesson on reconciliation and the Christian practises unit.

I'm miss Kendrick.

And in this lesson, we are going to be looking at what is reconciliation.

We're going to be looking at the sacrament of reconciliation and worldwide reconciliation as well.

You are going to need a pen or pencil.

A different coloured pen or pencil and some paper to write on.

So if you do not have those things, then now's your opportunities to quickly pause the video and go and get them.

So I can start by asking you a question.

I want you to imagine that you've had a really bad argument with a friend, and you've both said things that hurt each other quite a lot.

And I want you to think about each of these scenarios and which one you're most likely to do.

how would you most likely react? Which one do you think is the best way to react? And which ones do you think is the hardest, most difficult way to react? So our first one and this on turquoise colour tail, that's tail about colour.

You refuse to speak to them and ignore them.

You stay angry at them for hurting you.

You tell others how horrible they are and you try and turn them against your friend.

In the middle, eventually you make up with your friend and you both say sorry.

However, you still feel the argument was their fault and you hold a grudge.

You are friends, but not in the same way that you were before.

And finally in the purple box.

Eventually you sit down and talk honestly about how they hurt you and how you hurt them.

This is upsetting to do, but you resolve the cause of the argument.

Your friendship is strengthened.

So be honest with yourself, which one are you most likely to do? Are you going to do the one that's easiest? Cause it can be easy sometimes to just stay angry at someone concept or to say that everything was their fault.

And so you don't want to be friends with them anymore.

I went to which one you think is the hardest way to react and which one you think is the best way to react.

Now, some people would say that the purple one is the best way to react, but also the most difficult.

it's good because both of you recognise that you've done something wrong and you both say sorry, and even though it's difficult, you're still friends at the end of it.

And actually you're best friends.

Maybe you've got more trust after resolving the argument, or maybe you just understand each other better.

And so you know how to avoid hurting each other again, but it is also the most difficult, because it can be really difficult for us to sometimes admit when we've something wrong and that we've hurt somebody.

And it could also just be really awkward having that conversation as well.

It can be quite scary because you might try and say sorry to your friends, and try to come to the cause of the problem.

And they might just reject you.

So there's lots of challenges there.

Aren't there with that purple wall, but this helps us to understand what is meant by reconciliation, which is the point of this lesson.

Now I've got two parts to my definition of reconciliation here.

Firstly, it is the process of restoring harmony after relationships between people who have broken down.

So it's a bit like being friends again, or at least not fighting anymore.

And then it is also a sacrament in the Roman Catholic and some Anglican churches.

I wonder if you can remember what a sacrament is.

I'm going to give you a moment to copy down this definition and whilst you're doing it, see if you can remember what a sacrament is and then we'll go through it in a moment.

Thank you for a turn on definition.

So sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace.

So baptism is a sacrament and so is Eucharist.

And what Christians who believe in sacraments would say is that the outward sign like baptism does something genuinely to a person.

So, they would say that being washed with water, which would be the outside sign would wash away original sin on a person.

So, the inward grace that is being received is forgiveness because Christians believe that forgiveness is a gift given by God, something that you cannot earn, and this is what they call grace.

And when people have done something wrong, then they require forgiveness and grace.

And actually often you can't necessarily earn forgiveness.

When you say, sorry to somebody, but someone might just forgive you out of love and grace, because they want to have a relationship with you.

So we're going to look at reconciliation as a sacrament, and that's going to be being reconciled with God.

And we're also going to look a little bit at reconciliation between people who've been in conflict as well.

To understand Christian motivations for reconciliation.

We just need to make sure we understand Christian beliefs about forgiveness.

So I've got two quotations here.

Firstly is from the Lord's prayer.

So this will be familiar to you now, if you've been doing lots of lessons in this unit and the Lord's presence, forgive us the wrongs we have done as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.

So here there's an expectation that if a Christian was to be forgiven by God, then they should also be forgiving other people as well.

So we've got this story from the Bible in which Peter comes to Jesus and says, "Lord, if my brother keeps on sinning against me, "how many times do I have to forgive him? Seven times?" And Jesus says, "No, not seven times, but 70 times seven." Now Christians would believe that Jesus is not saying that Peter has to forgive his brother 490 times.

And he also probably shouldn't be keeping a record of wrong, but it's a way of saying, well, you just keep forgiving him.

You forgive him over and over again.

And in Christianity, forgiveness is an expectation regardless of whether or not a person deserves forgiveness.

And to understand this, we need to make sure we know the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation as well, because you might say, well, if someone just keeps on doing something bad to me, then why would I just forgive them every single time and not try and change the situation? Now what these teachings show is that in Christianity, there's an expectation to forgive.

And this partly comes from the belief that all humanity is forgiven by Jesus' sacrifice.

But it's important that we draw out the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation here, because you might say, well, someone did something really horrible to me and I don't want them in my life anymore.

Does that mean I just have to forgive them and be friends with them again? Well, no, not necessarily because of this difference between forgiveness and reconciliation.

So we've already looked at definition of reconciliation.

The process of restoring harmony after relationships, between people who have broken down, and forgiveness is a conscious deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance towards a person or group who has harmed you.

Now, reconciliation requires forgiveness.

It's not possible to be friends with somebody again and have a good relationship with them.

If you're still angry with them and resentful towards them because of something they've done.

But forgiving someone does not necessarily mean you have to reconcile with them.

It doesn't mean that you have to carry on that friendship or relationship.

Many Christians would say that forgiveness is important.

Not necessarily just for that person, but for the person who is holding that resentment.

They would say that if a person is able to forgive and release feelings of bitterness towards someone who's hurt them, then they're going to be much better off.

They're going to thrive.

They're going to be happier rather than being a bitter person.

So Christians would say that forgiveness is really important in relationships, but also for an individual, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you would have to keep somebody in your life who continued to harm you.

They could be out of your life and you could still let go those feelings of resentment.

But, we are focusing on reconciliation for now.

You do just need to know how forgiveness is a part of reconciliation.

So what you're going to do is you're going to answer some questions based on what we've looked at so far.

And then we're going to look a little bit more at the sacrament of reconciliation.

So, the sacrament of reconciliation is also known as confession.

Some people might be more familiar with that idea.

And this is focused on reconciliation between God and humans.

And this is linked to Christian ideas that sin separates humans from God.

And so to have a good relationship, they would say that sin has to be dealt with.

And that means that Christians would say, they need to receive forgiveness.

Now this has done through other sacraments like baptism and communion and things like that.

But Christians would say that, no one's perfect.

And everyone is going to sin some times or do something wrong.

So Christians who practise confession such as Roman Catholics would say that it's important to regularly examine themselves and to say, sorry to God, and have reconciliation with Him.

So you might be familiar with this picture, just at the end of the corridor.

You can see what's known as a confession booth, and this is where Roman Catholics or some Anglican Christians as well.

And other types of Christians will go and through the help of the priests, they will confess their sins.

And they will go through the process of reconciliation.

Christianity teaches that, although it may be hard to confess sin, it's important for several reasons.

Firstly, recognising that you've done something wrong is a first step towards receiving forgiveness from God, or forgiveness from anyone else, actually as well, Christians would say that God's forgiveness is always available to humans, how to access it.

Humans need to recognise that they need to be forgiven.

And they cannot do that.

If they do not recognise they've done anything wrong, I'm sure we've all received insincere apologies before where we know the person isn't really sorry, and doesn't think they've done anything wrong.

And that doesn't really solve the issue.

Does it? Confession for Christians is also the first step towards repentance.

The word repentance doesn't just mean to say, sorry, but it means to turn away from sin.

It's a little bit like doing a 180 turn going, Oh, I was going in this direction and that was bad.

So I'm going to go in completely the opposite direction as well.

And so confession isn't about going, Oh, I did it again.

I did it again, but I'll just say, sorry, next time.

It's about recognising they're going to change their ways and stop doing that thing.

And finally Christians would say it's really important for getting rid of guilt and shame.

I'm sure we all have things that we feel guilty about, even though it might be done years and years and years ago, sometimes things just pop into your head.

Don't they? Something you said that maybe it was a bit mean or unkind or when you would mean to a brother or sister or a friend and years and years later, you might suddenly remember it and think, Oh, I actually still feel really guilty about that.

So confession for Remicade, ethics and other Christians, isn't about making a person feel guilty, but it's actually about releasing them from guilt and saying you'll forgive and you don't need to feel guilty about that thing anymore.

So what happens in a confession? Well, there's several steps I'm just going to give you a few examples from Roman Catholicism.

And like I said, this is going to involve the priest who in a confessional booth will sit in one side and the person confessing that sin will sit on the other.

So, key parts, firstly.

Contrition.

So I say that word because it's going to come up in a moment when you do your task, contrition, this is when a person prays and they think about the bad things they've done or the good things that they failed to do.

So contrition is I guess, recognising what you've done wrong.

Penance.

So the priest tells them the person to do something to show they are sorry to God.

So that might be to do certain press, for example.

So penance, is when the priest tells you to do something to show your sorry to God's.

Absolution.

So absolution is when the priest says the person making confession is forgiven.

And then the Catholics would say that there's a miracle in this, and the miracle is that sins are forgiven.

And they would say that that is the outward sign of inward grace of this sacrament that someone's whose sins are forgiven.

So they don't need to be guilty anymore.

They have assurance of forgiveness.

And it's recommended by Roman Catholics that people go to confession about once a month.

So the next thing you're going to do is you have got a task where there're gap-fill, And I'm going to ask you about those words like contrition and absolution.

So have a look at it, do your best.

I want you to write out the whole thing because then you'll have a really clear paragraph explaining what happens in the sacrament of confession, Now the Christian community, the church is spread all over the world.

And this can be a really powerful tool for reconciliation between countries and people, groups.

As the churches within those countries, or find those different people, groups.

They work together for wider reconciliation to take place.

And there are many examples of Christian centres and organisations that have the specific aim of working towards reconciliation.

Now we're going to just look at the example of Coventry Cathedral.

So this picture, this has got something extra in it as well, which I'll talk about too, but behind the statue, you can see the ruins of the original Coventry cathedral and the bit nearest me, we can see lots of windows is a new building.

And this is because in the 2nd World War, Coventry cathedral was really, really badly bombed.

The whole city of Coventry was bombed and lots of sorts of buildings were completely destroyed.

And the cathedral was in ruins.

Now, local Christians were determined not to get revenge, but to show forgiveness to those who are responsible.

So using a National Radio Broadcast from the cathedral ruins on Christmas day in 1940, Provost Howard declared that when the war was over, he would work with those who've been enemies to build a kind of more Christ child like world.

He made a commitment not to revenge, but to forgiveness and reconciliation with those responsible.

So today the Mediaeval ruins of Coventry cathedral continue to remind people of the human capacity, both to destroy and to reach out to enemies and friendship and reconciliation.

In 2011, the ruins were designated as a Memorial to civilians killed injured or traumatised by war and violent conflict worldwide.

In order to commemorate these civilians, the cathedral chose six themes to guide its focus, aerial bombing, refugees, sexual violence as a result of war, landmines, child soldiers, and the environmental impacts of war.

So the Coventry cathedral is very focused on reconciling after the effects of war, the Coventry Cathedral Memorial ruins project seeks to raise awareness of these issues through the use and implementation of art education, material, prayer and worship.

And part of that is the Community of the cross of nails.

So the Community of the cross of nails, which runs out the cathedral, works with partners in many countries, with the aims of bringing about peace and harmony.

It has an international network of over 200 active partners in more than 40 countries to a shared ministry of reconciliation.

Their work is really diverse and may focus on issues of politics, race, religion, economics, environment, sexual orientation, or personal animosity.

It can have broad and far reaching national consequences, or it can make significant difference to individual lives.

And I just say I'd like quickly to tell you about this statue.

So this is a slight deviation from reconciliation, but the picture that came up had this Knife Angel in it, this Angel is made from knives that were taken in a knife amnesty.

What that means is the police said to communities, if you come and you drop off your knives that are being used as weapons, you basically won't get arrested or anything like that, but it's aiming to prevent violence.

And in these amnesties, all of these knives were given and an artist created this huge statue of an angel out of those knives.

And this Knife Angel was taught all around the country, went to lots of different cathedrals.

And along with it, when stories of people who'd been victims of knife crime, and this does link to reconciliation in a way, because some of those people would want to forgive or reconcile.

And with those people who had harmed their loved ones, but I just thought I'd add it in as well, because it's in the picture.

And it's a really interesting project.

I saw it myself actually.

And it was incredibly moving.

Back onto the focus of this lesson on reconciliation.

We're going to do some quick fire questions.

So what happens at Coventry Cathedral? It was bombed in World War II.

How did the local Christians in Coventry response to the cathedral being bombed? They made a commitment to forgiveness.

Why did the Christians that Coventry decide to forgive? To build a kind of more Christ like world? What is the name of the community at Coventry which works towards international reconciliation? The Community of the cross of nails.

So what we're going to do now is we're just going to practise dig a couple of explain questions, and we're going to need evidence in these questions because some examples will require you to use quotations and scripture in your answers.

Evidence could be a quotation, or it could also be a story from the Bible as well when we're in the Christianity unit.

So what you're going to do is you're going to pause video You're going to answer the question and see if you can get into some evidence from this lesson.

And any examples going to be really helpful as well.

Thank you so much for all of your hard work in this lesson.

I hope you've learned a lot about reconciliation.

So remember, we've got the sacrament of reconciliation.

So Christians reconciling with God when they've sent and we've also got worldwide reconciliation.

So Christians such as those at the Community of the cross of nails, helping people who have been in conflict with one another to reconcile and bring about a more peaceful world.

Now you're ready to do your exit quiz.

So thank you so much for all of your hard work.