TAP-ping into Restorative Justice: Continuing the Legacy of Harmon Wray

By Tamara A. Losel

Harmon Wray

It was a little more than a year ago, in late July 2007, when Nashville lost a true civic hero who dedicated 40 years of his life in selfless service to prisoners and the transformation of the criminal justice system. Harmon L. Wray (1946–2007) inspired all who came into contact with him – students at Vanderbilt Divinity School where he directed the Faith and Criminal Justice program; inmates at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution whom he considered family; and his broad circle of friends, colleagues, and loved ones in the social justice community. As an organizer, teacher, writer and speaker, Harmon focused his work on capital punishment, the privatization of prisons for profit, the growth of the prison industrial complex, racism in the criminal justice system, and the meaning of restorative justice in America.

Harmon was a co-founder of the ‘Riverbend class’ – a program begun in 2003 that brought Vanderbilt Divinity students together with inmates at Riverbend Maximum Security prison for theological and political discussion. Harmon also co-founded and volunteered in a number of organizations including the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK) and the Restorative Justice Coalition of Tennessee.

In the last year and a half of his life, Harmon was also an active participant in TAP’s Doing Justly project. Harmon’s engagement with Doing Justly brought light and focus to the efforts of the steering committee during its formative stages. His passion and determination inspired Doing Justly’s upcoming experiential learning project (scheduled to launch in February 2009): a class involving students, faith workers, social service providers and service recipients throughout Nashville with the goal of increasing action for economic justice. The Doing Justly project and the ongoing coordination of the Riverbend class by TAP board chair Dan Joranko (and others) are two ways in which TAP honors the life and work of Harmon Wray.

And to continue Harmon’s legacy, TAP is dedicating this issue of the newsletter to the principles and practices of Restorative Justice, a field that Harmon knew well, and in fact, helped shape in the region. In this article, TAP will explore some of Harmon’s writings on the subject, drawing a link between the baseline values of restorative justice and the TAP motto, “We’re All in This Together.”

Restorative Justice: A New Way of Thinking about Wrongdoing

Restorative Justice is an alternative framework for thinking about ways to make our criminal justice system less retributive and more rehabilitative or restorative. In the Western legal system, crime is defined as an act against the state (rather than an individual or group), so victims are left out of the justice process with no voice and no opportunity to get questions answered or to heal. ‘Justice’ is then meted out in punishments to the offender. In delivering ‘justice,’ judges, attorneys and policy makers in the legal system pursue questions like: what laws have been broken? Who did it? And what do they deserve? Conversely, proponents of restorative justice ask: who has been hurt? What are their needs? Whose obligations are these? Who else has a stake in the situation? And what is the appropriate process to involve stakeholders in an effort to put things right? (Zehr 38)

Restorative justice is about making things right first and foremost for the victim, but also for whole communities in a holistic way. To make things right, RJ focuses on the needs of the victim, the offender, the families of both parties and the community. This expansion of the circle of stakeholders (from just the government and offender to the victim and community) shows that crime has a wider impact than what is currently being addressed in the legal system. All stakeholders are encouraged to be involved in the process of making things right, according to the principals of restorative justice.

The RJ movement began in America in the 1970s “…by a handful of people dreaming of doing justice differently” (Zehr 61). Architects of the field (many of them from the Mennonite tradition) viewed crime as a tear in the web of relationships, the web of interconnectedness, and they experimented with victim-offender encounters that laid the groundwork for later programs. Yet while our American movement dates back to the 1970s, the real roots of restorative justice come from ancient cultures and traditions that are “as deep as human history and as wide as the world community” (Zehr 61). Such cultures include Native North Americans and the Maori of New Zealand, among others.

To summarize the requisite functions of restorative justice:

1. Victims’ needs must be addressed
2. Offenders or wrongdoers must admit to some level of responsibility for their offense, name and acknowledge the wrongdoing, and understand the consequences of their actions or learn to empathize with victims
3. Those affected by the offense should be involved in the process in a way that makes sense for all

Questions that Restorative Justice Asks

In a 1999 article in New World Outlook (a magazine of the United Methodist Church), Harmon Wray elucidated the differences between restorative and retributive justice by laying out these thought-provoking questions:

• Who is the real victim of a crime? Is it the state, as in our present criminal justice system? Or is it the person whose body, soul or property was violated?
• What is real accountability? Is it “taking your punishment” or taking responsibility for restitution – for making the situation right, insofar as possible?
• Can a people who have been violated and oppressed “forgive and forget”? Or does healing and reconciliation require remembering, truth telling, repenting and forgiving?
• Can we change people by intentionally inflicting pain upon them? Or will they change if they have reason to hope for a better life?
• What socioeconomic conditions help generate crime and violence in our communities and result in many offenders being victims as well? How can we transform our poor communities and erase economic inequality?
• Who has the most at stake in determining what it takes to make things right after a crime has been committed? Should the decision-makers be a group of lawyers or the victim and the victimizer?
• How do we want criminals to change? Do we want them to be determined not to get caught next time (the likeliest result of a punitive approach)? Or do we want them to develop an internal self-discipline to control their behavior?
• Where violations of human rights have been committed by those in power, how can this truth be told and publicly acknowledged?

Goals and Objectives of Restorative Justice

Harmon’s questions helped bring shape to a field with a wide range of applications. Because it can often be difficult to know where to begin in tackling the problems of crime and violence in our society, practitioners have written goals and objectives for RJ programs. Overarching goals are to: put key decisions into the hands of those most affected by crime; make justice more healing and, ideally, more transformative; and reduce the likelihood of future offenses (recidivism). To achieve these goals, victims have to be involved in the process and come out of it satisfied. Offenders have to understand how their actions affected other people, and take responsibility for those actions. The outcomes of the program have to have repaired the harms done and addressed the reasons for the offense. Finally, victim and offender may gain a sense of ‘closure’ and be re-integrated into the community (Zehr 37).

Harmon’s restorative justice approach was comprehensive in its re-design of our justice system. In his critique in the New World Outlook, he addressed the problems of the prison industrial complex (with over 2 million men and women incarcerated in America – some say as many as 3 million), and proposed better ways to foster economic and social development:

To begin with, the present boom in incarceration should be brought to a screeching halt. Policymakers ought to declare a moratorium on prison construction and a diversion of funds into probation and parole programs. They should sharply reduce caseloads and greatly increase the level of supervision and support of those on probation and parole. Other government revenues presently eaten up by prison building and operating budgets should be diverted to public education, drug and alcohol treatment, affordable housing, early intervention with struggling families and at-risk children, and living-wage job development. Adequate funding for such programs would greatly reduce the factors that contribute to crime. Poor and remote counties should refuse to let state and federal governments and private companies persuade them that the prison construction somehow is community economic development. Prisons are damaging to the spirit and gradually destroy community. (Wray, Jul/Aug 1999, New World Outlook, pg. 8)

“We’re All in This Together” – a Restorative Justice Value

TAP’s motto, “We’re All in This Together,” expresses a core value of restorative justice. If restorative justice provides a new way of looking at wrongdoing, then underneath that wrongdoing is an assumption that we are all interconnected. TAP acts on the value of interconnection by working with organizations and groups to develop a common vision and common message for a just, sustainable future in Tennessee. The goal is to facilitate shifts in ‘worldview’ – the culture’s norms or predominant beliefs – from that of rugged individualism to collective action for social change. Restorative justice provides a concrete way to think about pursuing equity and justice within the theory and practice of peacebuilding and conflict transformation. TAP is grateful to Harmon Wray for bringing this revolutionary framework to the organization.

TAP has a fund in Harmon’s name, dedicated to continuing the Vanderbilt – Riverbend classes that he started. 100% of all donations to the fund will be used to buy books for the inmates. Please make a contribution to this worthy program! Checks made out to Tennessee Alliance for Progress (with Harmon Wray Textbook Fund written on the subject line) may be mailed to: P.O. Box 60338, Nashville, TN 37206. Donations may also be made here.

Tamara Ambar Losel is a TAP board member and the Executive Director of the Nashville Conflict Resolution Center.

Have a Little Faith In Us

by Aicha Qandisha

(Editor’s comment: Muslims and other people of faith were underrepresented at USSF. The progressive movement has not yet come to terms with the left hand of God, as Aicha describes.)

The woman seated across from me on MARTA stared at my t-shirt and squinted as she re-read the words. It was late, she looked tired, and it wasn’t the first stare my shirt had garnered that day.

This is what a Radical Muslim Feminist Looks Like.

The corners of her mouth crept up into a slight smile. “Ok then,” she said, chuckling a bit. We ended up having a great conversation – turns out she’s from just outside my mother’s hometown in Mississippi and is part of the Katrina Diaspora scattered across the country, struggling to reclaim their lives.

More importantly, she didn’t flinch at faith.

Unfortunately, it seems the organizers of the first United States Social Forum flinched. Outreach to progressives of faith regarding the Forum was insufficient. Local Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist friends said they knew of no outreach from USSF organizers or affiliates to their congregations. Other progressives of faith from around the country told similar stories.

Throughout the week I was met with bewildered looks, awkward silence, and even mild hostility if I mentioned pertinent issues of faith during some workshops. One young woman I met spoke of how uncomfortable she felt identifying herself as a Christian in any context during the week, despite being a committed and active progressive.

The experiences of others and myself at the Forum highlight what seems to be a lack of comfort with and inclusion of religion and people of faith with a certain element on “The Left” and within the progressive movement. This lack of cohesion and, sometimes, outright exclusion weakens both the faith-based and broader progressive movement denying them the benefits to be found in perhaps unexpected coalitions such as new ideas, energies, and partnerships.

These days religion is more likely associated with conservatism, extremism, even militarism and consumerism. The existence of a religious Left has been all but forgotten as the U.S. lurched towards the Right in recent years. The narrow, conservative, antagonistic view of religion is partly the fault of media misrepresentation.

Media Matters highlighted the issue in their report Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media, which analyzed coverage beginning the day after the 2004 election through the end of 2006. According to the report, conservative religious leaders were quoted, interviewed or mentioned 2.8 times more often than progressive religious leaders when reviewing newspaper and television coverage combined. Television, which Media Matters constrained to the three major networks, three major cable news channels and PBS, provided outlets for conservative religious leaders 3.8 times more often than for progressive leaders. Major newspapers utilized the voices of conservative religious leaders 2.7 times more than those of religious progressives. The bias is remarkable given that most in the US hold what would be considered progressive views, based on a recently released report by Campaign for America’s Future and Media Matters reviewing polling data from reputable sources such as Pew Research and Gallup.

Atlanta was selected as the host city for the US Social Forum because of the city’s significance in the US civil rights struggles. Anyone who knows anything about that progressive movement knows people of faith were at its forefront.

I am not a resident of Atlanta, but I reside here temporarily. I mention this because it means my ability to engage in outreach to any community is limited given my transient status. I share the ideals espoused by organizers of the Forum and signed up to volunteer in order to make it happen. My first question to people in the local organizing office was what outreach had been made to the faith community and specifically, because they are often forgotten in such efforts, the Muslim community. I was met by polite, yet unsatisfying answers:

“We don’t have any contacts.”
“I wouldn’t know how to approach them.”
“We don’t do religion.”

I had no contacts and only a week before the start of the Forum, but I did have an Internet connection. A quick Google and Salat-O-Matic search led me to the only mosque I knew and coincidentally the largest in the area: Al-Farooq. I cold-called the director and explained what the Forum was I why I believed the Muslim community should be involved. He cautiously agreed to meet me after the Friday prayer service so I could pass along posters and fliers. I arrived early for jummah and struck up a conversation with a middle-aged women dressed in white. When I began explaining the Forum and my visit with the Director, her face lit up.

“Oh, I am so glad you came,” she said, clasping my hand in hers. “I haven’t heard anything about this. When is it?”

“Next week,” I replied. Her face registered disappointment.

“I wish I’d known about it.”

The Director proved helpful, but said because his function was mostly to oversee finances and the construction of the huge new facility I should call another member of the community who was involved in youth organizing.

When I phoned him, his enthusiasm was hugely gratifying. He was ready to bring others into the discussion and suggested a conference call. And he absolutely understood why I felt the ideals of the Forum matched the faith.

“So, when is this happening?” he asked. I cringed.

In her session description for the Building a Faith-Based Progressive Movement workshop, presented during the Forum by the Church in Society division of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, facilitator Loretta Horton, Director of Poverty Ministries Networking with ELC, illustrated the hard middle ground progressives of faith often find themselves shoved into these days.

“At many progressive gatherings, the faith community is often overlooked or completely left out of any conversation focusing on building a progressive movement for change in this country. Now is the time for progressive people of faith to step forward with conviction and be bold as we live out our theological beliefs of what a just society looks like. We have to challenge those on the religious right who would distort scripture, support public policy that is racist and sexist, and who use the rhetoric of hate as a tool to divide communities.”

During the workshop, members of the ecumenical and interfaith panel spoke of their personal struggles within the movement.

“It’s hard to be a Christian on the real radical Left, an unapologetic Christian,” said Malika M’Buze Moore or Atlanta’s 1st African Presbyterian. “I walk with my comrades and feel lonely.”

“In social movements faith is viewed with quite a bit of suspicion,” said Reverend John Selders of Amistad United Church of Christ in Connecticut, who acknowledged that religion has “hurt a lot of people”. “I am continuously amazed when people say ‘you’re from the church and you think WHAT?’”

Building a progressive movement is supposed to be about inclusion.

“The God I know speaks in an inclusive language and is a big ol’ God,” said Rev. Selders. “We gotta find partners in those spaces and places that may not be the likely ones and they may not be the comfortable ones.”

None of us are one-dimensional beings. Our multiplicities, every little quirk and contradiction that makes us who we are, are like facets on our own brilliant diamond; they make us shine. A movement that celebrates its multiplicities, including those of faith, will be stronger, more brilliant, and more valuable to the world.

Salaam.

One atheist’s faith

(by Eric Schechter)

Some people in Nashville know me as “the atheist,” because at Doing Justly meetings I wasn’t shy about sharing my irreligious beliefs. But recently I realized that I *can* believe in God if I just redefine that word. One friend of mine, who converses with God frequently and has a complicated concept of God, nevertheless recommended this simple summary: “God is Love.”

I like that. And if that’s what God is, then I believe in it. But for me, it has to stop there. Most people want to add all sorts of embellishments, complications, rules and regulations, but I believe that’s where they go astray. They settle a town next to the roadside sign that points to truth, rather than continue along the road to the truth itself.

I gave it some thought, and decided that “God is Love” is what Doing Justly is about, or at least that’s what I think it should be about. We’re trying to counteract the right-wing ministers who are preaching hate from Leviticus. But their congregations know that God is love, and just need a reminder from us.

So I ordered some bumper stickers bearing that slogan; I’ll give them away at the next Doing Justly meeting.  However, the stickers turned out to be costlier than I expected, so please only take one if you’re actually going to use it. Suggested donation $3 to TAP, and that’s less than I paid for the stickers.

Addendum: After the stickers arrived, I had some second thoughts. Sure, “God is Love” avoids a lot of unnecessary complications, but I can use a scissors to simplify even further. You can keep all three words if you like, but on my own car I’ll just put “Love.” If you prefer just the other two words, we can split a sticker.

Bill’s “New Priorities for a New World”

Bill Humble, a veteran and activist, posted a video speech on YouTube in early October. He feels that it is in tune with the ideas of Doing Justly, so we are posting it here. He titled it “New Priorities for a New World: The speech that the next president of the United States should make,” and describes it as “a common sense approach to making the world a better, safer place.” It is in four parts; you can watch and listen to Bill by clicking on the links below. (The time length of each part is indicated in minutes and seconds.)

Part 1 (4:46)     Part 2 (3:31)     Part 3 (6:43)     Part 4 (6:03)

(Diane’s questionnaire)

Doing Justly received the following questionnaire from Diane Ault. We are publishing it here because of the many ideas that it presents. We welcome your comments.

What issue areas are you passionate about? I’m most passionate about building cross-cultural, cross-racial friendships and mutual support networks with people who are actively transforming and expressing themselves. I find it very energizing to be with people who are innovative and creative in building and creating their lives. People who are moving through the world in this way have discovered the power of ease and collaboration and this movement has political consequence, though political action is not the focus of our coming together. Building deep connections between people offers a form of sustainability that individuals working in isolation don’t often have.

What are your artistic/creative or other endeavors or interests? I love to travel, and being grandmother these days to Ben & Sam, my twin 2 year old grandsons, is one of my most rewarding and challenging artistic endeavors…

What do you do for recreation? I have created my life around supporting myself and people around me to discover, celebrate and make something out of our innate creative gifts. It’s sheer delight for me to see all the friendships that have come out of people playing and making music, art and sharing stories together.

Would you be willing to participate in Doing Justly on an ongoing basis? YES, I’d like to explore bringing some of the storytelling forms of InterPlay to the gatherings… to offer to participants the opportunity to go deeper into their own creativity as a way to sustain and deepen the expression of their spiritual lives into their political lives. Creating some opportunities to truly and deeply listen to and affirm people’s contributions to the movements they are passionate about is a very important piece of claiming and connecting to each one’s sacred callings. So often people don’t share the fierce and tender longings of their hearts for a better world. Creating safety and a culture of affirmation within this community is very important to keep people connected and coming back. A sense of belonging is a natural human desire. We can discover and experience the joy of knowing we are not alone in our desire for a world that works for all people.

I’d like to convene a group of artists and musicians to share their spiritual journeys and the principles underneath the “artist’s way” of transforming themselves and the world. I would love to support artists in seeing the ways their art and music can play a role in building unity of spirit in the world. Perhaps we could meet alongside the other “issue” groups and glean ideas to make art with.

The Doing Justly steering committee has proposed that meetings be held one Thursday a month, alternating between an issue panel with faith leaders, experts and activists one month followed by an open-ended discussion meeting the next month. Your reaction to this proposal: I think meeting bi-weekly at least is very important, weekly would be better. Allow the content for each evening be determined by the passions and current actions of the one’s who show up each week. I feel very very strongly that meeting in the form of small circles at every session be maintained. Within this group we have a brilliant bunch of folks with lots of knowledge about the issues, and we have some people willing and open to get involved. Allow the leadership to come naturally and organically from those who show up. TAP’s role, to make it very simple is just to set the time and place, and perhaps just a general theme/principle for each gathering, and let people be free to circle around, collaborate and create actions and active linkages.

Would you prefer more frequent meetings, e.g. weekly or biweekly? absolutely

What else would you like Doing Justly to do? I’d like there to be a space for short announcements each week for people to enlist the group in their actions. Seeing each other as assets, and being an asset and resource to each other is important. I’d like to see Doing Justly have an “SPIRIT IN ACTION” calendar of events like what the peace and justice center does for members of the group to post their events. If we can increase and strengthen our showing up for each other, and opening the door of connection into all our various “circles of influence” the whole movement will benefit when it comes time to knocking on the doors of powerful political people. In fact, I think the “soulforce” of Doing Justly can be in being very broad and inclusive and to focus and lean in on what we are saying YES to instead of remaining locked into critique of all that is wrong in the world. I think it’s important that we open and close with moments of connection, silence, music, and touch. Just the simple act of holding hands in the circle could be a very powerful and unifying force. Arranging the chairs in semi-circles where people can see each others faces is very important, too…

What volunteer time and skills are you able to donate to Doing Justly? If I could make the space with TAP to connect this project with InterPlay and the diverse group of leaders involved in that, I could devote a few hours a week to this. I can access my database of people in InterPlay and invite their involvement. We are meeting weekly with a bodyspirit celebration at St. Luke’s on Wednesday nights, and I’d be happy to feature two of our spiritual progressive leaders for several of those sessions. We could support people in finding and connecting with their creativity in expressing their spiritual ideas and beliefs in embodied ways…

Would it be possible for Doing Justly leaders to come and talk to members of your church or organization? Yes, we don’t do so much of just talking, but would be great to have people come share songs, stories, and spiritual content at our celebrations.

Other comments: I’m very happy you are putting this work together, Nell. I’m very impressed with who you’ve attracted. It’s very inspiring to me, and for the first time, I’m feeling I don’t have to check my spiritual passions at the door in order to participate in the political work that TAP is focused on doing. I was a part of this founding vision and seeding this dream with you, and Michele Flynn, and others back in the 1990’s. It feels great to have the opportunity to not have to compartmentalize my “spirit” work/play and my political work/play. I want you to have this same joy and ease in bringing into your work for the common good your vast knowledge of spirit that you come to through music, breathwork, and spiritual practices. Your life is shining with your love, and that’s a beautiful thing!

I have energy for this, and an intuition that this small group could do a lot if enough people come to really listen, to speak their truths, to really care about each other and lean into the big YES. I’m there. I’d like to see the group be much more diverse, and actively invite and support the leadership of more people of color, and people of more faiths. I don’t think we necessarily need a common language or to think alike. I think it’s our commitment to love and listen and act in solidarity across lines of difference that really matter.

Blessings on all that unfolds!!

Talk With People

(Posted by Eric Schechter, webmaster of TAP and of the
Nashville Progressives Calendar — but this post just represents Eric’s own views)

After last night’s fourth session of Doing Justly, my friend and I talked about it, and agreed that the most radical and powerful part of the whole Doing Justly enterprise was the small discussion groups. Some of the groups were more productive than others, depending on how insightful the group leaders were and on whether some participant did too much talking and too little thinking or listening. But even the least productive of the groups moved in a positive direction. You could feel the energy growing in the groups. People started to talk, started to get to know one another, started to feel involved, started to feel part of a community. It might take a long time for the conversation to grow into action, but I think that’s the only reliable way to get to the action.

We have far too little conversation in our society. Europeans have their cafes and pubs, and people in New England have their small town hall meetings, but the rest of us are isolated from one another. We all live in our separate little houses and apartments, most of us in neighborhoods structured in ways that do not encourage us to meet our neighbors. That structure may be an accidental consequence of our present technology (cheap oil, etc.), but it plays right into corporate hands, making us susceptible to the biased perceptions of corporate news media. And the top-down structuring of most of our political organizations — even the progressive ones — doesn’t help a lot. It’s certainly not intentional there; it’s just a consequence of the communications media that are available to us. I think maybe I’ll take off my “The War is a Lie” button and put on one that says “Talk With People.”

I’d like to see more small group conversations like those in Doing Justly. But I’d also like to see more people on the internet. The blogs and the email listserves give much of that feeling of a small town hall meeting — but they can do it with much larger numbers of people.

DOING JUSTLY platform (first draft)

Martin Sir is one of the primary architects of the Doing Justly discussions on religion and politics co-hosted by TAP and the Interfaith Alliance. Martin has created the draft Platform for Doing Justly based on the discussions that have taken place in the first two sessions on October 5 and October 12. This platform is a work in progress. We welcome your comments, ideas and suggestions. Please note that we want to encourage the Doing Justly groups to support the many worthwhile groups that are already working on the issues in this platform. We will be posting an updated version of this platform soon with links to these organizations. Please post your comments below.

PLATFORM FOR DOING JUSTLY

People uniting to create the beloved community

We work to create compassionate community that appeals to the better angels of our nature and helps us love our neighbors as ourselves. We call our working groups Circles of Conscience and they include:

1. Pro-Spirit Group: People working for inter-religious dialogue and cooperation, particularly with the Religious Right.

2. Pro-Life Group #1: People promoting lower medical costs with a state-administered, single-payer, physician-patient-driven, universal health care system in Tennessee.

3. Pro-Life Group #2: People promoting developer impact fees to build housing and services for the homeless in Nashville.

4. Pro-Life Group #3 : People working for lower energy costs and energy self-sufficiency through the promotion of de-centralized energy alternatives to fossil fuels.

5. Pro-Freedom and Justice Group: People envisioning nonviolent ways to promote our common humanity and battle the evil of terrorism.

6. Pro-Education Group: People promoting a decrease in the student-teacher ratio with increased educational funding conditioned upon the reduction in non-janitorial administrative costs.

7. Pro-Family Group: People promoting public/private financing of job training and the right of all workers to join a union, including unemployed people who owe child support.

8. Pro-Joy Group: People promoting a joyful and artistic culture with ethical consumerism and voluntary simplicity that honors sabbatical time, the wonder of nature, and contemplative life.

9. Pro-Democracy Group #1: People committed to engaging non-voters and bringing them into the political system and promoting the clean money option in campaign financing.

10. Pro-Democracy Group #2: People committed to governing and promoting the Doing Justly Project, under the umbrella of Tennessee Alliance for Progress, a non-profit tax exempt corporation.

11. Pro-Truth Group #1: People committed to monitoring the news media and protesting against spin, misrepresentation, or distortions.

12. Pro-Truth Group #2: People monitoring the influence of corporate money on public media, and/or promoting public and alternative news media.

Please join one or more of our Circle of Conscience working groups or let us know if you would like to form another Circle of Conscience devoted to another aspect of creating beloved community.