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For some reconciliation meant bringing together a multiethnic group of people who are from similar socioeconomic and educational back- grounds. For others it meant the pursuit of racial and ethnic diversity. For still others reconciliation meant that Christians are called to address the discrimination and racism faced by black and Hispanic people in our society. What was interesting to me was the lack of agreement among the leadersthere was no single definition or understanding of what reconciliation actually entails. Do you see the problem While many of us care about reconciliation and feel called to pur- sue it as part of our discipleship there is no clear understanding of what it means to do so Even among the leading diversity voices of the day there are vastly different beliefs about what it means to pursue reconciliation. Sure most of us believe that reconciliation means the ending of hostility in order to bring people together but we still differ sometimes wildly in how we believe God calls us to address and engage it. DEFINING THE TERM F or a while l wondered if we should come up with a new term altogether. I felt that reconciliation had perhaps been overused and too often misunderstood. Reconciliation is about how to relate even after forgiveness and justice have occurred. Its about how to delve even deeper into relationship with one another. An absence of hostility is possible without a spiritual dimension but reconciliation is not. Reconciliation is possible only if we approach it primarily as a spiritual process that requires a posture of hope in the reconciling work of Christ and a commitment from the church to both be and proclaim this type of reconciled community. Since reconciliation is a biblical concept that is rooted in and modeled by the reconciling work of Jesus I have chosen to reclaim the term instead of replacing it. I want to redeem it and recover its holistic mysterious and profoundly biblical mean- ing. It invites us into the bigger story of Gods redemptive work in the world. I therefore offer this new definition of the term reconciliation Reconciliation is an on-going spiritual process involving forgiveness repentance and justice that restores broken relationships and systems to reflect Gods original intention for all creation to flourish. This definition acknowledges the historical wounds that must be healed and transcends an individualistic view to include the need for sys- temic injustice to be addressed as well. However it is also rooted in a biblical understanding of God which is why we must take a close look at the theological principle that undergirds it. THEOLOGY MATTERS I t starts in Genesis 128 with the command to fill the earth. The Creation account reveals Gods desire for the earth to be filled with a great diversity of races and peoples. The first human beings were directed to fill the earth and bring it under the reign of God. 20 WWW.AGRM.ORG MAYJUNE 2016 What was interesting to me was the lack of agreement among the leadersthere was no single definition or understanding of what reconciliation actually entails.