Restorative Justice

Ken Landis Funk - Coordinator

The Restorative Justice program of Mennonite Central Saskatchewan seeks to identify and demonstrate Christlike responses where harm and wrongdoing has been done, with a special focus on those situations where the criminal justice system is involved. It also seeks to engage in lively conversation with the churches of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan and beyond, about the high calling that the 'ministry of reconciliation' has upon its life and ministry.

Restorative justice offers a lens, a new way of seeing the harm that has been done, with an equal interest and commitment to the needs of victims, and support and accountabity of offenders, in the path towards justice.

Rather than focusing on blame and punishment, a restorative approach embraces a biblical understanding of justice in which both victim and offender become involved and empowered as they move towards healing and transformation. The role of the community (particularly the church) is key to the restoration of right relationship, the creation of safe places of habitation, and the prevention of future instances of crime.

This Christian response is rooted in a profound understanding of Christ's life, death and resurrection, which gives birth to the church's mandate to become a reconciling agent in a broken and hurting world (2 Cor. 5)

Person to Person and Saskatoon Community Chaplaincy are two programs supported by MCCS where restoring people to wholeness and healing is the goal. Involvment in the Gospel Echoes Team Prison Ministry is also a part of this work. Our approach favours that of partnering with, and supporting existing church-based restorative justice initiatives wherever possible. Our hope is that in journeying with people bound up in the harm of wrongdoing, the church will come to a greater clarity and realization of its own profound calling as a faithful witness to the the redemptive, transformative work of Jesus Christ in the midst of a broken and hurting world.

Ken Landis Funk
600-45th St. W.
Saskatoon, SK S7L 5W9
306.665.2555
klandisfunk@mccs.org