A Place of Healing.

Source: (2005) Office of Social Justice and Hunger Action, Christian Reformed Church of North America. Downloaded 12 August 2005.

I had been invited to sit in as an observer. It was my first experience of a Restorative Justice Circle. I walked into the gymnasium of an empty school. In the middle of the gymnasium’s tiled floor was a circle of cold, plywood chairs; like the kind found in many churches and schools. A second row of cold, plywood chairs circled behind the first row. A pleasant looking
person serving as a host approached me. She introduced herself and asked in what capacity I was participating. I informed her that I had been invited to observe. She asked me to take a seat in the second row of plywood chairs, which I did. Sitting there, I observed a group of people standing quietly at one end of the gymnasium.
There was the odd whisper. Some of them – nervous like – shuffled from one foot to another. I noticed a second group of people, behaving in much the same way, on the other side of the gymnasium. A table containing mugs, cans of Coke, baked goods and a coffee percolator – whose gurgling was creating the most noise in the gymnasium – stood at another end of the gymnasium.(excerpt)