Church Mediation: The Challenge Facing the Churches – Bridge Builders Ministries

Speaking in 2007 at a national conference on church mediation, Alastair McKay, former Executive Director of Bridge Builders, offered three challenges to the church in England and beyond. This article is an edited version of his presentation.

The three challenges that Alastair offered were:

to change the culture of how our churches think about and engage with conflict, and instead to build a culture of active peace-making in the Church;
to promote and resource mediation as one way of dealing with conflict, because mediation offers a route through the tangled thickets that we can get caught up in; and
to be realistic about mediation, to recognise its limits, and to take a more systemic view of the conflicts that arise.

Church mediation-the challenge facing the churches