The Micah Mission
600 45th Street West S7L5W9 Saskatoon, SK, Canada

MCC Saskatchewan is offering a spring/summer course with the aim of providing a cohort model to learn together about being people of peace This course is for anyone who has seen how real life divisions can cause injustice, violence, and strained relationships. All sessions will be held via Zoom. See comments for registration link!

We love the "Know Justice" podcast! Listen here

Friends and followers of Micah - check out this free keynote presentation, "Protecting Children from Exploitation: Supporting Survivors and their Families" on Wednesday May 19, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. in recognition of #SexualViolenceAwarenessWeek in SK. Visit SSAIC.ca/SVAW2021 to learn more!

Please join us in welcoming our summer student, Katherine (she/her), to the Micah team We are so excited that you'll be working alongside us for the next few months Katherine grew up in Saskatchewan on Treaty 6 Territory, and is currently studying Peace and Conflict Transformation at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg. She has always been passionate about peace and justice and is now finding avenues to work towards Restorative Justice. Katherine loves listening to people's stories and learning about how to create flourishing communities. As a settler person, she believes working for reconciliation, particularly through restorative justice, is important for creating positive change for all of us.

Things you can do today and everyday to honour #MMIWG2S: - Read, "Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls". - Write your MP to demand that Canada adopts a comprehensive and well-resourced action plan to protect Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. - Educate yourself & dismantle your colonial knowledge structures. - Practice allyship & amplify Indigenous voices and stories. ... - Donate to Indigenous organizations that support Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. See more

You are invited to participate in a virtual ceremony, May 5, 2021, to honour and raise awareness for Saskatchewan's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In honour of "Red Star Woman" people are invited to wear red to pay their respects and raise awareness For more information visit: https://www.saskatoon.ca//cultural-/indigenous-initiatives

How cool is this! The John Howard Society of Saskatchewan launched a podcast Subscribe, listen, and share!

"#restorativejustice is particularly important given that most sexual harm occurs between people who know each other. This brings to the surface relational needs that the legal system is not equipped to address. RJ can meet these needs when practiced in ways that keep support and accountability front and center."

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas thanks to Grosvenor Park United Church GPUC has been such a wonderful support to Micah and our program participants for many years - providing our program participants with thoughtful gifts of warmth and joy during the holiday season. As many of our participants end up spending Christmas day by themselves, a reminder from the community that they are cared for, thought of, and welcomed is so meaningful and such a blessing. Thank you, GPUC

Hey #yxe! We are looking for donations of old, unlocked, flip phones that folks are no longer using to help support recently released program participants. You can clear out a junk drawer and help someone's reintegration effort - win, win

"On any given day since July 1, there have likely been more people awaiting trial behind bars at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre than those serving sentences ... on July 1, there were 177 sentenced prisoners to 245 inmates on remand ... the numbers jump on Oct. 1 to 186 sentenced and 310 on remand. On Dec.1, there were 200 serving prisoners and 270 on remand."

"'We think that strengthening victims' rights and providing them a guarantee of support and assistance would encourage more people to actually come forward and empower them to seek legal support and social supports to get through what's happened to them,' [Heidi] Illingworth told CBC News."

Greater Proximity, Greater Mercy by Richard Rohr Love is the motive, but justice is the instrument. Reinhold Niebuhr (18921971) Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer, social justice activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. [1] In his book Just Mercy: A Story of Redemption and Justice, he makes the case that it is distancephysical, social, and spiritualthat allows injustice to flourish. Proximity to...Continue reading

Wouldn’t it be great if #rj became the primary approach in our criminal justice system?

On Monday there were 142 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Saskatoon Correctional Centre - changes must be made.

We are #thankful that our community programs have been able to resume safely. In order to ensure we can continue to offer community programs, please wear a mask when participating in Micah programs

A Healing Process by Richard Rohr When human beings admit to one another the exact nature of our wrongs, as the Twelve Steps recommend, we invariably have a human and humanizing encounter that deeply enriches both sides. It is no longer an exercise to achieve moral purity, or regain God’s love, but in fact a direct encounter with God’s love. It is not about punishing one side but liberating both sides. Robert Yazzie, Chief Justice Emeritus of the Navajo Nation, speaks from ...Continue reading

Making Amends by Richard Rohr So what are we restoring? For me it’s about returning to the part of us that really wants to be connected to one another in a good way. Returning to the goodness inherent in all of us. Fania Davis For justice to be truly restorative, we must seek to restore the dignity and relationships of all involved. Howard Zehr, a long-time advocate, teacher, and practitioner of restorative justice, centers the needs of the victims. He writes:...Continue reading

Today and tomorrow staff are taking part in #wicihitowin2020! Though we cannot gather in person this year, we are grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn and engage in reconciliation from our computers

In honour of #TransAwarenessWeek we wanted to highlight The Prisoner Correspondence Project - a solidarity project for LGBTQ2S+ inmates in Canada and the United States. Project organizers often heard from inmates how hard it is to find other LGBTQ2S+ people to connect with and relate to within prison. In response, they created a penpal program to connect LGBTQ2S+ inmates with non-incarcerated individuals from similar communities

Catch Adriana on your desktop screen tomorrow during the #restorativejustice, COVID-19, and Virtual Connections Panel hosted by the Saskatoon Public Library and the Saskatchewan Restorative Justice Network

Justice in Relationship by Richard Rohr Fania E. Davis is a civil rights attorney, writer, scholar, and the founding director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth. She explains that through engaging in a relational process of repairing harm, restorative justice is: A justice that seeks not to punish, but to heal. A justice, according to Kay Pranis, that is not about getting even, but about getting well. [1] A justice that seeks to transform broken lives, relationships, an...Continue reading

Restorative Love by Richard Rohr As we read the Bible, God does not change as much as our knowledge of God evolves. I certainly recognize there are many biblical passages that present God as punitive and retributive, but we must stay with the textand observe how we gradually let God grow up. Focusing on divine retribution leads to an ego-satisfying and eventually unworkable image of God which situates us inside of a very unsafe and dangerous universe. Both Jesus and Paul obs...erved the human tendency toward retribution and spoke strongly about the limitations of the law. The biblical notion of justice, beginning in the Hebrew Scriptures with the Jewish prophetsespecially Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hoseais quite different. If we read carefully and honestly, we will see that God’s justice is restorative. In each case, after the prophet chastises the Israelites for their transgressions against YHWH, the prophet continues by saying, in effect, And here’s what YHWH will do for you: God will now love you more than ever! God will love you into wholeness. God will pour upon you a gratuitous, unbelievable, unaccountable, irrefutable love that you will finally be unable to resist. God punishes us by loving us more! How else could divine love be supreme and victorious? Check out this theme for yourself: Read such passages as Isaiah 29:1324, Hosea 6:16, Ezekiel 16 (especially verses 5963), and so many of the Psalms. God’s justice is fully successful when God can legitimate and validate human beings in their original and total identity! God wins by making sure we winjust as any loving human parent does. The little time outs and discipline along the way are simply to keep us awake and growing. Love is the only thing that transforms the human heart. In the Gospels, we see Jesus fully revealing this divine wisdom. Love takes the shape and symbolism of healing and radical forgivenesswhich is just about all that Jesus does. Jesus, who represents God, usually transforms people at the moments when they most hate themselves, when they most feel shame or guilt, or want to punish themselves. Look at Jesus’ interaction with the tax collector Zacchaeus (Luke 19:110). He doesn’t belittle or punish Zacchaeus; instead, Jesus goes to his home, shares a meal with him, and treats him like a friend. Zacchaeus’ heart is opened and transformed. Only then does Zacchaeus commit to making reparations for the harm he has done. As Isaiah says of God, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways (Isaiah 55:8). Yet I am afraid we largely pulled God down into our thoughts. We think fear, anger, divine intimidation, threat, and punishment are going to lead people to love. Show me where that has worked. You cannot lead people to the highest level of motivation by teaching them the lowest. God always and forever models the highest, and our task is merely to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1). See more

I'm glad to be a colleague and a friend of this wonderful woman and am grateful for her ministry to those in prison.

New month, new season, new newsletter! Happy fall and happy reading, folks

In case you missed it, here's the link to yesterday's conversation on CBC Bluesky's phone in radio program

It was a joy to share in my home congregation yesterday and to have Logan and Byron tell their stories. Enjoy the entire service, our portion starts around the 19 minute mark. (it takes me about half a minute to untangle my mic cord).

Today, Micah, River Bend Integrated Community Ministries, Saskatoon, and STR8 UP: 10,000 Little Steps to Healing, Inc. invite you to join us at KAP House to honour the lives of all the Indigenous children that were forced from their homes to attend Canadian residential schools, and remember the lives of the children that never returned home. Over the last six weeks KAP House staff have been learning about the horrifying generational effects of residential schools; listening to stories of resilience, bravery, and healing from residential school survivors; and learning from families who's loved ones never returned home. Today, we reaffirm that #everychildmatters and pledge to continue to work together in the spirit of #reconciliation

Here is a feel good story for your Friday

The call for #RJ presenters for this year's #nrjs2020 is now live! Applications must be submitted by October 5th, 2020

There are still a few spots open for post-secondary students! Applications are due October 1, 2020

A valuable resource for individuals supporting incarcerated loved ones!

Friendly reminder that we do not believe in #labels, we do not #judge, we #listen, #love, and will support everyone in their efforts to #grow and #change

Mondays are so much better when paired with #RJ wisdom from Fania Davis