Presenters within this session explore the potential for friendship to contribute to relational flourishing across difference and divides from diverse perspectives. Yehuda Mansell draws on ethnographic insights, interreligious scholarship and theology (Christian and Islamic) as he explores the potential for forging friendship and finding healing in traumatized communities. He acknowledges that being a friend in a liminal zone can require one to fully immerse themselves in the religious worldview of the other. Sarah Godwin brings an examination of friendship in the Hebrew Scriptures into conversation with Conflict Transformation theory as she advocates for a social imagination that builds resilience for navigating conflict in interpersonal friendships. Rangi Nicholson and Anne-Marie Ellithorpe engage with Indigenous wisdom as they argue for the revitalization of civic forms of friendship that will contribute to the honoring of sacred treaties and thus promote the flourishing of all. They do so with specific reference to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Being a friend in a liminal zone can require us to fully immerse ourselves in the religious worldview of the other. Living and working as a resident assistant in a refugee resettlement home in Surrey, Canada has allowed me to explore both the academic and pastoral aspects of friendship, mutuality, and neighbouring in an intercultural and interreligious context. During the chaotic height of COVID, compounded by intercultural confusion, a comedy of errors results in a small fire, building evacuation, meetings in secret, panic about Djinn, and an invitation across religious divides (Jewish, Muslim, and syncretistic Christianity) to perform two separate exorcisms to cleanse the building of unwanted evil. My paper tells this hilarious story while drawing meaningful lessons about living in intercultural and interreligious contexts, and how we can find commonalities, humour, and meaning in traditions outside of our own to forge friendship and find healing in traumatized communities.
Pursuing peace across deep lines of societal division is as salient as ever. Growing a social imagination for civic friendship—extending the willing good of personal friendship to the broader community—is an important part of this work. But are we building the necessary relational skills through how we navigate relational difficulties in our personal friendships? If we do not have a vision for interpersonal friendships that can endure trials, can we hope to see lasting communal transformation?
Such a vision can be developed, along with a social imagination that builds resilience for navigating conflict in interpersonal friendships. Towards this end, I bring an examination of friendship in the Hebrew Scriptures into conversation with Conflict Transformation theory. Ultimately, I argue that the ways we work through conflict with our closest friends, or neglect to do so, influence our imagination and preparation for overcoming division and seeking wholeness in the broader community.
Civic friendship, rooted in a relational ethic of reciprocity and restoration, can contribute to the pursuit of treaty-honouring in settler-colonized countries. We argue this through engagement with Te-Tiriti-o-Waitangi, an 1840 agreement between Māori leaders and the British Crown in Aotearoa New Zealand, encouraged by Anglicans in diverse positions of influence. As a sacred covenant, Te Tiriti joined two traditions in a kin-like relationship. Thus, Māori expected an ongoing relationship grounded in mutual respect. However, the rapidly expanding settler population pursued policies of colonization and assimilation.
Convinced that Te Tiriti remains a sacred foundation on which to build a shared future, we argue for the revitalization of civic forms of friendship that promote the flourishing of all. While authentic friendship can be challenging to maintain in contexts marked by power imbalances, paternalism, and injustice, the intertwining of personal and civic forms of friendship has proven to be invaluable in counter-assimilation struggles for self-determination, justice, healing, and restoration.