Adult Education Group

The Dunblane Cathedral Lectures on Conflict and Reconciliation

This collection brings together the texts of five public lectures on the theme of Conflict and Reconciliation given in Dunblane Cathedral Hall.

In 2019 the Adult Education Committee of the, then, Dunblane Cathedral Kirk Session, planned this series of five lectures but only the first two of them were given before the onset of COVID restrictions in 2020. The series was continued, post-COVID, in 2024. The texts brought together here have been developed by their authors from their original lecture notes. We are very grateful to The Very Rev Dr Lorna Hood, The Rev Scott Brown, The Rev Dr Donald MacEwan, The Very Rev Dr John Chalmers and Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen for giving the lectures in this series and for permitting them to be published here. In reading these lectures account should be taken of how circumstances may have changed since the lecture was given.

Whilst three of the lectures deal with conflicts of an ethno-political nature(2), one relates to conflict over the environment(3) and one to conflicts within congregations of the Church of Scotland(4), they all illustrate the potential difficulties in reconciling the parties in any conflict. In the remainder of this Introduction I explore the concept of reconciliation using a framework for analysing conflict resolution and reconciliation developed by Professor Herbert C Kelman of Harvard University. I will suggest that this framework may be useful in understanding the conflict situations discussed in the lectures.

Professor Kelman’s framework(5) was developed ‘as approach to the resolution of protracted, deep-rooted, and often violent conflicts between identity groups—particularly ethnonational groups’. It distinguishes between settlement, resolution and reconciliation. Conflict settlement involves the cessation of conflict on the basis of an agreement reached between the parties which reflects the relative power of the parties to the dispute. It does not change the quality of the relationship between the groups involved. Conflict resolution goes further in that it involves a change in the relationship between the parties. They become responsive ‘to each other’s needs and constraints, and committed to reciprocity’. Conflict reconciliation is both a process and an outcome. Reconciliation is a process by which groups learn to ‘live together in the post-conflict environment’. A significant characteristic of reconciliation is that it removes the ‘negation of the other’ as a central component of a group’s identity. As Kelman says an essential characteristic is ‘that each party revise its own identity just enough to accommodate the identity of the other’. It involves a negotiation of identity and ‘mutual accommodation’.

The ending of a conflict may come about because one party can exert more power than the other or through the power exerted by parties external to the conflict. This was the case in the conflicts described by Lorna Hood and Scott Brown. As a consequence, the settlement of the conflict is likely only to be temporary and conflict may re-emerge if the balance of power between the parties or the vigilance of the outside party changes. The relationship between the parties to the conflict has not changed.

Although outside bodies were involved in the case of the conflict in Macedonia described by Lord Robertson relationships between the parties did change. The communities themselves were intimately involved in the process of resolving the conflict. Mixed communities were re-established and continue to live together. The long-lasting settlement of the conflict is certainly redolent of resolution and suggests that reconciliation may have been achieved.

The remaining two lectures dealt with conflicts of a different sort: those involving the environment and those that arise within the church (particularly those arising in the Church of Scotland from the merger of congregations). Nevertheless, Professor Kelman’s distinction between settlement, resolution and reconciliation may still be helpful.

Donald MacEwan’s lecture centres on the Christian faith’s relationship with nature and the natural world as developed in Christian ecological theology. This sees the incarnation not as a means to redeem humanity but as a means to redeem the entirety of the material world. This leads to the reconciliation of God with ‘all things’. A consequence of this is that care for creation should be seen as a core part of the Church’s mission. The lecture points to how the Church of Scotland’s Five Marks of Mission reflect this.

The history of the Church of Scotland over the last fifty or so years is interpreted by John Chalmers in his lecture as one of conflict and decline. He sees one source of conflict arising from the Church’s history of secession and reunification which has given rise to a number of ‘traditions’ within the Church which come into conflict with each other over time. Although these conflicts may be settled for a time they reappear, as John illustrates through the example of congregational unions, because there has not been any reconciliation and evolution of identity between the different traditions. He argues such conflict at every level in the Church distracts it and its members from its real mission.

Taken together, the five lectures illustrate the difficulty of going beyond settlement or resolution to reconciliation after conflict in different areas of social life. Yet reconciliation seems a desirable objective for all Christian communities.

Professor Frank H Stephen(1)

(1) Professor Frank H Stephen Frank Stephen is Emeritus Professor of Regulation, School of Law, University of Manchester and member of Dunblane Cathedral’s Adult Education Committee.
(2) Those given by Lorna Hood, Scott Brown and Lord Robertson.
(3) That given by Donald MacEwan.
(4) That given by John Chalmers.
(5) This is summarised in Kelman, Herbert C. (2010) "Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation: A Social-Psychological Perspective on Ending Violent Conflict Between Identity Groups," Landscapes of Violence: Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 5.
Available at: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/lov/vol1/iss1/5