Reconcilers.net began as a vision and an initiative of The Reverend Canon Brian Cox and Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California. The history of this movement consists of three distinct periods; the Reconciliation Institute Period, the Hands in Healing Period and the Reconcilers.net period.

Reconciliation Institute Period (1984 – 2002)

The Reverend Canon Brian Cox has been answering the call to the work of faith-based reconciliation since 1984. He has been a pioneer of this work in the Episcopal Church and within the circles of international politics and diplomacy. His model of faith-based reconciliation in Kashmir has been cited by many policymakers and diplomats as an innovative integration of religion and politics in the cause of peacemaking.

Cox became Rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California in 1992 and began to share this vision with the congregation. The leadership adopted a vision statement: “Christ the King is a community of people who glorify and serve Jesus Christ through the ministry of reconciliation.” As a congregation they began to wrestle with the implication of these concepts for their life together as well as their mission in the Santa Barbara community. Between 1992 and 1996 Cox developed the materials for the Reconciliation Basic Seminar. The first team was recruited and trained in September 1996 and conducted the first actual seminar for members of Christ the King in January 1997. Numerous subsequent seminars were conducted in Santa Barbara for congregation members, for pastors and church leaders from Santa Barbara churches as well as Westmont College administration, faculty and students. The first international seminar was conducted in Burundi in January 1998. The Reconciliation Institute became a loose structure to embody this work during this period.

Hands in Healing Period (2002 – 2005)

The Hands in Healing Period marks the transition from a parish-based to a diocesan-based movement. Four key developments shaped this period. In 1998 the Lambeth Conference of Bishops adopted a resolution which declared homosexual practice to be incompatible with scripture. In response, the Bishop’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Ministry convened a conference to discuss strategies for responding to Lambeth. One strategy to emerge was to initiate a dialogue process to discover why conservatives in the diocese supported the Lambeth resolution. At Diocesan Convention in December 1998, Joanne O’Donnell met members of the American Anglican Council (who had participated in a faith-based reconciliation seminar in Santa Barbara) and proposed that the groups begin a dialogue. This led to a series of monthly meetings which mushroomed into a diocesan wide process involving well over one hundred people.

The second development occurred in February of 2000, when Michael Witmer, one of the dialogue organizers, decided to check out the Reconciliation seminar, hosted by St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach. Recognizing the need for a greater variety of perspectives, Cox seized the opportunity to invite Witmer to join the Team. Later that year, Witmer introduced O’Donnell to the Seminar, and she too was invited by Cox to join the team. In spite of their discomfort with some of the language and ideas, both Witmer and O’Donnell experienced the genuine work of the Holy Spirit and began to hear their own call to the ministry of reconciliation. They joined the team.

The third development was the decision by newly elected Bishop J. Jon Bruno to make reconciliation a cornerstone of his episcopate as well as a model for the Diocese of Los Angeles. Bruno gave birth to the Diocese of Los Angeles Hands in Healing Initiative. The reconciliation seminar became one of the many the expressions of Bruno’s visionary Hands in Healing Initiative. An initial Diocesan Reconciliation Core Group was formed consisting of Brian Cox, Cynthia Drennan, Joanne O’Donnell and Michael Witmer.

The fourth development was a training seminar for seventy clergy and lay leaders of the Diocese of Los Angeles (including all three bishops) held in September 2002 at the Mission Inn in Riverside. From this training seminar a Diocesan Reconciliation Team developed which has conducted a National Conversation on the Conflict in the Episcopal Church (May 2003), Diocesan Learning Conversations (September 2003), two reconciliation seminars in Western Massachusetts (April 2004 and April 2005) and a Diocesan Reconciliation Seminar (May 2005). The work in the diocese is guided by The Reconciliation Core Group: Brian Cox, Joanne O’Donnell, Michael Witmer and Gregg Churchill.

Reconcilers.net Period (2005 - )

The Reconcilers.net Period marks the transition from a diocesan-based to a national-based movement. The key event was a reconciliation seminar that was conducted in Holyoke, Massachusetts in April 2004 by a team from The Diocese of Los Angeles at the invitation of Bishop Gordon Scruton. Approximately forty clergy and lay leaders of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts participated. This seminar proved to be a watershed event in that the Diocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Western Massachusetts formed a partnership with the ambitious mission of changing the culture of the Episcopal Church from a model of win/lose advocacy to faith-based reconciliation.

As a result of the seminar the Diocese of Western Massachusetts formed a Diocesan Reconciliation Core Group consisting of Bishop Gordon Scruton, The Reverend Canon Sarah Shofstall, Robert Harris, The Reverend Dan Barker and Paula Tonelli. The combined core teams had the vision of conducting a seminar for two dioceses; Northern Indiana and Ohio. In April 2005 Bishop Ed Little of Northern Indiana and Bishop Mark Hollingsworth of Ohio brought delegations of diocesan leaders to a second reconciliation seminar in April 2005. Some one hundred clergy and lay leaders from Western Massachusetts, Northern Indiana and Ohio including all three bishops gathered for that momentous occasion.  As a consequence of this meeting, Northern Indiana formed a Core Group, one which was significantly bolstered by the recent National Training Seminar in Los Angeles.

In February 2005 the Diocesan Core Groups of Los Angeles and Western Massachusetts met together and Reconcilers. net came into being as a national movement.