On more than one occasion, marchers' prayers supernaturally turned back water hoses and armed police. God had intervened. But the white, evangelical church remained silent, just as they had done for so many years before. The word reconciliation is built from the prefix re and the word conciliation. Conciliation means to try to regain, or gain again, friendship or goodwill.
Reconciliation implies multiple efforts at restoring a broken relationship.
In so doing, we labor in love through Christ to heal the long standing wounds which have divided us. Before the Church can be effective in helping the nation to heal, the Church itself must be healed. The first step toward healing is reexamination. The second step is reconciliation.