Celebrating 25 years: justice begins with relationship
This July, KAIROS marks 25 years of bringing people together to advance justice, reconciliation and right relationship.
As someone relatively new to KAIROS, I recently asked staff a simple question: What is your most memorable KAIROS moment? The answers came quickly.
The 2001 Blanket Train. The 2009 The End of the World as We Know It gathering. The 2011 Banner Train and Roll with the Declaration. The 2013 Elements of Justice gathering. The 2015 Time for Reconciliation gathering following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The growth of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise from a small educational tool into a transformative experience that has reached hundreds of thousands of people. More recently, the Turn Debt into Hope rally.
Not every memory was a major gathering or national campaign. Many staff spoke about quieter moments: a conversation with a young person, an exchange with a Blanket Exercise facilitator, a meeting with a partner. Small interactions that sparked learning, deepened understanding and inspired action.
As I listened, it became clear – the moments people remembered most were moments of relationship. They were moments when people came together across differences, learned from one another and discovered their collective power to act.
That insight feels especially important today.
Over the past 25 years, KAIROS has celebrated victories and weathered setbacks. We have learned that meaningful change is rarely linear. Reconciliation has taught us this. Justice movements have taught us this. Change happens through relationships built over time – through trust, accountability and a willingness to be transformed by what we learn and by the people we encounter along the way.
We are living through a time of converging crises. Climate disruption, conflict and displacement are rising. Inequality is deepening. Hard-won gains for human rights and reconciliation are under pressure. Around the world, forces of exclusion, extraction and division are reshaping public life.
The challenges before us are too interconnected and too urgent. No organization can meet this moment alone. They demand stronger relationships, broader movements and collective action rooted in shared purpose. They require us to move beyond silos and recognize that the struggles for Indigenous rights, ecological justice, gender justice and human dignity are deeply connected.
That may be the most important lesson from KAIROS’ first 25 years: our greatest achievements have never come from acting alone. They have come from people coming together in communities, congregations, movements and partnerships to learn, to act and to imagine a different future.
That has always been the heart of KAIROS.
As we celebrate this milestone, we do so with gratitude for everyone who has been part of this journey. But anniversaries are about more than looking back. They are an invitation to recommit: to reconciliation, to right relationship and to collective action.
The next chapter of KAIROS will build on this foundation. Guided by Indigenous sovereignty and the understanding that justice movements are strongest when they move together, we are deepening our commitment to connecting people, strengthening movements and addressing the root causes of injustice.
We hope you will be part of what comes next.
Stay tuned for our anniversary celebrations, our new strategic direction and new opportunities to learn, act and build a more just future for people and planet.
