by Chris Highland
One sunny Bay Area afternoon I was walking down a sidewalk under shade trees with my class of developmentally disabled adults.
Collaborative Compassion: A Secular Perspective
Interfaith is a Verb
by Sabrina N. Jafralie
My journey with religion and interfaith started before I was born. I am the child of parents who are culturally, racially, and religiously different.
Laughing, Learning, Listening
by Sari Heidenreich
Laughter, listening and learning — these are the three things that come flooding back to me as I look at photos from the weekend I spent at Kashi with peacebuilders from half a dozen southern states.
Listening as Peacebuilding
by Ana Patel
Last year, while facilitating an experiential peacebuilding workshop, I invited the participants to try a listening exercise. Simple idea – simple activity. Participants were asked to divide into pairs, one listener and one speaker. The listeners were asked to spend three minutes listening to the speaker on climate change – keep eye contact, make encouraging gestures and sounds, but don’t interrupt. Then switch.
Two People, One Computer: A Manual for Jewish-Christian Dialogue
From the very first, I knew Francisco Canzani and Rabbi Silvina Chemen embodied genuine kindness. After two years writing at the same computer, the English translation of A Dialogue of Life: Towards the Encounter of Jews and Christians (Esp. Un diálogo para la vida: hacia el encuentro entre judíos y cristianos: a dos voces y al unísono) has been released. I interviewed the pair this week while they were in New York to hold discussions and workshops around the theme of meaningful dialogue.
Saying Yes to a New Kind of Collaboration
We are living in a remarkable time for humanity. The old order is indeed crumbling around us. We are being faced daily with new and alarming consequences of our degradation of the Earth, a greed-based value system that undermines human dignity, and a culture of fear that fuels violence and hatred of the ‘other.’
From Collaboration to Co-Creation
What’s the most exciting experience you’ve had collaborating across differences in faith, culture, and ideology? Have you ever entered into collaborative relationships and been truly surprised by the result? What enabled those experiences to happen?
Appreciating the Gifts in Our Midst
Listening to Children at the Well
NewGround Interfaith Engagement Model Reaches Egypt
NewGround began in 2006 as a response to the climate of tension and mistrust between Jews and Muslims in Los Angeles. It was established to create a national model for healthy relations, productive engagement and social change between American Muslims and Jews.
The Lost Art of Listening
The North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, last July included a visit to a Hindu temple where a meal was shared along with questions, stories, and new friendships, all depending on everyone listening very carefully to each other.
Respectful communication is at the heart of all interfaith gatherings. We know that it is one of the most important components for building relationships of peace and harmony across faith traditions and belief systems. The focus of this essay is on the importance of the art of listening in interfaith dialogue and practices that support us in becoming more effective listeners.
If we think of speaking and listening as two of the major elements of communication, most often speaking is thought of as the more powerful role; it certainly gets the most attention. My experience is that the role of listening is even more powerful, although one seldom recognized or understood. For example, we often hear someone comment “That was a really powerful speech.” I’ve never heard anyone say: “That was a really powerful way to listen.”