Can’t We Talk?

Free tickets available at https://communitydialogues.brownpapertickets.com/. 

An experiment in conversation, contemplation, and our search for common ground on issues that separate us.

This is a community initiative to prepare ourselves for courageous conversations and to provide leadership to show that political discourse in an election year does not need to be nasty.

This initiative has been inspired by our concern that our nation is deeply divided politically and it has become very personal. Family members have stopped speaking over political differences. Our religious and spiritual traditions offer wisdom and ethical values that can enhance the way we engage each other on topical issues, but they are largely absent in the partisan, polarized public square.

The theme for this initiative is: Can’t We Talk? It will consist of 6 workshops designed to promote civil public discourse through personal storytelling, role playing exercises, relational conversational skills and contemplative practices.

The first session will introduce a kit of conversational tools and skills that will facilitate authentic and respectiful dialogue; it will also integrate contemplative practices of our diverse spiritual traditions to provide a healthy, grounded environment for our work.

Subsequent sessions will apply these skills and practices in authentic and mutually respectful dialogue with people who do not always agree with us. 

The goal is to work together to design and sponsor an effective and replicable model for civil discourse on a divisive issues at a Town Hall Forum on August 4, 2018.

Save the Dates for the monthly workshops.

Sunday, February 18

Sunday, March 18

Sunday, April 15

Sunday, May 20

Sunday, June 10

Saturday, August 4, 8:30 - 4:00 (Town Hall Forum)

Please register (there is no charge) so we can plan the meeting, and kindly share this event.

In community,

Rabbi Anson Laytner - Imam Jamal Rahman - Dr. Mark Jones, Ph.D. - John Hale