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Faith-Based Reconciliation
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Faith-Based Reconciliation:
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Finding the Third Way: A National Training Event in Reconciliation (May 23-25, 2007) This seminar responded directly to Resolution A039 adopted by the governing body of The Episcopal Church at General Convention 2006.   More than 50 people attended from around the country.  They received training in the skills needed to transform conflict from a struggle between competing interests into a cooperative effort between friends seeking to meet one another's needs and support each other's ministries.  The event was led by a presenting team of 20 speakers, facilitators, and prayer sentries.

Reconciliation Conference in Damascus Syria / Abrahamic Reconciliation Initiative: (November 2006) Abrahamic Reconciliation Initiative seeks to

  • Address the need for healing the broken family of Abraham; Jews, Christians and Muslims in Southern California
  • To promote faith-based reconciliation in the Middle East as an alternative model to religious extremism and as a peacemaking methodology in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
  • Address the growing estrangement between the United States and the Islamic world.
The Syria conference, co-sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Diplomacy and the Islamic Studies Center of Damascus, involved ten American Christians, mostly graduates of the Reconciliation Seminar and 32 Arab Muslims and Christians near Damascus. Participants included educators, several members of the Syrian Parliament, Muslim and Christian Clergy, as well as business people and students. Three days of intense dialogue climax with a service of reconciliation in which participants pray together, seek and offer forgiveness to one another and pledge to continue working together to build peace in the Middle East. Additional conferences are in the planning stages.

Reconciliation Presence at General Convention (June 2006) Reconcilers.net hosts a booth, a concert and provides instructional materials to raise the level of awareness of faith-based reconciliation among bishops, deputies and visitors at General Convention 2006 in Columbus, Ohio. Individual reconcilers present as Bishops and Deputies participate directly in the legislative process. Reconciliation is recognized as an essential part of the Church's mission and Resolution A039 calling for Reconciliation training, is adopted. This is resolution is the direct result of years of work by numerous strategically-placed reconcilers in the leadership of The Episcopal Church.

Teams of Six Project is Launched (2005-) This project involves the formation, training and deployment of Teams of Six who will conduct faith-based reconciliation seminars and learning conversations on the congregational level utilizing customized models to fit each situation. The Los Angeles Reconciliation team has conducted two such advanced trainings, and have commissioned three groups.

Reconcilers.Net Is Launched (2005-) The combined reconciliation teams from Dioceses of Western Massachusetts and Los Angeles, with the support of their bishops, conceive a plan to launch a website to help propagate the content of the seminar and support seminar graduates' efforts to undertake their own reconciliation projects independently. The teams also develop the Teams of Six concept to train local cells of reconcilers to host events in their respective communities.

Diocese of Western Massachusetts Reconciliation Seminar, Part II (April 2005) A combined team from the Dioceses of Los Angeles and Western Massachusetts conducted a seminar for 100 participants, including bishops, clergy and lay leaders from the Dioceses of Northern Indiana, Ohio and Western Massachusetts in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Dioceses of Northern Indiana and Western Massachusetts form their own reconciliation teams. The Western Mass team consists of graduates of Part I from one year earlier.

Diocese of Los Angeles Convention (December 2004) The Reconciliation Team hosts a booth from which a letter-writing campaign was conducted to breakaway parishes. The Team also drafts and shepherded through committees a "Reconciliation Resolution" inviting three breakaway parishes to continue in dialogue with the Diocese. The resolution was passed resoundingly. Most of the Deputies and alternates elected to General Convention are graduates of the Reconciliation Seminar.

Diocese of Los Angeles Learning Conversations (September/October, 2003) Reconciliation team members conducted Learning Conversations throughout the Diocese of Los Angeles to discuss the fallout from General Convention 2003 and the ordination of an openly gay, partnered bishop in the Diocese of New Hampshire.

Diocese of Los Angeles Learning Conversations (September/October, 2003) Reconciliation team members conducted Learning Conversations throughout the Diocese of Los Angeles to discuss the fallout from General Convention 2003 and the ordination of an openly gay, partnered bishop in the Diocese of New Hampshire.

National Conversation (May 2003) The reconciliation seminar provided the structure for a National Conversation about the conflict in the Episcopal Church. This seminar/conference was held at St. James' Parish, Wilshire, in Los Angeles. The event is attended by several deputies to The Episcopal Church's General Convention, who produce a draft resolution advocating reconciliation training for all Episcopalians, particularly bishops. The resolution is considered at Convention 2003 which refers it to convention's Committee on Domestic Mission and Evangelism. There it is sheparded for three years by Reconciliation Team Member and Convention Deputy, the Hon. Joanne O'Donnell. General Convention 2006 adopts it as Resolution A039.

Hands in Healing: Diocesan Reconciliation Training (September 2002) Newly enthroned Bishop J. Jon Bruno of the Diocese of Los Angeles commissions a Diocesan the Reconciliation Team drawn from graduates of the RIB Seminar. The team presents the seminar to 70 clergy and lay leaders invited by the new Bishop, who proclaims that reconciliation will be a cornerstone of his episcopacy.

The New Commandment Task Force (1998-1999) Under the leadership of the Rev. Brian Cox, an ad hoc group of liberal and conservative leaders within the Episcopal church host a series of five learning conversations in Seattle, Newark, Dallas, Pasadena and South Bend bringing together clergy and lay leaders around the conflict over human sexuality.

Reconciliation Institute Basic Seminar (1996-2003) The Reconciliation Institute, a ministry of Christ the King Parish in Santa Barbara, train its first team for teaching the "Reconciliation Institute Basic Seminar." The seminar is based upon material developed by the rector of CTK, the Rev. Brian Cox during numerous missions he had conducted to troubled places around the world in the 1980'and 90's. The team gives seminars in Santa Barbara to promote racial healing and build interfaith bridges with the Jewish community.