Jump on the workshop carousel and explore a different facet of the theme at each stop! This will be a fun, participatory day where you’ll get the chance to work in small groups with each workshop leader in turn. If you’re new to peacemaking this will be a great introduction. And if you’re already a practising peacemaker, this will be a chance to learn more. This is an event in our Faith and Moral Courage series.
Four workshops will run simultaneously in locations throughout our venue (the tent, nave, garden and offices!). You’ll be placed in a smaller group with roughly 10 – 20 others, travelling through the workshop circuit together. By the end of the day you’ll have done all four workshops. A delicious vegetarian lunch will be served.
Spiritual Resilience at the heart of Peacemaking | A Jewish & a Muslim facilitator from Solutions Not Sides – Peacebuilders in Britain are under immense pressure, trying to understand and navigate the impact of the ongoing war and conflict in Israel and Palestine: How it affects community relations and cohesion, societal division, polarisation, binary thinking and a lack of empathy. This has led to an adverse effect on interfaith relations.
Resilience is essential for our communities, on a societal, institutional, community, and individual level.
This workshop will explore what it means to nurture emotional, physical and spiritual resilience as a peace builder. To build bridges and heal divides, we must first heal ourselves, build our courage, and tether a healthy self-care practice.
Understanding Conflict: The dark and light of change | Rebecca Brierley and Michael Gibbs – To be committed to helping people navigate through the challenges inherent in complex change scenarios, when there are no guarantees about what this future may hold, we need to hold onto what we have termed ‘a radical centre’. To hold onto this centre, we need to carry a set of values and principles with us. This interactive and participatory workshop will exploring these themes.
Contemplative Practice | St Ethelburga Facilitators – Contemplation is a universal practice that can be found in faith and secular traditions from around the world. We live in a time of gathering storms. Many of us are struggling to bear the overwhelm of personal and collective crisis. At St Ethelburga’s we’ve seen that groups who share silence and community create a circle of compassion that gives shelter to fragile hopes, kindness to traumatised spirits, and the courage to live from a place that’s rooted in our deepest values.
Faith & Moral Courage: seeking faith in what unites, and courage to depolarise | St Ethelburga Facilitators
Studies show that divided Britain is united on two issues. A majority of the country feels exhausted with the divisive tone of our civic conversations. And a majority of people are deeply worried about climate. How can we depolarise our conversations with one another? How can we bridge divides for the sake of earth? This will be an interactive, participatory workshop exploring how we can step into the shoes of the ‘other’, and become more functional and united in our response to climate.
Attendees will be split into groups and will take it in turns to travel around the venue and participate in each of the four workshops. The event will close with a full-room conversation debriefing on the learnings that arose for leaders and participants. The event will run from 9 am to 4:30 pm. There will be breaks on either side of each session and we will have an hour-long pause for lunch where a delicious vegetarian meal will be provided.
This is an event in our Faith and Moral courage series. By bringing together diverse voices across religious and secular traditions, we’re exploring how faith can uplift courage in a time of unravelling. View other events in the series on our Youtube channel here. Where does extraordinary courage come from? What can we learn from people who’ve risked everything to live up to their values? What forms of courage are especially needed in our age of unravelling, uncertainty and risk? How can we inspire ourselves and each other to grow our capacity to brave our limits? Are there insights from the world’s spiritual and faith traditions that can help us grow our courage?
Solutions Not Sides has been teaching skills of empathy, active listening, communication, critical thinking and conflict resolution through exploration of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since 2010. Their education programme is based on three key values: non-violence, equality for all, and the rejection of hatred. It exists to provide humanising encounters, diverse narratives and critical-thinking tools in order to empower people with the knowledge, empathy and skills to promote dialogue and conflict resolution, and to challenge prejudice in the UK. The programme enables people to see those affected as fellow human beings, helping them to understand and embrace the complexity of the problem, and empowering them towards seeking solutions.
Rebecca Brierley leads on St Ethelburga’s community reconciliation programmes: managing Journey of Hope with our Reconcilers Together partnership, and facilitating our Conflict Coaching, Facilitation Training, Listening Processes, and Peacemaking workshops. With over 20 years of experience in community based reconciliation, training, facilitation, activism and mentoring, Rebecca has a passion for curating spaces that encourage understanding and enable shared wisdom and for equipping and inspiring faith leaders to restore relationships. She holds accreditation in restorative justice, trauma informed practice, mediative facilitation and is currently studying Spiritual Direction. She moved from California to London in 2001 to study at the London School of Theology where she received her BA in Theology & Worship. Her past employers include Oasis Trust, XLP Youth Charity, and Tearfund. She lives in South London with her husband and twin daughters.
Michael Gibbs runs a small consulting firm, MG Consultants, that specialises in communication, crisis/conflict management as well as equality and diversity training. In addition, he is an international mediator and executive coach. Throughout his professional career, Michael has gleaned invaluable knowledge from living and working on five different continents giving him unique insights into the subtleties of race, religion and culture. Working with clients, such as Amnesty International, the International Committee for the Red Cross and the WHO, the focus of Michael’s work is on assisting individuals, communities, and organisations to develop effective communication skills that are necessary for managing relationships and essential for delivering transformative change.
Yichen Lu has a background in art history and the creative industries. She supports the Faith and Moral Courage project, Contemplative Practice event series, and various creative endeavours at St Ethelburga’s. Along with her regular meditation practice, Chen enjoys exploring different contemplative practices and experiences. When she is not on her yoga mat, she can usually be found in the kitchen, experimenting with culinary art and completely immersed in the mesmerising sound of Sanskrit.
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Mishal Baig is the Communications and Research Co-ordinator at St Ethelburga’s. She helps with visioning and designing conferences and events coalescing from the themes of spiritual ecology, faith and moral courage, viewpoint diversity and bridging divides. She also helps with designing language and imagery for communications put out by the Centre. Her interest is especially attuned to Spiritual Ecology research and uses it as a guide and reference for her creative approach in work. Mishal has been at the Centre since 2018, first as an intern for a year and a bit, and then as a staff member since 2020.
supported by:
We do not want cost to be a barrier for participation in this event, and we do have some bursary places available.
**Contact harriet@stethelburgas.org for more information.**