Across our social and political landscape, the fractures of polarisation grow deeper. In the last few years, we’ve seen the country divided over Brexit, COVID, education, policing, immigration, and many more issues. Tribes form not just around ideas but identities, fortified by misinformation, mistrust and fear. We hold different views to our family, friends and colleagues but are unsure how to voice them. Or tension builds in these relationships because of clumsy conversations. In this context, forming real and lasting relationships with people we disagree with can feel incredibly challenging.
At St Ethelburga’s, we believe another path is possible. We are reconcilers, and this means we prioritise building and maintaining relationships across differences. This is not about smoothing over conflict. It is about holding the fire of disagreement in a container strong enough to withstand the heat; one shaped by resilience, values, and deep listening.
Rooted in peacemaking, our depolarisation work combines online and in-person training, collaborations with other organisations such as Israel-Palestine educators Solutions Not Sides, and events that centre the theme of polarisation and dialogue across difference.
Our training equips participants to bridge divides with accessible language, tools for engaging echo chambers, dialogue skills, and practices of belonging. It includes pair work, embodied exercises, conflict mapping, deep listening and more. We aim to arm people with the emotional resilience and practical skills needed to bridge divides in their own contexts - from families and social groups to faith communities, activist organisations and corporate environments. We invite those sitting in the discomfort of division, those seeking to understand rather than retreat, and those curious about how inner and outer transformation meet in practice to join us at our next depolarisation training session or speaker-led event.