[Ailist] AI & interfaith dialogue

[paul at interfaith-presidio.org]

<DIV style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:10pt;"><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dear AI Community,</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT>
</P><H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">As many of you know, the explosive growth of interfaith activities here and abroad in recent years owes a huge debt to Appreciative Inquiry. </SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, and Gurudev Khalsa were engaged consultants in the formation of United Religions Initiative from its inception. That story is beautifully captured in <A href="http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/Gibbs-%20Mahe%20Birth%20of%20Global%20Community%20-%20Foreword.pdf"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><FONT color="black"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-STYLE: italic; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Birth of Global Community: Appreciative Inquiry in Action </SPAN></FONT></I><FONT color="black"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none">(2003) by URI’s founding executive, Charles Gibbs, and his colleague Sally Mahe. </SPAN></FONT></A></SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">I’ll never forget the day I realized that Helen Spector, the master AI facilitator whose input so often graces this discussion, was the same Helen Spector I knew of as a pioneering leader in the rebirth of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. That started with the 1996 </SPAN></FONT></B><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Chicago</SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"> centennial celebration she helped organize, a gathering that blew open the doors of grassroots interfaith activity across the country. (At the moment she and the rest of the Parliament’s leadership are focused on a December 2009 Parliament in </SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Melbourne</SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">.)</SPAN></FONT></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">It’s no surprise, then, that </SPAN></FONT></B><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Embracing an Interfaith Future, </SPAN></FONT></I><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">a July 24-28 conference in </SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">San Francisco</SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">, sponsored by North American Interfaith Network (NAIN), has lots of AI threads. Which is why you may be interested in it. </SPAN></FONT></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">One of 30+ workshops is about young adults making digital stories with an appreciative focus. Another explores how AI can benefit inter- and intra-faith relations. Sally Mahe and Helen Spector will both be presenters, as is Lauren Artress from the labyrinth movement, and Kay Lindahl, distinguished for her work in spiritual listening. </SPAN></FONT></B><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">URI</SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"> founder William Swing and, William Lesher, president of the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions will both be present. </SPAN></FONT></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">We’d be delighted if you and other AI-literate people attend this appreciative interfaith gathering.</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Go to the conference website, </SPAN></FONT></B><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A href="http://www.nain.org/2008">www.nain.org/2008</A></SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">. About a third of the workshops planned now have an interactive page where you can make your own comments. The rest should go interactive in the next few weeks. Have a look!</SPAN></FONT></H2>
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<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">In peace,</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Paul Chaffee</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Interfaith Center at the Presidio</SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
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