Christian leaders across Canada are struggling with how to navigate increasingly polarized conversations with their congregations, families and friends. How do we as Jesus followers converse with divergent viewpoints and engage in active listening with a Christlike posture? What skills do we as leaders need to acquire to tackle tough conversations? What parts of our …
View course details “Transforming Polarized Conversations: an essential toolkit for moving from entrenchment to engagement”

Join Christine Luna Munger for this four-part experiential, skill-based teaching series based on her work with Contemplative Dialogue. This workshop responds to folks’ desires to learn how to engage one another in civil dialogue; this workshop responds to the need for practical, concrete tools and postures which support meaningful engagement with others. Through a framework …
View course details “Dialogue as Spiritual Practice by Christine Luna Munger”

This workshop, uses the two lenses of conflict drivers and conflict paradoxes, and considers seemingly intractable conflicts and their transformation.  Questions for consideration include the nature of intractability, de-escalation strategies, transforming intractable conflicts and engaging emotions. This workshop builds on Understanding Conflict: Foundations.  It is highly interactive, insightful, engaging and critical for all those who wish …
View course details “Understanding Conflict Advanced”

Recognizing that our social structures and personal biases can get in the way of commitment to respecting our colleagues and community members, this interactive workshop will engage themes of prejudice, power and privilege in a manner that honours all voices in the room while also challenging the biases and structures that privilege some over others …
View course details “Transforming Power, Prejudice and Privilege: Building equitable, diverse and inclusive communities and organizations”

This exciting workshop offered over four mornings, provides you with an in-depth opportunity to explore the issues and dynamics involved in working with conflicted parties prior to an intervention. You will discuss matters of screening and assessment and will work through a five-stage assessment model. This workshop is engaging, the role plays really are fun and those who …
View course details “Conflict Assessment: Preparing Parties for Mediation”

Are you interested in reading, watching and learning about the history of race and racism in America and the impact it has on our world today – and engaging in meaningful conversation about change? Join an online cohort and explore a rich curriculum focused on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian Pacific Americans as their histories …
View course details “Facilitating Conversations on Race and Faith: The Sacred Ground Curriculum”

Facilitator: Marg Van Herk-Paradis As the awareness of mental health challenges grows in the church, church leaders require skills and tools to navigate the intersection between mental health and conflict. This two-morning workshop addresses such questions as, “How does mental health impact how we approach conflict?” and “What strategies and tools can be deployed when …
View course details “Mental Health and Conflict in Faith Communities–ONLINE”

Facilitator: Marg Van Herk-Paradis or Betty Pries This highly interactive and educational workshop invites you to consider the building blocks that create conflict and those that assist or detract in conflict’s resolution. This four-morning workshop includes reflection, conversation, and exercises as conflicts are studied and models for addressing conflicts are considered. Significant time will be …
View course details “Understanding Conflict Foundations–ONLINE”

Facilitator: Dr. Betty Pries While giving and receiving feedback is difficult in the workplace, it is even more challenging in the congregational context where the desire to be kind can outweigh a commitment to honesty and where most of those to whom feedback might be given or from whom feedback might be received are volunteers. …
View course details “Courageous Conversations: Speaking Truth in Love”