From Fear to Hope: Strategies for Relationship Building Across Dividing Lines
Thursday evening, February 8 — Sunday afternoon, February 11, 2018
Led by Masud Ibn Syedullah TSSF, & Garrett Mettle
We are more skilled at individualization and social segmentation than ever before. What we are not as skilled at is recognizing our need for ideas and people whose experiences differ from and expand our own. And it is costing us dearly.
From Fear to Hope: Strategies for Relationship Building Across Dividing Lines aims to bring us back to a healthier balance between reinforcing affinities with those like us and forming alliances with those whose differences make us better because they are in our lives.
Jesus teaches that love of neighbor is a core requirement for a close relationship with God, and that our neighbors go far beyond our typical friend groups. In addition, a central understanding of Christian baptism is that we are called to seek and serve Christ in all people. When we become skilled in surrounding ourselves with those whose values and attitudes contrast with our own and honoring them, we break through barriers that have created so much fear and harm.
From Fear to Hope: Strategies for Relationship Building Across Dividing Lines will empower participants to draw deeply from the well where all of God’s gifts to humanity are found. And it will send them out with a renewed spirit of hope that we are stronger together instead of separated.
The Rev. Masud Ibn Syedullah TSSF, an Episcopal priest of the Diocese of New York, is Founder and Director of Roots & Branches: Programs for Spiritual Growth (rootsandbranchesprograms.org), a ministry resource for individuals and communities of faith, providing conferences, retreats, pilgrimages, and other events to support spiritual formation. A member of the Third Order, Society of St. Francis for more than thirty-five years (a Christian Community in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion inspired by the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi), his ministry emphasizes themes of reconciliation, peace-making, social justice, and respect for all of God’s creation.
The Rev. Garrett Mettler, Associate, Roots & Branches, is an Episcopal priest and former journalist interested in creating fresh intersections between Christian wisdom and secular culture. While serving in congregations, he has taught and written about the application of faith practices to bring wholeness to everyday life. In his ministry as a school chaplain, he has fostered inter-generational relationships, bringing the insights, creativity, and curiosity of youth and adults together for their mutual encouragement.
Together, the Reverends Syedullah and Mettler are the co-creators of “Agents of Peace in a Time of Fear”, profiled in the Wall Street Journal as a retreat to “dial down the tension”, and sought after by churches and other organizations both nationally and internationally.
Cost: $ 485, deposit: $120