San Francisco, CA, USA.  On February 22, 2007, Sally Mahé and Charles Gibbs participated in a conference for college administrators and professors, “Uncovering the Heart of Higher Education: Integrative Learning for Compassionate Action in an Inter-connected World,” co-sponsored by the California Institute of Integral Studies and The Fetzer Institute.

Their pre-conference workshop, “Dealing with Difference Constructively: Interfaith Dialogue and Action on the College Campus,” was an excellent opportunity for URI's leadership in promoting interfaith dialogue and cooperation on college campuses. The workshop was full, with over forty enthusiastic participants.

The workshop opened with an interfaith prayer ceremony, followed by conversations in pairs then in small groups. Conversations were guided by the Appreciative Inquiry questions Charles and Sally had created to promote rich and productive conversations. One of the questions was: “Please share the most challenging experience you and/or your school have had because of religious difference. If you could receive help from the most resourceful people around in promoting interfaith understanding and cooperation on campus, what sort of help would you want? What question would you like to ask them?” After engaging with the questions in small groups, all gathered together to share their collective experiences and Sally and Charles offered their insights and reflections.

 “Deepening Perspectives - Respecting Differences,” framed the afternoon panel discussion by educators Dr. Robert McDermott, Ms. Lauren Bausch and The Reverend Heng Sure. They shared personal experiences of deepening their perspectives of different faith traditions and respecting these differences as well as their recommendations for dealing with differences in the academic world.

After the panel Sally and Charles presented a slide show highlighting the important work and activities of URI CC members around the world.

Finally, each participant was given a packet of information from URI to assist them with their interfaith work. Among the resources in their packet were the URI Charter, the URI Interfaith Peacebuilding Guide, Partners in Leadership, Best Practices guide, the "Introducing URI to Colleges" power point, and a URI Slide Show.

The day closed with final reflections and expressions of gratitude. As one workshop participant said, “That workshop wasn’t just good, it was great!”

This workshop clearly demonstrated that the processes and tools URI is creating for interfaith understanding are both inspiring and useful.