We cannot engage in real dialogue unless we are
conscious of our own identity. We can’t dialogue, we can’t start
dialoguing from nothing, from zero, from a foggy sense of who we are.
Nor can there be authentic dialogue unless we are capable of opening our
minds and hearts, in empathy and sincere receptivity, to those with
whom we speak. In other words, an attentiveness in which the Holy Spirit
is our guide.
A clear sense of one’s own identity and a capacity for
empathy are thus the point of departure for all dialogue......
Finally, together with a clear sense of our own Christian identity,
authentic dialogue also demands a capacity for empathy. For dialogue to
take place, there has to be this empathy. Pope Francis
The discussion is about how to build
more empathy among the different religious groups. Our panelists are
Christians and Muslims who are located in Iraq and the USA.
Here is a summary of some of the main points of the great dialogue we
had together!
Thubten Chodron is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun and a
central figure in reinstating the ordination of women. She is founder and
Abbess of Sravasti Abbey, a Buddhist monastery near Newport, Washington.
Minister Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Fremont,
California. Organizer in the Interfaith community at Occupy Oakland.
How can we build a culture of empathy?
1. Supporting families
2. Supporting a free and responsible search for truth and meaning
3. Radically change our judicial system to Restorative Empathy.
Empathy is like seeing the interconnected web of life. The opposite is
seeing ourselves as being disconnected.
Geoffrey Mitelman
is Associate Rabbi of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester.
Compassion is a deep-seated value in every religious tradition. Judaism
teaches that the world stands on Torah, on prayer and on acts of loving
kindness.
How to
build empathy?Find specific
language and cultural norms to talk about compassion/empathy in particular
ways. To "ethicize the ritual and ritualize the ethical." To use tools that are underutilized because they are
sometimes viewed negatively - in particular, making compassion more
"unconscious" than conscious and utilizing social pressure...
Sub Conference: Interfaith
Unitarian Universalist
Minister, Auburn, NY How can we build a culture of empathy?Religious communities need to be more explicit in speaking about it as a
religious value. Instead of spending so much time speaking about personal
salvation or imposing what I see as restrictive religious rules (e.g., birth
control, homosexuality as sins).
This language demeans others and promotes
self-righteousness rather than empathy.
As Unitarian Universalists, empathy has been at the core of
our faith. One might call it our version of “applied theology.” Sub Conference: Interfaith
Mutima
Imani is
Social Justice Minister East Bay Church or Religious Science,
Faces of the East Bay. She was also the principle
facilitator of the
Oakland Peace Keepers project. She is part of the Empathy
Curriculum team and has lead empathy circle panels for the the conference
on how to build a culture of empathy and compassion.
She says she likes the concept of empathy because it goes beyond tolerance.
Tolerance is, I put up with you, empathy is deeper, it is
that
I see you as a whole person.
Sub Conference: Interfaith
Elouise Oliver is
Senior Minister East Bay Church of Religious Science How to build a Culture of Empathy?
Allow people to cry. Crying
we are human and will feel what the other feels. When crying they
are feeling their own pain. Now real empathy is happening. Just
watching that person in pain, they are starting to empathize now and
we don't want to do that. If you can remember your own pain and your
own suffering, your own feelings. I can empathize with anyone
because I'm a mother. What I know is that every person has a mother.
Sub Conference: Interfaith
Ronny & Katrine Yttrehus are ministers in Oslo, Norway and
have been taking the 20 hour Empathic Communication Training with
Lisbeth
Holter Brudal. They will also take the 40 hour trainer course.
They talked about their experience taking the training and why they want to
be trainers in empathic communication?
A group of members in their congregation will take the
training and they would like to make there
church an empathic congregation.. Ronny says there's a lot
of loneliness in Norway and they want to address that.
Sub Conference: Interfaith
"UU ministerial colleague Nathan Walker, executive director for the
Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute in Washington, DC, has
written a provocative book entitled Cultivating Empathy: The Worth and
Dignity of Every Person—Without Exception.
Drawing from his years as a parish minister in Staten Island and
Philadelphia, Rev. Walker challenges us all to resist “otherizing”
people by either demonizing or romanticizing them. He challenges us to
use our moral imagination as an everyday spiritual practice to increase
our capacity to approach others with empathy—and to find our
relationships transformed in the process."
