Date: July 13, 2023
CACS is pleased to be starting off the fall with new opportunities for skill-building in interfaith engagement.
On Wednesday and Thursday, September 6-7, a team from the Rose Castle Foundation, led by CACS Fellow in Peace and Reconciliation, and Rose Castle Founding Director, Canon Sarah Snyder, will lead a Scriptural Reasoning (SR) Training of Facilitators. SR is a practice where Christians, Jews, and Muslims study each other’s sacred texts, meeting once a month to read short passages from their respective scriptures on a certain topic. Facilitated by a study leader, SR sessions help participants reflect on a curious list of topics within the Abrahamic tradition. The result is often a deeper understanding of others and one’s own scriptures, as well as the development of strong bonds across faith communities.
The facilitator training, beginning with lunch on Wednesday at noon and concluding with lunch on Thursday, will offer a background on the history, purpose and theory of SR, an opportunity to experience SR, a discussion of tips and tricky situations, and a chance to practice as a study leader. The training is one-time and no cost, and will provide a certificate of completion to all participants.
If you want to see what SR is all about before the training, you can plan to attend the first of 10 monthly SR sessions in August, hosted by CACS and the Rumi Forum. The tentative date is August 24 and the location will be the Lettie Pate Evans Room in the Addison Academic Center – stay tuned for publicity and an opportunity to sign up via Eventbrite.
We hope you can join us for these important and unique interfaith opportunities. Please contact CACS with any questions at cacs@vts.edu and help us spread the work to those who might be interested.
Hartley Hobson Wensing
Associate Director, CACS