Respectful Conversations

In October 2024 Minnesota experienced something beautiful through MCC Respectful Conversations.

There was a congregation in Saint Cloud which planned to host A Respectful Conversation about the Election. They did a great job promoting the conversation and the greater Minnesota community was very interested. 

Over 120 people signed up to participate!

This was great, and it helped us to know that we needed more table facilitators for the conversation than had been trained. You see, MCC Respectful Conversations use in-person facilitation at every table. We wanted to be sure each of the 120+ Saint Cloud participants had a great facilitated experience.

So we put out a call to everyone who had previously been trained. Maybe they had learned the process in a community group talking about policing. Maybe in an on-campus discussion about belonging. Maybe in a congregation looking for hope and healing. Maybe about our founding topic - the amendment defining marriage.

With only five days notice, people stepped up. They were from Cloquet, Burnsville, Saint Paul, Minnetonka. This was not a paid opportunity. There was not a budget to cover lodging or mileage. But people made arrangements with family and friends in Saint Cloud for overnight accommodations. They committed to 4-hour round-trip drives. Their only reward? A meal and the knowledge that they could use what they had learned to help another Minnesota community build peace. The event was hosted at a Lutheran church. 

Volunteers were from Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and unaffiliated faith backgrounds. People came with different spiritual autobiographies and different home geographies to unite in Saint Cloud as practitioners of peace.

Said one long-distance commuter and overnighter, of her first Respectful Conversation 11 years ago and why she was making the effort to help out: "it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I’d be happy to help others."

A Star Tribune columnist attended and wrote about her positive experience at that particular conversation. You can read her story here.

Your continued support of MCC Respectful Conversations weaves our communities together. It connects more people to a life-giving experience that they will still want to give back over ten years later. In uncertain times, we know one thing: peace is possible. Peace is generative. Peace is still needed.

We do, of course, have other ways to demonstrate our impact:

• MCC Respectful Conversations staff began the year presenting our project at the Aspen Institute.
• We were invited into the Reduce the Rancor, MN campaign.
• Stanford University and a Michigan State researcher have partnered with us to validate Respectful Conversations as effective in reducing a person's affective polarization and increasing their bridging quotient. They learn to love their opponents and become better peacemakers. 
• This summer we trained the first majority-BIPOC cohort of Lead Facilitators.
• This year in 10 conversation events over 650 people have registered to practice talking about ideological divides. They strengthen their community relationships while doing so. They've met in congregations, through community ed, and on college campuses. We've held events in North Dakota and Wisconsin. 
• This month the Minnesota Star Tribune amplified our message that peace is possible even in the face of political divides when it profiled Director of Strategic Relationships Rev. Jerad Morey. 

Through MCC Respectful Conversations you are having an impact. You are making a difference.

We hope to continue doing so in coming uncertain times. Your partnership in this lasting, vigorous peacemaking project will help us to do so. Please donate today.