What is the Practical Skills for Interfaith Dialogue series?
Given the context of religious and cultural diversity in the McGill campus, this series on practical skills for interfaith dialogue will provide an opportunity for the McGill students get to know each other’s faith traditions and orientations. The workshop series aims to accomplish following objectives:
- To provide an inclusive forum in which students engage in interfaith dialogue.
- To cultivate the community feeling among the students through interfaith friendship, trust, and respect, resulting in positive experiences.
- To further MORSL’s mission of nurturing a holistic-wellbeing and enhancing the spiritual wellness of the participants.
- To provide a forum for students to practice the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in a pluralistic setting as part of preparing future-ready students and global citizens.
What kind of dialogue skills I can learn?
The workshop will introduce diverse approaches and methods of interfaith dialogue and help the participants to apply and practice them with other participants. The workshop will focus on some of the basic etiquette of dialogue such as active listening, having honest conversations, being respectful while disagreeing, and critical self-reflection. The participants will be also trained to dialogue on a range of topics, from less complex to more complex.
Can I join the series part-way through?
Please note that once the cohort is selected, we will close applications. Interfaith dialogue requires mutual trust that builds over time, and this series is designed to create a safe space through activities that progressively deepen a sense of community within the cohort. For these reasons, it is not possible to join once the series is under way.
What do we expect from the reflection piece?
Your reflection piece is a personal project that can take different forms. The goal is to create something (essay, artwork, etc.) that reflects what you have learned and can share with the McGill community. It could be an individual work or group work with other workshop participants – we are open to your proposals and want you to make this your own. The participants will have the opportunity to work on their reflection piece during the series and will share their learning with the McGill community through various outlets such as social media or a web page.
