Tuesday Jan 23 7 PM Compassionate Listening Project in the Mid East and talk with the showing of her documentary film Children of Abraham, with Leah Green Director Mid East Citizen Diplomacy ,
Santa Barbara Public Library Faulkner Gallery  Donation $5  website for MECD www.mideastdiplomacy.org
Cosponsored by Peacemakers www.peacemakercommunity.org, Community Mediation Program, Cohearts, Santa Barbara Hopedance, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, Gene Knudsen Hoffman, Jim Smallwood

Compassionate Listening is a process of respectful listening developed by    Quaker  pastoral counselor Gene Knudsen Hoffman in the 1980's . The idea behind Compassionate Listening is to set judgment aside while listening to  adversaries, and to look for the values and reasons behind their behavior.
 The willingness to hear the other person establishes a relationship that is trustworthy and safe from judgment - a place where the transformative potential in Compassionate Listening really lies. It is the necessary step to establishing dialogue between conflicting parties. This message has a special meaning for environmentalists to use as a tool to move past conflict and confrontation to achieve sustainable solutions for the world and its environment.


" The Compassionate Listening Project is on the cutting edge of Jewish-Palestinian dialogue. It is healing precisely because it does not pretend to have the answers. Rather , it engages the participants in processes that have each side seeing the humanity of the other, even when they disagree"
Rabbi David Zaslow

The Compassionate Listening provides an opportunity to advance Jewish Palestinian healing and reconciliation, and to help prepare the ground for true peace between people.

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and co-sponsors see the chance to bring the idea of reconciliation & Compassionate Listening to some of our most difficult community issues.  An evening presentation of the work of Leah Green & the Mid East Citizen Diplomacy Compassionate Listening Project, with the showing of her documentary film Children of Abraham, will share the idea of reconciliation as used in one of the most tense and difficult political & human right situations in the world.  Using this Compassionate Listening model, our hope is that this idea can be seen as possible here too, for such issues as homelessness, hate crimes, teen conflicts, and to ease conflict & confrontation between north & south county around land use and environmental issues.
Check out Website Mid-East Citizen Diplomacy www.mideastdiplomacy.org
For more Info contact Santa Barbara Permaculture Network at sbpcnet@silcom.com 962-2571