On February 27, Bishop Stevenson shared a statement, Shrine Mont Camps Update and a Call for Reconciliation. He shared that Shrine Mont Camps is preparing for an exciting Summer 2025 under interim director Mary Beth Abplanalp, while the search continues for a new director to lead programming in 2026. Shrine Mont Camps is strong and healthy, and we look forward to seeing folks on the mountain soon. He also called for a time of intentional listening, sharing, and prayer amongst those who have experienced conflict regarding the camping program, with the goal of reconciliation. The Reverend Richard Blackburn, an experienced guide in peace and reconciliation, will lead this effort to help the community hear the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
The reconciliation process includes: information-gathering phase, education phase, healing phase, and problem-solving phase. Find the brochure by Rev. Blackburn that details the process here.
The information-gathering phase includes: telephone interviews with key stakeholders representing the diverse perspectives surrounding past conflicts, and a series of small-group sessions for which all are encouraged to sign up to participate.
The first public step is an educational workshop: Systems Thinking and Conflict Transformation. This workshop, as the main part of the education phase, is designed to prepare people to participate in the small-group sessions and the healing phase of the process in a way that contributes to reconciliation.
The workshop will take place on May 3 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at Grace and Holy Trinity in Richmond. Register here by April 23, 2025.
Grace and Holy Trinity Church
8 North Laurel Street
Richmond, VA 23220
May 3, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Registration Deadline: April 23, 2025
The next step is small-group structured dialogue sessions. Participants will attend one 90-minute session, where all will be given uninterrupted time to share their perspectives while their interests are being documented, which will feed into the problem-solving process. These small-group sessions will take place on May 17 at the Diocesan Offices. Register here by May 10, 2025.
Diocesan Offices
110 West Franklin Street
Richmond, VA 23220
May 17, 9:00 am – 4:15 pm
Registration Deadline: May 10, 2025
The healing-phase sessions are scheduled for August 9 and September 6, 2025 – 9:00 am – 1:30 pm each day. More about those sessions will be communicated later. For now, participants are asked to hold open those dates on their calendars. Options regarding the problem-solving phase will emerge from the process and be scheduled after the healing phase is completed.
The problem-solving phase ensures that the interests documented throughout the process culminate in win-win agreements for the future.
This Workshop Will Help You Understand
- A systems view of conflict, recognizing that we all play a role when conflict erupts.
- That one needs to focus on one’s own functioning in the midst of conflict, rather than blaming others.
- The difference between acute anxiety and multigenerational chronic anxiety.
- How chronic anxiety can amplify the level of reactivity to a current moment of acute anxiety.
- That self-differentiated leadership is the key to overcoming resistance.
- That conflict need not be bad, but is an opportunity for growth.
- Your own style of response to conflict.
- The communication skills necessary to bring about reconciliation.
- Interest-based problem-solving as the path to win-win agreements.
- How to identify historic conflict patterns within an organizational system
Phases
1) Information-gathering phase: This is a series of telephone interviews, as noted above, reviewing any relevant written materials, and a day when Rev. Blackburn will facilitate a series of small-group structured dialogue sessions. Each small-group session will be 90 minutes, with no more than 12 people in each group. You and others who wish to participate will be invited to sign up for one of those sessions. Each person will be given some uninterrupted time to share their perspective with Rev. Blackburn while he documents the responses.
2) Education phase: This will take place after the telephone interviews and before the small-group sessions. It will consist of a day-long workshop designed to prepare people to participate in the small-group sessions and the healing phase of the process in a way that contributes to the desired reconciliation. Find the workshop schedule via brochue here.
3) Healing phase: This will include one or two large-group structured dialogue sessions — or potentially three sessions, if needed — to surface unresolved hurts from the past within the context of a safe setting, to facilitate deep listening, healing, and reconciliation. At the end of each session, there will be an assessment on whether or not there is a need to have another session, in order to complete the healing process.
4) Problem-solving phase: The goal of this phase will be to ensure that the interests documented throughout the process culminate in win-win agreements for the future.
About The Reverend Richard Blackburn
Rev. Richard Blackburn is a trainer, coach, and mediator, with broad experience in serving as a consultant to conflicted church systems. He participated in Dr. Edwin Friedman’s Postgraduate Clergy Seminar in Family Emotional Process and the Postgraduate Program in Family Systems Theory and Its Applications at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, D.C. He regularly serves as a coach to pastors and others via Zoom who face challenging situations in their ministry setting. The coaching process focuses on understanding the situation through the lens of systems thinking, while challenging one to manage self in the midst of anxiety from a family systems perspective. He previously served as Executive Director of the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center for 37 years, having retired in 2020.
More Information
The content issues surrounding past conflicts will not be discussed at the workshop. It will be purely educational in nature. Discussion surrounding content issues will take place during the subsequent sessions in the process, beginning with the May 17, 2025, small group structured dialogue sessions. The workshop is designed to equip people to participate in those later sessions in a non-reactive, non-blaming way, while demonstrating empathetic listening – key steps toward achieving the desired goal of reconciliation.
All are encouraged to attend the workshop in person, which will allow participants to reap the most benefit. For those who live at a distance from Richmond and are not able to travel to attend the workshop, participation via Zoom will be offered.
However, participation via Zoom will have its limitations regarding ability to fully participate in the role play and small group exercises. Moreover, one goal of the workshop is accomplished by having people, who may hold differing perspectives on past conflicts, join together in a shared, on-site learning experience. Those participating via Zoom will miss the opportunity for the kind of interpersonal interactions, which happen both when “in-session” and during breaks, that can lay a foundation for the genuine reconciliation we seek to facilitate when we get to the healing phase of the process. Thus, Zoom participation is limited to those who will not be able to travel to Richmond for the workshop – or have a special circumstance.
Contact:
For questions about registration, contact Bill Martin.
For questions about the workshop, contact Rev. Blackburn.