Upcoming and Recent Events
Newsletters
Faith Forward Newsletter
July 11th, 2024
Please click here to access Georgia's Faith Forward Network newsletter and to sign up for upcoming editions.
Upcoming Events
The Courageous Middle: An Online Conversation with Shirley Mullen
July 26th, 2024 – 1.30 pm
Amid cultural and political polarization in our churches and communities, many say there’s no use engaging with – or even listening to – people across the divides. All we can do, we’re told, is pick a side, ignore its flaws, and follow the crowd. For believers, is that all there is?
Joining The Trinity Forum as part of our Navigating 2024 Faithfully series, Shirley Mullen will argue that something more is possible. In her new book, Claiming the Courageous Middle: Daring to Live and Work Together for a More Hopeful Future, Shirley offers a Christian theological framework for the “middle space,” in which we listen to one another attentively rather than dismissively, and actively pursue redemptive steps together.
We invite you to join us for an Online Conversation with Shirley Mullen on Friday, July 26 at 1:30 p.m. ET, to imagine a more hopeful, grace-filled future for our communities.
Registration and additional information can be found here.
UNDIVIDED: Relational Organizing Training
August 4th, 2024 – 7.00 - 8.30 pm
Are you looking for a practical tool for your people to get grounding and training in a different kind of politics during this polarized election season? Then make plans to join UNDIVIDED's Relational Organizing training on Sunday, August 4th at 7 PM ET, and please invite your people as well.
Participants will learn how to have redemptive, nonpartisan, non-persuasion, values-rooted conversations with people in their lives about politics and public life.
Registration and additional information can be found here.
Word Made Fresh: An Online Conversation with Abram Van Engen
August 23rd, 2024 – 1.30 pm
Do you read poetry? If so, you are in the minority. Recent data shows that less than 12% of American adults read or listened to poems in the past year. Yet roughly a third of the Bible is written in verse. In today’s world, what does poetry have to offer believers?
In his new book, Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church, professor and author Abram Van Engen shows how poetry is for everyone–and especially for Christians. He shows us how we can learn to approach poetry with joy and have our time and attention richly rewarded.
The Trinity Forum invites you to join us for an Online Conversation with Abram Van Engen on Friday, August 23 at 1:30 p.m. ET, to explore the role of poetry in the church.
Registration and additional information can be found here.
Recent Events
Politics, Polarization, & Peacemaking
The Outlet Community Church - 3039 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA
July 25th, 2024 – 8.30am – 3.30 pm
On July 25, the American Values Coalition is hosting a day-long conference in Atlanta on Politics, Polarization, & Peacemaking at The Outlet. The meeting targets pastors and congregation leaders and will provide tools to help heal the wounds in our divided communities. Speakers include Elizabeth Neumann, Justin Giboney, Troy Jackson, Daniel Bennett, Caleb Campbell, and Phil Herndon.
Registration and additional information here.
Faith Leaders for Safe and Trusted Elections
July 24th, 2024 – 9.00 – 11.00 am
Ismaili Jamatkhana at 685 Dekalb Industrial Way, Decatur, GA
This in-person meeting is convened jointly by The Temple, The Carter Center, The King Center, and partners to assemble faith leaders and followers to begin training and planning for engagement to preserve peace and support safe and trusted elections this fall. Those in attendance will map out a collective way forward and share best practices for each individual faith community to get involved.
Any and all clergy and faith leaders are welcome to join – registration and additional information can be found here.
Deputy Registrar Training for Voter Registration
July 16th, 2024 - 6.00 pm
The Fulton County Voter Education and Outreach (VEO) was held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church where the non-partisan comprehensive team trained interested citizens to register people to vote.
For information on future VEO events and voter education resources, please visit their website here.
Interfaith Prayer for Global Peace
July 12th - 16th, 2024 - 9.00 - 10.00 am
The Interfaith Prayer for Global Peace was an in-person and remote event held at the King Center. The prayer program opened the King Center’s annual Be Love Day, which seeks to strategically define and unleash the true power of love to unite humanity, cultivate true peace, and create a sense of community.
Peace at The Primaries
May 14th, 2024
Faith in Public Life, in partnership with the Georgia Democracy Resilience Network, hosted a non-partisan round table discussion titled “Peace at the Primaries” to understand what they can do to reduce the chance of violence during the election period and around the polls and to launch its Georgia Peacemakers Program.
Democracy Resilience Network's Trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland
May 11th - 16th, 2024
Twenty-five multi-denominational faith leaders and Democracy Resilience Network leaders, including five representatives from Georgia, visited Belfast, Northern Ireland for a learning and planning retreat organized by The Carter Center and Rethinking Conflict, the organization founded by Rev. Dr. Gary Mason. The intent of the visit was to study experiences of the almost 30 years of civil war known as the “Troubles,” including the dynamics of identity-based politics, peacebuilding, and the role of faith communities, both for good and for bad.
Disagreeing Better over Waffles and Wine
April 30th, 2024 - 7.00 - 9.00 pm
Disagree Better with Waffles and Wine was a cross-partisan gathering in Cobb County of senior former politicians, community leaders, and faith leaders to model healthy civic disagreement.
The meeting drew inspiration, in part, from the National Governors Association's initiative to Disagree Better.
Politics, Polarization, and Peacebuilding for Faith Leaders – A Faith Forward Network Webinar with Pastor Caleb Campbell
April 25, 2024 – 1.30 – 2.30 pm
A webinar for pastors who want to faithfully disciple their congregations, staying true to a Christ-centered gospel of love amid increasing political divisions. This conversation helped pastors and ministry leaders confront polarization and toxic division in their churches, communities, and denominations. The content was born out of the successes and failures of pastors and ministry leaders seeking to engage their polarized Christian neighbors with deep love.
Pastor Campbell is the Lead Pastor at Desert Springs Bible Church, in Phoenix, AZ. He is the founder and director of Disarming Leviathan Ministries which produces a podcast, explainer videos, and training material to equip people to engage divisions with their congregations.
A Multifaith Working Meeting for Safe and Trusted Elections
April 15, 2024 – 8.30 - 10.30 am
The Rothschild Social Justice Institute of the Temple, the Carter Center, the Faith Forward Network, and the King Center hosted a multifaith working meeting for safe and trusted elections. This meeting heard what faith leaders have planned for the upcoming election season, identified gaps, and discussed further how we can work together to ensure our elections proceed peacefully and fairly. A follow-up meeting will be on July 24 (see above).
A Service of Prayer for our Nation
February 8, 2024 – 6.30 – 8.00 pm
The Carter Center, Cecil B. Day Chapel
We live in an increasingly divided society. How can people of faith help us to ease these divisions and guide us to more peaceful ground?
On February 8, 2024 at The Carter Center, senior faith leaders and other community members came together to pray for our cherished nation, especially as we enter the election year.
Faith Forward Democracy is part of the Georgia Democracy Resilience Network,which is supported by The Carter Center.
November 3-5: Faith Forward Democracy Day of Prayer
How can we use our places of faith to disagree well
On the weekend of November 3-5, twelve months before the 2024 presidential election, we ask faith leaders in Georgia to lead their congregations in reflection on what can be done to reduce the sense of division that is afflicting our country.
By praying together, we can begin to help ourselves, our families and our communities reduce the temperature in our country and ensure a peaceful democratic election process for all.
If this is of interest, please share this information in your networks and please sign up for more information on events and activities.
We offer this sample prayer below.
Sample Prayer for Our Nation
Loving and Gracious God,
We give you thanks for this, our cherished nation that you have entrusted to our care for our children and generations to come.
We live in a time of disharmony and are troubled by our growing divides. We pray for the unity and protection of our country in the year ahead.
Remind us that no matter our beliefs or our views, we are all made in your image, even those with whom we disagree. Together, let each of us commit to seek harmony and reject division. Let us be inspired by the better angels of our natures.
Help us as people of faith to remember our calling to peace and to find the wisdom to make our places of worship into places of healing. Let us reunite in a common commitment to our shared democratic norms and the rejection of violence.
Give us the courage to help ourselves and others to the path of respect and love.
Give us the strength to listen to those with different views so we may better understand their hopes and fears.
Give us an open heart to find common ground and, where we cannot, to disagree well.
We pray for our leaders so they may guide us with love and wisdom for the betterment of all.
These things we ask in the name of all that is holy and good.