3. Conflict transformation
Many of the religious people I have
interviewed are reticent to apply the term
“conflict” to the disagreements, snafus, or
annoyances they experience over space us-
age. Most of these are admittedly trivial and
easily resolved by the affected parties, yet
there may also be some romanticizing at
work here. “Religious people are supposed to
get along with others.” No congregation is
exempt from conflict, but admitting it can
lead to what I call faith dissonance—the
uncomfortable recognition that they have
failed to live up to their core religious ideals.
The good news is that those same relig-
ious ideals contain the potential for conflict
transformation. At their best, religions
know how to redeem conflict in positive
Muslims meeting at Heartsong Church
in suburban Memphis.
Every space is invested with some kind
of significance by its owners. When relig-
ious owners are involved, a particular space
may be invested with ultimate significance
as the place where God and people meet in a
unique way. The name of this magazine is
instructive. Sacred Places differ from other
places. If a congregation will not allow you
to use its worship space for non-religious
purposes, do not take it personally. It’s a
decision of ultimacy.
Karen DiLossi, Director of Partners’
Arts in Sacred Places program, tells the
story of a theater company that used the
narthex of a Philadelphia church, where “on
performance nights, curious theatergoers
regularly peered into the locked and dark-
ened sanctuary.” Such curiosity bespeaks
the sense of “specialness” that a worship
space can carry.
ways. “We’re supposed to be in the forgive-
ness business,” says Ron Coolbaugh, Manag-
ing Director of Lutheran Church of the
Holy Communion, which shared its build-
ing with The Philadelphia Shakespeare
Theatre for decades. Forgiveness can be a
powerful redemptive force in a conflict.
The Pico Union Project, a non-profit
corporation in downtown Los Angeles,
opens its facilities to congregations as well
as arts and community groups. Technically
not a religious non-profit, the Project is
nevertheless “dedicated to the Jewish prin-
ciple to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Founder and artistic director Craig Taub-
man identified the Project’s other core relig-
ious values—grace, sanctuary (that is, a safe
place for different groups to get to know
each other in order to love each other), doing
acts of righteousness, and the obligation to
pursue justice.
The Project’s facilities manager, Jorge
Alvarez, was raised as a Christian to love
one’s neighbor as oneself (this principle is
also found in both the Hebrew Bible and the
Christian New Testament). However, he left
that principle in the pew every Sunday and
never saw it as a guideline for everyday
life—until he began working at the Pico
Union Project. Now he invokes it in dealing
with any issue that may arise there.
Mutually beneficial space-sharing
arrangements do not avoid conflicts but
rather establish effective procedures for
transforming conflicts when they occur.
Such procedures differ case-by-case, but one
constant is the healthiness of the relation-
ship between the space-sharing parties.
Karen DiLossi explains that healthy part-
nerships are forged through clear commu-
nication and mutual trust before any for-
mal agreements are signed.
Even so, it takes time to grow into a
space-sharing arrangement. R5’s owner,
Sean Agnew, reports that eventually his
group “became more comfortable” using the
church. Their initial reluctance “was allevi-
ated by the congregation’s openness.”
This article draws on a year of
research on space-sharing by
religious organizations and
groups, supported by a grant from
the Louisville Institute. The
author expresses gratitude to the
governing boards of Methodist
Theological School in Ohio and
Trinity Lutheran Seminary (now
part of Capital University) for
facilitating this project.
SACRED PLACES • AUTUMN/WINTER 2018-19
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