What can you do when a relationship between fellow Christians is strained? While you can pray for them, you may also be in a position to bring them together to try to overcome the tensions. If your training with Bridge Builders has given you an appetite for practical peace-making, and you want to be equipped to mediate between individuals, then the Mediating Interpersonal Conflicts course is for you.

Building on what is learnt during the Bridge Builders’ foundation course, Transforming Church Conflict, this non-residential, five-day course offers a thorough grounding in interpersonal mediation. The course will introduce you to a carefully-structured process that you practise step by step. Focusing on transforming conflicts among Christians, the skills that you learn can also be used wherever there is a role, formal or informal, for intervention by a third party mediator. The course will be particularly relevant for anyone who wants to be part of a regional mediation team in their denomination.

Bridge Builders is the training and mediation service of the London Mennonite Centre (LMC), where the course is being held. We expect to have a breadth of denominations represented. Participants will be able to join our network of Christians around Britain involved in church mediation work.

The course will include teaching, group work and guided practice. Active and practical in focus, the sessions will emphasise hands-on skills training and use role-plays based on the kinds of conflicts encountered in the church. Each day will include times of prayer and worship. The course is intensive; significant other commitments are best avoided during the week.

Presenters

Alastair McKay is director of Bridge Builders at the London Mennonite Centre, providing training, mediation and consultancy services to churches since 1996. Alastair is studying for a Doctorate of Ministry, and has contributed to the books Making Peace With Conflict (Herald Press, 1999) and How to Become a Creative Church Leader (Canterbury Press, 2008).

Colin Patterson is Assistant Director of Bridge Builders and an Anglican priest. He has worked as a training officer for the Diocese of Durham, is an experienced adult educator, and is author of the Grove booklet How to Learn Through Conflict.

Jo Williams is a Baptist minister with a conflict transformation portfolio in the Baptist Union, and a community mediator in North West England. She has extensive experience of training others in mediation and Christian ministry.

Venue

The course will be held at the London Mennonite Centre, 14 Shepherds Hill, London N6 5AQ. The LMC is five minutes walk from Highgate tube station in North London, just off the A1. Please note the 9:00am start on the first day: you may want to stay in London the night before.

Meals and Accommodation

Lunch and refreshments will be provided each day. Participants will need to arrange their own accommodation, breakfast, and evening meal. Contact the London Mennonite Centre if you need help in finding accommodation.

Cost and Application

The fee is £500 (with an early bird rate of £440 if booking by 2 April 2010). A training manual is included. Please note that the course is only open to those who have previously completed either the foundation course, Transforming Church Conflict, or the earlier Skills Training for Mediation and Facilitation in the Church. Precedence is given to applicants sponsored by their church or organisation, and who may use the training for its benefit, or to enhance their own ministry. If you are on a very low income, then please contact us to see whether a bursary may be available.

Spaces are limited to a maximum of 16, so do apply early, as our courses are regularly over-subscribed. To apply, download the flier and application form , print out the application and mail it, with a cheque for £100 made payable to Bridge Builders, to

Bridge Builders
London Mennonite Centre
14 Shepherds Hill
London N6 5AQ

The balance of the fee is due ten weeks before the start of the course. Once accepted, the £100 deposit is a non-refundable. The full fee is owed if a place is cancelled within eight weeks of the course start date (i.e. from 10 May 2010 onwards).

Tentative Programme Overview

Monday 5 July – 9:45am to 6:00pm
• Introductions • Foundation & Vision for Mediation • Getting People to the Table • Understanding Ourselves as Mediators

Tuesday 6 July – 9:00am to 6:00pm
• Mediation Demonstration • Introduction & Story-Telling • Identifying Common Ground & Issues • Teamwork in Mediation

Wednesday 7 July – 9:00am to 6:00pm
• Problem-Solving & Healing Strategies • Documenting Underlying Concerns • Factors Affecting Success

Thursday 8 July – 9:00am to 6:00pm
• Reframing • Making Agreements • Putting it All Together • Adapting the Mediation Process

Friday 9 July – 9:00am to 4:30pm
Private Meetings & Breaking Impasse • Completing the Tool Box • Spiritual Support for Mediators • Reflection, Conclusion & Review

What some past participants on this course have said:

“A very clear and highly practical course that builds a sense of developing competence.”
Revd Alison Bowman, Anglican priest, Brighton, East Sussex

“This is a truly life transforming course.”
Revd Stuart Murdoch, Baptist minister, Bo'ness, Scotland

“Having taken the old Bridge Builders course a few years back, this extended mediation course really served to cement the process and to create an excitement that I could really do it!”
Kathy Thiessen, Mennonite elder, Highgate, London

“The course develops skills and resources that are learned and practised and that build confidence in ourselves as peacemakers. And it is done in a context of worship and with the theology that being a follower of Christ means being a peacemaker. The course eases anxiety about conflict, uses a variety of teaching methods, and is good fun!”
Revd Jackie Searle, Anglican vicar & Dean of Women’s Ministry, Diocese of Derby

“The course helped to develop our mediation skills, whilst raising self-awareness and self-confidence.”
Revd Ruth Duck, Methodist minister, Easingwold, North Yorkshire

“This is a great course for anyone wanting to develop mediation skills. Go on it and be prepared to work hard. It’s well worth it!”
Chris Chesters, Church Army captain, Rotherham, South Yorkshire

“You have to experience it to appreciate it – as ever with Bridge Builders’ training, it is transformational!”
Revd Helen Thorp, Anglican vicar and college tutor, Newcastle-upon-Tyne