Are you leading a major change and finding tensions rising in your congregation?
Are you dreading a meeting you need to lead or participate in that will discuss a divisive issue?
Can’t sleep because you find someone you work with particularly challenging?
Place for Hope is here to provide the support and guidance you need, bringing relief and comfort in challenging times.
These are just a sample of issues many of us face daily in our lives and faith communities, for which Place for Hope gets called for support. Place for Hope has accompanied, equipped, and supported individuals and faith groups since 2009, so that all might reach their potential to be peacemakers who can navigate conflict, change and differences well.
In fact, Place for Hope is a child of the Church of Scotland. Following the 2008 Congregational Conflict Report, which highlighted the serious problems of stress and conflict within the Church of Scotland at that time and the serious impact of this on people, relationships, and the Church’s mission, the Church set out to manage conflict differently – instead of an adversarial approach, they set out to look at conflict through a gospel lens and take a relational approach – and so created Place for Hope.
Conflict at its simplest is noticing that we have differences that may be (or seem to be) incompatible – “I want to do things this way, you want to do things another way.” “We believe this, your group believes that.” “I have this opinion, you have an opposing opinion.” As such, conflict is a normal part of life and a healthy sign of our diversity. Place for Hope recognises that many people, including those in faith communities, can struggle to find helpful ways to respond to change, tension and difference. Some structures, cultures, systems, and habits can make it difficult for people to hear each other well, and relationships may break down. We also know that there is transformational potential in conflict, which can lead to stronger relationships and communities if we can work through conflict well.
Place for Hope helps create space and processes for people to truly hear one another and dig down below the surface of their positions to understand better the needs and life journeys that have brought them to those positions. This often helps people find creative solutions to their conflicts or hold/rebuild relationships even when they still profoundly disagree.
Place for Hope continues to partner with the Church of Scotland to provide mediation, facilitated conversations, and conflict coaching for people needing support – either when things have become stressed or proactively when people recognise a change or tension is arising and want to ensure they manage it well. Under our latest partnership, ‘Living Peace Programme’, the Church of Scotland has also committed to equipping more people across the Church to manage conflict and change well. The programme provides a range of training from open courses for anyone in the Church of Scotland who would like to increase their understanding, skills and confidence in navigating and transforming conflict and change, to more specialised or tailored courses for particular ministries which may benefit from more advanced training in helping others at times of change and conflict.
The partnership between the Church of Scotland and Place for Hope is itself a sign of hope in these days of huge upheaval within and outside the Church. Through the ‘Living Peace Programme,’ there has never been a better opportunity for people of faith to access support and become better equipped and confident in living out gospel peace and reconciliation in the midst of all the fear, pain, and division of our world.
[Please find out more about Place for Hope’s support through mediation, facilitated conversations, coaching or explore our training programme here. All these services are free at the point of delivery under the joint Living Peace Programme between the Church of Scotland and Place for Hope.]
Carolyn Merry
(Director of Place for Hope)