The Potluck Project
Closing The Great Chasm Between Us
Machines of Slander and Fears For sixty years, people have been walking away—from groups, from institutions, and even from one another. Churches, unions, civic clubs, and neighborhood associations—once the backbone of community life—have all thinned out. Groups have walked away from other groups too, retreating into separate worlds of culture, class, and information. But nature…
Read MoreHow We Are Organizing Our Mission
Last week, I shared about our new mission statement at Paths to Understanding: “Gathering Neighbors and Growing Trust.” This new language isn’t just words. It’s shaping how we organize our work and where we put our energy. To live out our mission, PTU is focused in three areas: 1. Local Practice, Shared Tools At the…
Read MoreA Feast of Connection
by Viveka Hall-Holt, Let’s Go Together Coordinator A few weeks ago, we held our very first Potluck Project gathering in Snohomish County, WA. Fittingly, we met in a space that is transformed into a community kitchen twice a week to feed people in need. We called our event Neighbors Coming Together: A Feast of Food…
Read MoreAll of the Above: Relief and Resilience
In recent weeks, many have asked me: “How can we do bridge-building work when there is so much harm taking place?” I get it. The challenges are real. We live in a time that is both dangerously unequal and dangerously divided. Inequality leaves too many without security or opportunity. Division makes it harder to even…
Read MoreToo Big and Too Small
It’s easy to spend hours each week reading about national politics, big court cases, or the latest viral controversy. These stories are important—but for most of us, they are too big. We have almost no direct influence over them. We can get angry, anxious, or exhausted, but that rarely leads to any action that changes…
Read MoreThe Gift of Multifaith: What Our Tradition Offers the Bridge-Building Movement
As we reflect on how our mission at Paths to Understanding needs to evolve to meet today’s context, I keep coming back to this: multi-faith organizations have a gift to offer the wider bridge-building movement. A recent article by Allison Ralph put it plainly: advocacy and bridge-building strategies, on their own, are failing to create…
Read More