3. Imagining an Alternative Reality

4. You woke up one day, and the Church is just as you have dreamed it could be.  What looks different?  How is your day different?  What feels different?  Please write responses to these questions in silence and without raising your pen from paper until I ask you to stop.

5. Dialogue  Please share whatever highlights you like with your table group.  Please name one thing that is a part of your alternative reality that it is in your power to bring about when you get home.  Please write each thing on a small paper and pass to middle of table.

7. Vatican II and Imagination  A part of Vatican II was grappling with an alternative reality  It provides a template for us to do it in our contexts  We have always relied on our imaginations– think of Moses and the Israelites, as interpreted by Walter Brueggeman

8. Communication

9. Some characteristics of substantive dialogue  Active listening  Good will  Mutuality  Willingness to hang in there  Curiosity

10. Try it out  Please find one partner  Identify one pastoral challenge  Talk about how you might address that challenge

11. Some Barriers to Dialogue  Fear, usually manifested as win/lose mentality  Cultural misunderstanding, particularly when there is an assumption of one normative world view

13. How we interpret  Own values  Assumptions about other

14. Awareness  Of our own perspectives  Honesty about blind spots  Vulnerability, willingness to learn from a new perspective  Paying attention to communication styles and power differentials where they exist

15. Vatican II  Enduring message  And also model for way of being Church  Self reflection and intense engagement  Initiated at every level and in a variety of contexts

17. And what grace does the same Spirit have in store for you and your parish?