NAINConnect 2008 Workshops

Theme: Gifts We Bring
NAIN – WHERE WE’VE BEEN & WHAT WE HOPE FOR

WORKSHOP SUMMARY
The leaders who have chaired NAIN since its inception in 1988 will revisit its original vision, share their sense of its accomplishments through the years, and reflect on what they hope for NAIN’s future. After the panel’s presentations, those attending will be invited to share their own best experiences of NAIN as well as their hopes for its future.

PRESENTERS
Mike Goggin, Peter Laurence, Kay Lindahl, Don Mayne, and Charles White

Mike Goggin recently left the executive staff of the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washingto to become Executive Director of the St. Vincent Pallotti Center for Apostolic Development. A Catholic, Mike came to NAIN as a student intern and subsequently was invited to join the NAIN Board of Directors. He has served as Chair of NAIN’s Board for the past two years.

Peter Laurence, an honorary member and former Chair of the NAIN Board of Directors, has been active in interfaith work for a quarter-century. He is Executive Director of the Education as Transformation Project at Wellesley College and a member of the Interfaith Committee of the Urantia Book Fellowship.

Kay Lindahl is the author of books about sacred listening and an interfaith activist who founded Alli-ance for Spiritual Community. She served for a number of years on the United Religions Initiative Global Council. After a term as NAIN’s Chair, she continues on the Board of Directors as Treasurer.

Rev. Dr. Don Mayne, ordained in the United Church of Canada, is a long-standing Board member of NAIN who had the grace to stay actively involved after serving as Chair from 2001 to 2004. He is also the retired chair of the Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education and Action, a NAIN member. Besides promoting interfaith relations near and far, he is an activist on behalf children living in poverty, homelessness, and affordable housing.

Rev. Dr. Charles ‘Chuck” White , Presbyterian, was Executive Director of the multi-faith Buffalo Area Metropolitan Ministry in 1987 when a small group of faith leaders he helped organize met in Wichita in 1987 to consider creating a network of interfaith activists across the continent. Inspired in part by leaders from the Temple of Understanding in New York, they organized the first NAINConnect a year later. Chuck became NAIN’s first Chair, has hosted subsequent Connects, been Editor of the NAIN News for many years, and brings his institutional memory and insight to continued engagement with NAIN’s Board.