Kaine, who is chairman of the Democratic National Committee, writes that Hope in the Cities, which Corcoran helped to launch, has "moved what looked like an immovable barricade" in Richmond, a city starkly divided along racial lines and "congenitally resistant to change of any kind."  Governor Kaine will speak at the national book launching event at the Library of Virginia in Richmond on March 15 at 5:30 p.m. 

Trustbuilding offers the first comprehensive review of three decades of work by countless individuals who have taken extraordinary steps of reconciliation in a city that was once a major slave trading center, the capital of the Confederacy, and where state leaders urged Massive Resistance to integration.

Martha McCoy, executive director of Everyday Democracy, a leading national organization promoting community dialogue, calls it "a visionary, compelling account of healing and change."

According to former Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders, Trustbuilding is a "soberly inspiring book about citizens who have struggled to find respectful and productive ways of relating through dialogue across the racial, social, and economic differences that dangerously divide us."

The publishing of Trustbuilding signals the start of a series of forums and workshops in cities across the U.S. this year. Certainly its theme is relevant to America's social and political climate. A hallmark of the Richmond process is its success in reaching across political and cultural boundaries.

Corcoran claims that building trust is essential for building healthy communities. "The most-needed reforms . . . require levels of political courage and trust-based collaboration that can only be achieved by individuals who have the vision, integrity, and persistence to call out the best in others and sustain deep and long-term efforts."

Corcoran believes Richmond's story matters, "because societies everywhere are confronted with the need for reconciliation between communities traumatized by histories of racial, ethnic, or religious division as well as economic disparity." Trustbuilding "provides a practical framework of action for concerned citizens everywhere who are anxious to heal divisions and to build healthy, welcoming communities." 

The fifth Parliament of the World's Religions, attended by over 6000 people from 200 countries, took place in Melbourne, Australia, the first week of December, 2009. Among the U.S. participants were Paul Wee, Adjunct Professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, in Washington, D.C., and Kay Lindahl, founder of the Listening Center in Long Beach, CA, which fosters the practice of sacred listening.

Lindahl gave a workshop on "The Sacred Art of Listening: Hearing from the Heart" at IofC's Creators of Peace (COP) conference, held in Sydney at the beginning of October. On her return to Australia in December, she picked up her connections with the COP network at the Parliament, where Creators of Peace offered a workshop on "Learning to forgive: healing our past, creating our future."

Dr. Wee, a Lutheran minister, has worked to resolve conflict in Guatemala, Eastern and Central Europe. As a program officer in the Religion and Peacemaking unit of the U.S. Institute of Peace in Nigeria, he worked closely with Imam Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, of the Imam and Pastor film. In Melbourne, he showed the film in two separate sessions at the Parliament and, together with an Imam from Baltimore, facilitated discussions afterwards. 

Speaking at a brown bag lunch in the IofC Washington office in January, Wee expressed . . .