As this is posted, I should be just about to land in Glasgow, Scotland.  I am once again fortunate enough to be part of an interfaith delegation trip sponsored by the Interfaith Center of New York who’s purpose is to bring interfaith leaders from Glasgow, Barcelona, and New York City during a 3 year-3 city tour to share their ideas, best practices and explore ways to be more effective in their respective cities.

I am part of the New York City delegation and was invited because of the clergy and interfaith I do as a detective in the NYPD working in the Community Affairs Bureau as well as the conflict resolution/mediation work.

I am looking forward to this opportunity to be able to engage others from another city doing similar work yet doing it differently at the same time as each city is different and unique and thus approaches must be designed to meet the varying needs of the stakeholders.

Last year in Barcelona I was able to learn how deeply connected the terms “conflict resolution” and “mediation” is with the term “interfaith.”  There is even an umbrella organization called the Interfaith Mediation Network.

I am looking forward to being able to learn methods of engagement and then reflecting on ways to apply it to my practice to improve my ability to assist others who are involved in conflicts and disputes.

I plan to blog while in Glasgow (and Edinburgh) and you can also follow my trip in twitter.  I will be using the hash tag #ICNYglasgow and posting from both my mediation account, @MediatorJeff and my nonverbal communication account, @NonverbalPhD.