Henry Ford Community
College (HFCC)
serves as the host and as one of the sponsors of the RCP
Conference, which takes place March 23-25, 2012 in the
Andrew A. Mazzara Administrative Services and Conference Center
(ASCC) on the main campus.

Additional sponsors include: the Common Bond Institute, People’s
Peace Fund, the International Humanistic Psychology Association
and Parashakthi Temple. This conference is supported by the
Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan and endorsed by
more than 100 international universities and organizations. In
addition, this three-day event is an official partner of the
Charter for Compassion and the Parliament of World’s Religions.

The RCP Conference, established as an annual event in Michigan
since 2009, promotes inter-religious and intra-religious
dialogue in an effort to explore the challenges of social
paranoia, intolerance, negative stereotyping, scapegoating,
racism, hate crimes, Islamophobia, and its effects on all
communities. It is designed to raise awareness on how to better
understand and appreciate spiritual practice as a means for
working toward peace and healing in these challenging times
instead of division and polarity.

This year's program includes efforts to address the relationship
between rising Islamophobia and rising anti-Semitism, racism,
and anti-immigrant / anti-minority sentiments—how targeting and
scapegoating one group with negative stereotypes and hate acts
increases the same toward other minority groups.

The conference will also explore action plans for communities to
work together in educating and sensitizing the public. In
addition, “Walking the Talk to Compassion and Harmony” will
examine the emotional and psychological distress individuals and
groups experience as a result of being targeted, how this
affects relationships within and between communities, and how
counseling professionals and clergy can work together to
alleviate this distress.

Attracting participants from across the United States and other
countries, the RCP Conference works to raise public awareness
and stimulate proactive efforts at improving relations between
and within communities. More than 40 presenters will examine a
broad range of challenging questions and dilemmas, as well as
explore practical ways to increase understanding and compassion
– putting those principles into practice.

Among the speakers and authors is renowned inter-religious
scholar Huston Smith. Groups will also be brought in from
countries in the Middle East for live two-way participation
through video link-ups. The three-day program includes keynotes,
breakout workshops, topical panels, daily facilitated dialogue
and action planning groups, on-site blogging, evening cultural
events, multicultural community, and rich networking for
building collaborative action beyond the conference.

“Our goal is to promote the religious experience as a healing
remedy rather than problem. To do this, it is important to look
within ourselves as well as at other religions. The reality is
religious and cultural communities share both common dilemmas
and capacity to transform these dilemmas into a shared
consciousness of peace, one based on understanding, familiarity,
and appreciation, not on fear of the unknown other. We each
carry a piece of the problem and a piece of the solution, so
engaging each other in compassionate dialogue is not only
reasonable, it’s absolutely essential,” said Olweean.

HFCC students can attend for free. For more information and to
register, please visit the CBI website at


www.cbiworld.org/Pages/Conferences_RCP_Fees.htm or
call Steve Olweean at 269-665-9393, or call William Secrest at
313.845.6441.