Over this past year, the Santa Fe Institute on International Relations has asked the Rev. Talitha Arnold, senior minister at the United Church of Santa Fe, to develop panels of interfaith leaders from Santa Fe to meet with delegations of journalists, teachers, and Moslem clerics from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The delegations are sponsored by the U.S. State Department and are visiting five different cities in the U.S. of which Santa Fe is one. Thus far United has hosted two such panels with a third scheduled for late June. They include Rabbis from one of the local synagogues, the Imam from the mosque, along with Catholic Priests and Protestant clergy.

United was asked to develop these meetings because they have been leaders in interfaith dialogue for the last two decades, in Protestant/Catholic settings and Jewish/Christian conversations and shared worship. Most recently over the last two years, Arnold and the local Imam have offered a series of conversations on "What Christians can Learn from Moslems, What Moslems can Learn from Christians"

After the panel with Afghani and Pakistani journalists, the organizer sent Arnold this excerpt from her report to the State Department:

“The religious panel at the United Church of Santa Fe, took the visitors' breath away.
Assumed to be a forum for theological chit-chat, the United Church soon showed its true colors to the delight of the astonished visitors who were stuck in the belief that Christian Priests, Jewish Rabbis and Muslim Mullahs would never be good friends and even if they try to be, their mutual suspicion and ill-will would always prevent them from joining hands for a worthy cause, something like the welfare of their communities or the common good of humanity.
The wide spread phenomenon of religious intolerance in their homelands has conditioned the visitors to assume that leaders of different faiths would be like generals of opposing armies bent on wiping each other out, not helping each other to survive and thrive.
The meeting broke the old myth and also showed to the visitors the vast common grounds which exist beyond the lines of hateful divisions and tricky denominations. The experience was rich and two folded for the visitors:

a) They saw that even a tough nut like religious animosity has been cracked open in this country and,
b) now that the task has been proven doable, the possibility is out there for anyone to try their own version of interfaith dialogue, understanding and cooperation.”