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I am a Mennonite Pastor. Every time I say this I expect to receive lots of questions like: "Mennonites let women be pastors?", "What’s the difference between Mennonites and the Amish?", or "I never would have known you were a Mennonite, where’s your bonnet?" Sometimes I do get these questions. Sometimes I receive inquisitive looks. But these things only happen when I choose to identify myself. The rest of the time, I present as any other white, Christian woman and I receive all of the privileges that accompany that identity. Growing up, I learned that Mennonites were outsiders in society. In Mennonite school, we took church history classes where we learned how Mennonites and other Anabaptists were brutally tortured and executed for defying the state religion during the Reformation and that they were persecuted as a religious minority by both Protestants and Catholics. We were also taught about the struggles Mennonite men faced in the United States when ...

  At 15 years of operation, Interfaith Philadelphia is a leader in the nonprofit industry. Our organization has been implementing surveys in order to evaluate the effectiveness of programs. Program evaluation is an area where most interfaith programs struggle; it is difficult to measure the impact of dialogue. Researchers such as Renee Garfinkel (2004) and Reina Neufeldt (2011) began the conversation about best practices regarding interfaith program evaluations. Garfinkel noted that interfaith dialogues themselves may not prevent conflict, but they can change attitudes that may promote peace in the future. Garfinkel (2004) evaluated interfaith dialogue with a conflict resolution framework. She noted that it can oftentimes be difficult to measure the impact of changes in attitude or behavior. In this way, Interfaith Philadelphia is a leader in the efforts to evaluate our impact, particularly during this special Year of Civil Conversations. Interfaith Philadelphia has...