A discussion on interfaith dialogue and promoting civility as communities of faith featuring Rabbi Steve Gutow and Rev. Michael Kinnamon, will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall at Washington University.

This event is co-sponsored by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics and the Michael and Barbara Newmark Institute for Human Relations of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, the event is free and open to the public.

Tim Townsend, religion writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Ghazala Hayat of the Islamic Foundation, will respond to the presentations before the floor is opened for questions and answers.

Gutow is president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and is a board member of Faith in Public Life, a Washington D.C.-based organization aimed at advancing faith in the public sector as a positive and unifying force for justice, compassion and the common good.

Kinnamon, a clergy member in the church Disciples of Christ, is the ninth general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States. He is the former Allen and Dottie Miller Professor of Mission, Peace and Ecumenical Studies at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis.

Gutow and Kinnamon met during their time in St. Louis and have a history of working for common understanding between ecumenical and interfaith communities. They have modeled, through their own relationship, ways in which interfaith cooperation can be a uniting force for social good.

They have spoken together publicly and have co-written several articles on issues ranging from torture and hate crimes to the defense of civil liberties of Muslim-Americans.

The panelists will discuss constructive ideas for promoting civility as communities of faith.

The event is supported by WUSTL Interfaith Campus Ministers Association, the Aquinas Institute of Theology, Eden Theological Seminary, Interfaith Partnership/Faith Beyond Walls and the St. Louis Rabbinical Association.

A reception in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge will follow the event.

For more information, go online to rap.wustl.edu/events/bridging-divides.php. or to www.jcrcstl.org, or call JCRC at 314 442-3871