CHQ Dialogues
What is CHQ Dialogues?
CHQ Dialogues is a program that provides an opportunity to participate in small group facilitated conversations based on the theme and lectures from the week. It is a way for Chautauquans to listen and learn from each other. The program is based on the ideal that people of different backgrounds and opinions can communicate in open, kind and compassionate ways to bridge differences with understanding and build community.
Where Can I Find a CHQ Dialogue?
Dialogues are hosted at Denomination Houses and other locations each week during the season. You do not need to be affiliated with the faith community hosting the dialogue or any faith tradition to attend. All are welcome. Dialogues last approximately 75 minutes and are included with all gate passes. Registration is not required. See the schedule below for CHQ Dialogue times and locations or consult the Chautauquan Daily to find a time and location that fits your schedule.
Why Should I Spend My Time in a CHQ Dialogue?
Because facilitated conversations with other Chautauquans can enrich your experience. Lectures we hear at Chautauqua can be transformative. We never know when a speaker is going to connect the dots in a way that resonates with us so strongly that we start to think differently, act differently or choose to go down a different path in life. Through dialogue we can process what we are learning, deepen our understanding and broaden our perspective.
What Can I Expect?
You will engage with others in small groups of six to fifteen participants to discuss what you have heard from the stages of Chautauqua during the week. A facilitator will help your group stay focused on the subject matter, maintain respectful dialogue and ensure that each participant has an equal chance to express themselves. All dialogues follow the same format, but each discussion will be unique based on what has resonated with participants in that group.
What is the Purpose of CHQ Dialogues?
Since it was first offered in 2012, CHQ Dialogues sought to foster community, compassion and understanding by providing opportunities for conversations that matter. The program is built on two foundational values: the way we articulate our ideas is as important as the ideas themselves, and listening to the perspective of others is as important as expressing our own opinion. To date, close to 10,000 visitors have participated in a CHQ Dialogue. Our vision is that Chautauquans will experience dialogue as an important tool for bridging differences and model dialogue skills in their home communities, workplaces and organizations they participate in.
Who are the Facilitators?
Volunteers who become facilitators come from all walks of life and from across the nation. They come to Chautauqua for one week or more to join with other facilitators as a team. Facilitators participate in off-season online training and real-time training sessions during the Season. Each week the facilitators meet to evaluate the effectiveness of their facilitation as well as to improve their facilitation skills by learning from each other’s experiences.
If you are interested in becoming a facilitator, please email Robin Harbage: robin.harbage@gmail.com
Weekly Dialogues Schedule for the 2025 season
(starting June 24, ending August 22)
Tuesdays
12:30 p.m. • Presbyterian House
Wednesdays
12:30 p.m. • Presbyterian House
3:30 p.m. • Catholic House
6:30 p.m. • Lutheran House
Thursdays
12:30 p.m. • Everett House
3:30 p.m. • Baptist House
3:30 p.m. • United Methodist House
4 p.m. • AAHH (devoted to the AAHH Lecture on Wed. at 3:30 p.m.)
6:30 p.m. • Disciples of Christ House
Fridays
12:30 p.m. • Lutheran House
3:30 p.m. • Episcopal House
3:30 p.m. • UU House
3:30 p.m. • Alumni Hall
History of CHQ Dialogues
From its beginnings in 2011, the Chautauqua Dialogues Program has been a work in progress. The Department of Religion created it to enhance community engagement and education. Originally participants focused on the 2:00 interfaith lectures. These lectures were initially designed to explore the Abrahamic Traditions in an effort to foster mutual understanding, appreciation and respect both among religious practitioners and non-practitioners alike.
The Department of Religion designated this program as “Interfaith Dialogues.” It has grown broader over the years. It now offers an opportunity for dialogue on all issues and ideas from all the lectures presented at Chautauqua, while welcoming religious perspectives in all its understandings and manifestations. It has evolved out of various iterations of programs that the Religion Department began at Chautauqua and fostered elsewhere.
The Community Interfaith Dialogues concept of celebrating religious diversity, has many antecedents at Chautauqua. It grew out of the Abrahamic Initiative that had its beginning in 1998 under the Rev. Dr. Ross Mackenzie. It took programmatic form at Chautauqua in 2005 under the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell and Maureen Rovegno.
Those who developed the program at Chautauqua hoped that the participants would take the program home to their various cities around the country. One successful result was the dialogue program which the Rev. Susan McKee and Hal Simmons introduced in Denver.
By 2008 the Department of Religion refashioned the concept into a program called Communities in Conversation, led by Emilie Barnett and held during the Season. It grew into year-round programs in local libraries, primarily in the Cleveland area, but also as far as Chicago.
By 2010, the format had become a daily week-long seminar during the Season. It replicated what the Communities in Conversation Program, drawing on the Abrahamic Traditions, was doing in libraries throughout the year over a five-day period, with a different focus each day,
Communities in Conversation throughout the year was a network of community-based interfaith study and discussion groups co-sponsored by the Chautauqua Institution and local libraries. Individuals from different faith communities held informal discussions. They were based on the readings provided in a Study Guide developed in 2009 and revised annually through 2011. In this way, the participants learned about each other’s beliefs and practices.
In 2011 Roger Doebke, of the UU Fellowship, and his wife, Judy, joined with Lynn Stahl and her husband, Rabbi Samuel Stahl, of the Hebrew Congregation, and Subagh Khalsa and his wife Linda Winkelstern, of the Mystic Heart Program, to form the Chautauqua Dialogues. Roger had been involved as a group leader in 2010 and Rabbi Stahl had served as the facilitator on Jewish day for Communities in Conversation.
Ultimately, Roger Doebke and Lynn Stahl expanded the program to include far more facilitators to accommodate the increased number of dialogues offered. The facilitators go through a thorough training with on-going enrichment and discussions. The meaningful discussions take place Tuesday through Friday each week. The focus of the Dialogues now includes discussions of all of the programs offered each week at Chautauqua. The sponsors are the Department of Religion, the Department of Community Relations, and the IDEA Office. Denominational Houses and the Institution provide the venues, which offer hospitality, enhanced community engagement, and a value-added experience.