Uzi Weingarten started teaching Communicating with Compassion about 10 years ago, a way of listening with empathy which transforms workplaces as well as personal relationships. Uzi is a Rabbi, a teacher and a compassionate presence.

Communicating with Compassion is an organization and a course of study. Uzi Weingarten and Marlene Strom both present courses on different aspects of communication. Uzi has presented his course in a variety of settings, religious and secular, He is currently helping the staff and administration at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to learn to treat one another and clients with respect and dignity. You can learn about their offerings at UziTeaches.com.

J.E. McNeil, of the Center on Conscience & War describes the message and work of that organization, helping those seeking conscientious objector status, and those in the military seeking to get out, whatever the reason, and the spiritual roots that led her to this work.

The Center on Conscience & War was established in 1940 to defend and extend the rights of conscientious objectors and support all those who question participation in war, including staffing calls for the G.I. Rights Hotline. J.E. speaks of her work as a tax attorney for the poor, defending the rights of protesters and war tax resisters, serving the CCO, and of her journey from her Texas childhood as a conservative Methodist to her life as a Quaker active with the Friends Meeting of Washington.

Music Featured:

Jill Sternberg was the first graduate of UW-Milwaukee's Peace Studies Program she is the Sept/Oct 2005 Gamaliel Chair in Peace & Justice. She has established a peace center in East Timor, training men and women in non-violence. Jill self-designed the first Peace Studies Major at UW-Milwaukee and has established herself as a gifted and creative leader. She has spent extensive time in the Philippines and East Timor, establishing a peace center, training women and men in non-violence, and developing intercultural mediation teams (just ‘Google’ Jill Sternberg and be amazed at her work and energy.)

Our guest is Sandra Lyons of the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters. Sandra shares the roots and fruits of her life, including her years as a nurse midwife and her current passion as the director of Justice, Peace and Earthcare for her congregation.

Justin Otto's Song of the Soul tells of his thought and journey leading him to Christian Science, where he was a member until the summer of 2006. Justin was a senior at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, studying social work at the time of this interview. 

Roger Anderson is a former English teacher and long-time professional musician teaching guitar, bass, banjo and other instruments. Folk music is his preferred music, a form that well-expresses the non-mainstream values he's come to hold as an adult. Raised Lutheran, he tends to think of himself as non-religious.

Spirit In Action will be visiting today with Barb Kass who is a member and founder of the Anathoth Community Farm, an itentional community based on non-violence, sustainability and community, located in Luck, Wisconsin. Barb has traveled a long and varied spiritual path, being raised Catholic, active with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in college, attending seminary in Chicago, working with Catholic Worker communities, and currently attending a progressive small-town Luthern Church. She and her husband, Mike Miles, have been jailed for their actions, including for praying on the White House Lawn.

Ruthie Rosauer is a member of Eau Claire's Unitarian Universalist Congregation and, among other things, is an enthusiastic singer, including her passion for meditative singing. Her spiritual path has including visits to Taizé, an international, ecumenical community in southern France, and to Findhorn Community in Scotland.

Interview and music with Eric Nielsen, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Eau Claire. Eric Nielsen's Song of the Soul includes lots of chorale music, given his long interest and participation in this and other forms of music. Eric is both the minister and member of the choir at his church, a somewhat unusual pairing to juggle.