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"This is a previously recorded show. This show highlights the conflict in a church community where the religious beliefs of the elder population of the church and the growing LGBT population of the church began to divide the church into two factions. Community mediators worked closely with this community to open the dialogues for a deeper\xa0\xa0\xa0understanding."\n Church congregations are not immune to conflict.\xa0Beth Padgett\xa0and\xa0Alexandria Skinner\xa0would argue that conflict is a sign of an active, engaged, and vital congregation. The question is not whether religious communities will have conflict, but how they will respond to it when it happens.\xa0Beth\xa0and\xa0Alexandria\xa0will discuss patterns of church conflict, as well as how mediators can invite clergy, staff and members into trans-formative conversations where firmly held beliefs are part of the conflict and its transformation.\n \xa0\nBeth Padgett\xa0works as a civil and family mediator. She is the Executive Director of the Community Mediation Center in Columbia. Beth earned two degrees from the University of South Carolina, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Masters of Education.\xa0\nAlexandria Skinner, a mediator in Columbia, South Carolina, focuses her practice on helping parties resolve conflict where future relationships are important, such as divorce and parenting, elder mediation, family businesses, and church congregational mediation.\xa0Alexandria, also an IACP certified collaborative divorce attorney, has completed graduate studies in ethics, which she also applies in helping parties understand and make decisions about how to respond to conflict.