This is the second of three units that will make up a book entitled Participating in Public Discourse, the fourteenth studied in the Ruhi Institute’s main sequence of courses. The unit, “Dynamics of Our Participation”, seeks to describe some of the salient features of our involvement in this area of activity at the present stage in the evolution of the Faith. Together with the first unit, “The Nature of Our Contributions”, it hopes to help participants gain insight into the knowledge, skills and abilities, spiritual qualities and attitudes that enable individuals to engage fruitfully in the discourses of society.

The opening section of the first unit sets out, in brief, the path participants have followed in reaching this point along the main sequence of courses. It recounts how, in advancing thus far on the path of service, they have steadily built their capacity to enter into meaningful and uplifting conversation. They will now be challenged to develop not only the capabilities required to collaborate with others in spaces where the discourses of society unfold but also those that will enable them to align their contributions with the teachings of the Faith. The former is the concern of this second unit, while the latter is addressed in the first, and it is assumed that every tutor, before taking a group through the units of this book, will give some thought to the nature of the capacity-building process that has prepared participants to make this next step.