The fourth presentation at the 77th annual Amos Fortune Forum 2024 summer speaker series will feature Mark Beckwith, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, N.J., presenting “Seeing Beyond Polarization.”

The free presentation will be held in the Meetinghouse located in Jaffrey Center on Friday, July 26, at 8 p.m.

Beckwith’s passion is to invite people to look beneath and beyond their political and theological positions. He claims that the prophetic voice and action needed today is not to reinforce ideological echo chambers, but to invite people into the “mandorla,” the Italian word for almond, which is the shape that is created when two circles intersect.

Today, the mandorla is the intersection between Republicans and Democrats, and drawing on his experience with Braver Angels and gun violence prevention, he will suggest other ways of seeing and acting.

Beckwith served as the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 12 years, retiring in 2018. In the wake of gang violence there, he helped found the Newark Interfaith Coalition for Hope and Peace. He currently serves as the Bishop Liaison, a network of 100 bishops he co-founded after the Newtown, Conn., killings in 2012. He is the author of “Seeing the Unseen: Beyond Prejudices, Paradigms and Party Lines.”

Beckwith is a graduate of Amherst College and Yale Divinity School and lives in Jaffrey. 

This summer, the forum is providing space and seating on the Meetinghouse Common for attendees who would like to arrive early and bring a picnic. This space will be set up on Friday evening by 6:30 p.m.  

A recording of each event will be available on YouTube shortly after the presentation. Information is available at amosfortune.org.