I've just volunteered to be in charge of collecting panel ideas for the Progressive Faith Blog Con. We're working on roughing out a schedule for the weekend now; I'm guessing we'll probably have space for four or five 60- or 90-minute panels, and we'd like to ensure as much topical diversity as we can.

We're operating on the unconference model (here's a good definition); though we hope to put together a Saturday night roundtable with featured guests, most of the con will be planned, led, and created by we who attend. We're all bloggers, after all; we all have things to say, and we know the best conversations arise out of dialogue! Here are some of the panel ideas I'm planning to suggest:

• Is our religious blogosphere open or closed? Is there communication and community across denominational (or faith) lines, or are we circling the wagons and conversing only with our own?

• Deep ecumenism in the blogosphere: how can we ensure that our connections with one another go beyond blogrolling and into real dialogue? Do we agree that we want to broaden our religious worlds by connecting with bloggers of other traditions, and if so, how can we enact that in reality? How about connecting with bloggers who share our religious labels, but don't share our approach to our traditions?

• Scripture study: Many of us use our blogs for scripture study and text discussion. How can we learn from and with one another?

• Getting larger, getting louder: Too often the blogosphere seems dominated by liturgical, theological, and political conservatives. How can we get more progressives blogging, and blogging in a way that makes a difference?

Our aim is to collect as many panel ideas as we can, and then choose a handful of them to use at the con. So my question for you is, what would you like to discuss? What panels would make you want to be there? What sounds fun to you?

Submit panel ideas as comments on this post; or, if you'd prefer, submit them to me via email.  If you know you can't make it, feel free to chime in anyway. And if you think you might be willing to help moderate one of your suggested panels, let us know that too...

On a semi-related note: though the Progressive Faith Blog Con Carnival usually goes live on Sundays, this week's edition -- hosted here -- will go live tomorrow before Shabbat begins. I've been trawling the blogs on the PFBC blogroll for interesting posts, but if you have a post you want to include, email me soon!

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