What We Do

Common Tables is a conduit to bring culturally diverse individuals, or couples, together with the tools and techniques for a progressive dialogue of compassionate discovery. The diverse characteristics of each small group of four to eight people are based upon each member’s past or current association to religious or philosophical ideologies – ideologies that have established the core values and practices or each individual.

Our objective is to have the individuals identify the common threads of values and life practices that are mutually shared by the group. Through this process, team members learn about the key religious and cultural characteristics that have influenced – and continue to influence – each individual’s life.

Our desire is to have the individuals learn to honor the differences that create the rich mosaic of our global society, while celebrating the commonalities that bring us together.

Who We Are

Common Tables is a Denver-based organization. Our vision is global; our focus is at the local, grass-roots level. The goal of Common Tables is to build a framework within which 3 million people from all over the world will meet in small diverse groups with a primary goal of simply getting to know one another. In a short time, these small group interactions will generate the momentum needed for respect and understanding to circle the world.

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The L.A. Times features Common Tables

The buzz continues to grow! This time with a major article in Tuesday's L.A. Times:

Breaking bread and boundaries

by Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 18, 2008

CASTLE ROCK, COLO. -- The four couples were just settling into small talk over appetizers when Kenneth Holloman cleared his throat.

"Would the group permit me to ask an impertinent question?" he said. "How many here believe there's a hell?"



It was not your typical icebreaker.

But then, this was not your typical dinner party.

The couples, strangers to one another, had been brought together by Common Tables, a nonprofit that aims to nurture interfaith friendships. Holloman is an atheist; his wife, a Methodist. Their group included a Jewish couple; a Baptist minister and his wife; and a couple who left the Mormon Church and now belong to a New Age movement called Religious Science.

Common Tables puts together group rosters and asks members to meet for dinner at least four times. Participants can talk about theology or the weather. They can share prayers or photos of their children. Nothing's required. And nothing is off-limits, except proselytizing. The point is simply to reach out, to shake hands with a Buddhist, enjoy a glass of wine with a Wiccan, share laughs with a Sikh or an agnostic or a Jain.

Click Here to read the full article. (Be sure to use the link at the bottom of page 1 to read the second page!)

Table Grace

Among the wonderful feedback we get from our Tables is a delightful collection of interfaith blessings - used before and after meals. From time-to-time we'll share some of our favorites.

Here are a few we've gathered recently:

This ritual is One.
The food is One.
We who offer the food are One.
The fire of hunger is also One.
All action is One.
We who understand this are One.

Hindu blessing


He is God! Thou seest us, O my God, gathered around this table, praising Thy bounty, with our gaze set upon Thy Kingdom. O Lord! Send down upon us Thy heavenly food and confer upon us Thy blessing. Thou art verily the Bestower, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Baha'i


Blessed is The Lord our God, Sovereign of the universe, who sustains the entire world with goodness, kindness and mercy. God gives food to all creatures, for God's mercy is everlasting. Through God's abundant goodness we have not lacked sustenance, and may we not lack sustenance forever, for the sake of God's great name. God sustains all, does good to all, and provides food for all the creatures whom God has created. Blessed is The Lord our God, who provides food for all.

Birkat HaMazon (Jewish)

Heard From The Tables

Kenton K., Colorado, Common Tables Member

“WOW! We just finished up with our first dinner (almost 4 hours.) What a wonderful experience. "

Diversity?? You Bet!!!

What do a Baptist, a Buddhist, and a Baha'i have in common with a Muslim, a Jew and a Quaker?

The answer is easier than you might think: Members of each of these faiths have recently joined Common Tables. And each brings to the Common Tables community an open heart and a spirit of curiosity.

FACT - Common Tables already includes members who list their faith and/or spiritual belief system as: Jewish - both Orthodox & Reform, Baptist, Unitarian Universalist, Atheist, Buddhist, Primal Indigenous, Catholic, Seventh-day Adventist, Pantheist, Religious Science, Baha'i, Quaker, Agnostic, Church of Christ, Islam, Methodist, New Thought, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ and a number of folks who are "Searching". What a wonderfully diverse and exciting group!