WINTHROP — A community forum to explore the uses and control of guns will be co-hosted and co-sponsored by the Winthrop Center Friends (Quaker) and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Winthrop at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 3, at the Winthrop Center Friends Church, 219 Winthrop Center Road.

Leslie Manning, president of the Maine Council of Churches board of directors, will facilitate the forum to examine with mutual respect some of the key issues and viewpoints focusing on the uses and control of guns.

Participants will explore the myths and reality of recreational gun use, guns for self-protection, gun trafficking, prohibited possession, constitutional protections, gun violence and responsible gun ownership. There are people in our communities who love the Second Amendment as much as others who love the First Amendment: how do we speak with one another, learn from each other and craft the best policy that we can?

This community forum is supported by the Winthrop Area Ministerial Association and will be conducted in the spirit of the Maine Council of Churches’ Covenant for Civil Discourse which asks us not to “demonize” one another and to treat each other as we would be treated.

Facilitator Manning is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and a long-time advocate for social and economic justice. Manning has been engaged in anti-violence work since the mid-1970s when she was a founding member of a hotline and shelter for victims of domestic violence. She has served as a safety and health officer for her union, as deputy director for the Bureau of Labor Standards, concentrating on issues of workplace violence, and most recently, as regional coordinator for Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Winthrop Center Friends and St. Andrews Episcopal Winthrop are in an ecumenical partnership sharing the Winthrop Center Friends Church building at 219 Winthrop Center Road, on Route 135 South approximately a mile from Route 202.

For questions about “Guns: A Community Forum,” call 207-395-4790, email pastor@winthropcenterfriends.org or email behoffman1@roadrunner.com.