Christine Balderas, who serves on the Bridging the Religious Divide planning committee, sees the process as a way to break down "artificial barriers."

Those who have signed up for the process — about 140 people, half of them LDS — "are the least reluctant to break out of their isolation," said Anderson. The mayor hopes to convince the Alliance for Unity, a group of diverse community leaders formed in 2001 during the city's tense reaction to the LDS Church's purchase of a block of Main Street, to take on the Bridging the Religious Divide project, providing funding and a full-time director. "We want to make sure it's sustained. We want to bring more and more people into the process.

"This is an historic occasion," Anderson told the 100 strangers who sat down together Saturday. "I think I can say that without hyperbole."

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