ONA News May 2005

 

Spirituality . . .
   for global survival
Education . . .
   for global community
Action . . .
   for global justice

Three Perspectives on the NARDA/Oikosnet North America Gathering

Sacred Spaces, Just Relations:
Center Practices for a Transforming World

Sally Simmel, newly elected President of NARDA/Oikosnet North America

I extend my personal thanks to everyone who attended the annual gathering at Pendle Hill and honored me by electing me to the presidency for the next two years. I have been in the NARDA organization for about 13 years and my work over the past twenty years has been primarily in the faith and life/faith and work movement. I have been working with lay people living out their calls in the marketplace, and people who use centers for reflection and learning. I am currently on the board of Spirit in the Desert, an interfaith center in Carefree, Arizona—a NARDA member center.

Pendle Hill was the perfect place for reflection, meditation, conversation about the world (locally and globally) and the directions our group should take. We've been on a journey of several decades and over that time the road has twisted and turned, grown wider in spots— and narrower.

At Pendle Hill it felt as though the road had taken us to the beach of a huge ocean, opened wide in front of us with no end in sight, calm in places, rough water and high waves in others. Time to chart our own course.

It was a daunting experience. We pushed the envelope in terms of inclusivity and expanded global relationships. By opening our membership to organizations, groups and individuals with similar missions and goals, we multiply the possibilities for making a difference in the world and provide them and us with centers which provide the perfect places for needed conversation. Cross-fertilizing if you will.

By committing to a closer relationship with Oikosnet (the worldwide organization), individually as centers and groups and as a regional entity, we expand the chances for engagement of people and groups in all parts of the world, again at centers and in places where capacity building is a value and the means of justice are being sought.

We could use the current buzz words—transition, transformation, reinvention—for ourselves. We could say "new" and "improved," but all of those things occur because of what has already happened in our lives and work. The people, the experiences, the faith, and the events in society, shape what we have to work with to move ahead. And it's our responsibility to take all that seriously.

We looked at our commitment to other projects and found three that are exciting to some and fit our skills and interests: using centers as sites for seminary training, visiting members to see how things are going in their particular places, and providing an immersion for new directors or staff on a semi-annual basis.

I hope you can join us on this voyage. I hope you will tell us what you are doing and how we might support and nurture that, send people your way who are interested in your particular focus and let the world know of your good work.

Now it's time to get to work, to get used to our new name (Oikosnet North America—ONA), to engage our colleagues, to create safe spaces for just relations and to find the places in the world where we can contribute to the common good—together.

 

A Sense of “Growing New”

Marylu Pentelow, staff member at Crieff Hills Community, Guelph, Ontario

When I recall the recent NARDA Conference, it seems appropriate to be quietly reflective, as in the Quaker tradition.  We experienced a sense of “growing new”.  It was a time to retrace the steps we have taken regionally and globally around issues of environment, peace and justice. It was a rich experience.

Leaving the cold weather in Ontario, we travelled to the warmth and newness of spring that was the beginning of so many of these growing new experiences.

This was my first involvement with NARDA, and I was eager to meet others as well as to explore Pendle Hill and learn more about the Quaker culture.  I did not realize that we would have our eyes so widely opened, our minds so deeply challenged or our hearts so deeply touched.  I truly feel that I have grown new!

Pendle Hill opens its doors to groups such as NARDA where participants share daily meals in the community and are genuinely welcomed to Meeting for Worship.  For a half hour each morning, we shared silence and we came to appreciate the gentleness and oneness of this time together.

On our Friday experiences, we were led through a time of preparation, a site visit and a reflective time of debriefing.  Each step was an important time of learning and sharing as a group.

Our first “plunge” was to Redhill Farm.  With passion Carol, Pendle Hill cook and Amy, Redhill farmer, explained about Community Supported Agriculture, the beginnings of Redhill Farm and the commitment of Pendle Hill to support this philosophy.  On site, it was amazing to stand on the 6 acre parcel of land, knowing that 100 families share its organic produce.  With the seedlings in the foreground and the Sisters of St. Francis Motherhouse overlooking this project, one has a strong sense of renewal and new growth.

As we toured around Chester, the stresses and needs of the community were evident. And all the while, only minutes from the lushness of upscale Philadelphia.  Sharing their stories were Elizabeth Ellis, Director of Social Witness and Darrin Pearsall, Program Coordinator.  Their love and commitment to the program in Chester was an inspiration.  We who saw all this for the first time asked “Why, how can this be?”  While we joined the youth from the Chester program, we shared, we all trusted and we learned.  This young group, within a historic church of broken stained glass windows, represents the growth and changes in Chester with the hope of a new future for these young people.  We were privileged to share a few minutes, a part of their lives, to see the new growth and glimpse some of their journey.

Celebrating a Shabbat for the first time in the Arch Street Meeting house was new to us all.  We celebrated the ending of a week and the beginning of the next through the eyes of an ancient tradition.  This along with the message from Rabbi Michael Lerner who stretched us and challenged us to grow into action with a firmly rooted knowledge that new growth is needed.

How we are connected through Oikosnet was brought home clearly when Maria from El Salvador and John from India brought to us their stories.  Maria’s mission is helping children and women who have experienced the ravages of rape. New hope comes from people who care with her in a protected place. Through the eyes of John, we learned of the new hope and growth for students from villages at his school and retreat center. His students learn trades which in turn will provide income for the survival of families in this part of India – new skills and new hope.

I came away from this event with my mind full of many new and challenging experiences.  The challenge is to take this newness, return home and carry some of the change back into our community.  A starting point was offered, the journey has just begun!

 

Reflections from Pendle Hill—April 2005
Transformative Differences

Mardi Tindal, Director, Five Oaks Centre, Paris, Ontario,
Canadian Representative, Executive Committee

I’ve been around the edges of NARDA since the late eighties when I was on the national staff of The United Church of Canada, working with all of our denominational education and retreat centres. I read about NARDA’s meetings and events but had no first hand experience of them. When the Five Oaks Centre board and I were moving toward my appointment as Executive Director, I decided to check out a NARDA gathering at Tatamagouche Centre. I met a stimulating group of committed people from many parts of the world and enjoyed the varied learning opportunities that were offered. I had also just attended the Association of Christian Lay Training Centres in Africa, so was seeing the value of comparing centre-to-centre notes on a global scale. These experiences led me to agree to serve as the Canadian representative on the board of NARDA, a responsibility that began with this April’s annual meeting.

As Canadians we are accustomed to being the minority in North American gatherings and organizations. Our population is, after all, a tenth of the population of the U.S.A.  But the relatively high number of Canadian members (centres and individuals) in what we’re now calling OIKOSNET-North America led to a different kind of experience for this Canadian at the April meeting.  Over our days together American colleagues often expressed dismay about U.S. political developments and admiration for a perceived difference north of the border. The border does mark some social and political differences, but those of us in OIKOSNET find ourselves standing on common ground: we share a vision and a passion for the transformative differences that centres can make in our communities and societies. The program organized for us by Pendle Hill colleagues made this so clear, and was filled with living, breathing illustrations of how Pendle Hill, as a centre, is making a transformative difference to its community and society.

Rabbi Michael Lerner put our calling into focus. He inspired us to come out of the closet as spiritual beings and build a society in which we live according to our values. Like him, we are spiritual activists, integrating our contemplative and active practices. Centres are where we do that. We follow practices that root us in sacred scriptures, prayer, community, learning and action for justice. Last week at Five Oaks John Dominic Crossan taught us about the inseparability of love and justice for those of us who profess our faith. As he said, “Justice without love is brutality and love without justice is banality.” OIKOSNET-North America provides us with a much-needed source of encouragement by which we are enabled to lift one another up in love and justice and inspire justice and love in our communities and societies ~ north of, south of, and across any borders.