Water

Community

There are many ways people relate to the meaning of community. Following are examples of what community can mean.

What does community mean to you?

"Community" could be thought of as "Come~unity*." As we come to recognize our relationships with water we start to realize that everything is connected, there is a oneness, wholeness, unity of everything. We come to see the unity of everything. Come~unity is more than simply people living together. Community embraces the human and nonhuman parts of which we are all a part. Please see article below.

* I first heard this term used at a communities gathering decades ago in Oregon.

A minute in the manner of Friends (Quakers) is a written decision or statement that is approved with a sense of unity among all present. It emerges out of collective seeking and prayerful, seasoned, consideration. This minute on community involved around forty representatives of friends meetings and organizations of North America. From inception to completion it took over a year (it was three actual meetings together with continuing work in-between). The emergence of a minute like this generally involves openness, seeking, listening, sharing, learning, understanding, patience, and growth on the part of those involved, and as it is shared more widely it nurtures the same in others.

As Friends Committee on Unity with Nature works to deepen understanding of our spiritual relationship with the Earth, increasingly we recognize the need to nurture and affirm the human and nonhuman communities of which we are a part.

Our life depends upon and involves many communities. We are part of the living fabric of plants and animals upon the Earth. We are also members of our human communities, challenged as never before to reestablish living patterns that are healing to the Earth and to the human spirit.

Friends' experience with inclusive decision-making and our testimonies of simplicity, right sharing, equality, and peace provide a spiritual core from which to contribute to the healing process. We encourage Friends to help reestablish sustainable and regenerative relationships with the earth, relationships which, through our living faith and practice, will embody balance and harmony.

Friends Committee on Unity with Nature seeks to support and nourish Friends and Friends' institutions as we develop ways to put this faith into practice in a spirit and life of faithful, loving kindness toward all Creation. We seek ways to uplift and nurture, rather than be overwhelmed with environmental despair. Our witness is a celebration of life and of the power and beauty of the Light within and around us.

Send us your heartfelt thoughts here. Selected entries will be posted on the website.