Author: Tenneson Woolf

The following is a recent communication from SUWA, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. I was involved with them in the seeding of conversation as a way to bring faith communities together in support of protecting wilderness. And then they ran with the conversations. I love seeing this, now a year later because of the action it shows and the community that it reveals. It is a story for me that begins with “from simple beginnings….”

United by belief in the spiritual value of wilderness, people from diverse religious traditions have come together in a call to protect Utah’s wild lands. On April 21st, the day before Earth Day, representatives from ten Utah faith and their supporters released an interfaith statement about the spiritual importance of Utah’s wild lands and the need for action to protect these special places.

After a brief news conference, the group delivered copies of the interfaith statement to the offices of Utah Senators Bennett and Hatch along with a letter requesting a meeting to discuss wilderness issues. The same request was sent to the offices of Utah’s Congressmen.

Development of the interfaith statement has been taking shape over the past year through “Faith and the Land” dialogues held in a variety of religious settings. These forums brought together members of the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Islamic, Jewish, Latter-day Saint, Methodist, Presbyterian, Quaker, Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ faith communities. More than 230 people took part. Participants discovered that, though their religious practices might vary, they stood on common ground in their respect for creation and the natural world.

Leaders of the project see the development of the interfaith statement as a starting point for communities of faith throughout Utah and the nation to begin a conversation about ways to honor nature and protect America’s redrock wilderness. If you are part of a community of faith and would like to participate in the project, email deeda@suwa.org.

Working together we can preserve Utah’s amazing redrock wilderness!

And here are a few other harvests:
Report Created by Terri Martin
SUWA Webpage — Other Reports, News Articles, etc.

Hosting today in Pembroke, Ontario. We are about to head into the third day together with a focus on “getting to work in the journey.” The group is alive. Very well connected. Very oppened to relationship with each other. Their work will look different today than it would have on the 27th — the level of community is much more than seems possible in such a short time.

One story that I loved from yesterday was from Sister Alice. She is a long time administrator and leader of the Marguerite Centre, which is where we are meeting. We invited her to tell us a bit of the story of this place so that we could know more of where we are. What she told in 5 minutes was grounding, insightful, and delightful.

This Marguerite Centre used to be a home for the sisters of the order. This included many older sisters, between 80 and 95 years old. Sister Alice described how they had moved in here expecting to live their full lives here and to die here. The Order knew that they would need to move into a new place across the street in order to give the care that they needed to the sisters, as well as shift the Centre into a place that can host groups like us and produce some revenue. Sister Alice described the need to let go of the old so that the new could be born. She described in an inspiring way these principles of working with the women:

1. Asking the question, “What gives?” And invitation to relationship and to understand in a shared way.
2. Get them involved. It was commical the way she described this. They held circles. Not “committees.” “Those women are old enough to not want any more committees so we called them circles.”
3. End with ritual. When the move was eventually happening, their was invitation for each sister to take an object from the old place and carry forward the symbol to the new place.

These three little steps feel like great guideposts for working with change. I love it when these just show up in the context of telling a story. They are real, simple, and to the core.

Sister Alice reflected a bit further. “I’ve never seen such life. They trusted and became alive because of those circles. They were called to be alive.” She told of talking with some that were resisting. “You may be old but you aren’t too old to think!”

It was a tale of calling forth that comes from the freedom to let go. Was beautiful to hear.

From colleagues Tim Merry, Tatiana Glad and others. These questions are really strong and created breakthrough thinking for all involved.

I was listening into an invitation phone call yesterday. It was a beautifully hosted. It was friends and possible participants exploring an Art of Hosting event in June that is focused on this core question:

Some of these possible participants were asking why it would be important to be at the event. The spoken needs ranged everything from desparate for “practical tools for the trenches” to much needed “philosophical reeavaluation of the financial and wealth paradigm.”

As I listened, a core question became clear to me that underlies the specifics of the financial questions.

My bias is that we are “facing an unprecedented unknown.” (health care, food and sustainability, education…). I find this helpful to name. It helps name the need for why a project or an initiative matters. For why pioneering efforts matter. For why pioneering process matters.

Learning surfacing through Art of Hosting, Berkana and other groups supporting engagement is that the “how” of “facing unprecedented unknowns” is found in community. This is what I am learning. This is what leading practitioners are sharing. This is what academians are reporting.

More specifically in the “how” is the importance of colearning (think of this as core competency to adapt) in community. And real work that people care about. And relationships that are real and close enough to endure and thrive in the knowing and the not knowing that most certainly shows up in unprecedented unknowns.

Christina Baldwin has been a great example of a “namer” for me. She names what is going on so that we can have choice of what to do with it. It is my learning that naming the magnitude of unknown helps people focus beyond the tools and tricks. It takes us into the core competency needed of creating the new together, gathered in community.