The State and Future of Antiracist Community Building Work - March 3-6, 2005

In response to a “commissioning” grant from the Mott Foundation, IDR/PC convened at Haley Farm March 3-6, 2005, a weekend consultation of 28 participants with varying involvements in anti-racist community organizing work around the theme The State and Future of Anti-Racist Community Building Work. Without being an intended outcome in the direction of the weekend’s conversations, the theme of Beloved Community emerged early in the discussions and became a central topic of exploration. The gathering culminated with the informal recommendations of the participants who work in this domain—fusing spirituality with racial and social justice activism—that IDR/PC should move forward with a formal initiative, perhaps under a slightly amended title: Beloved Communities: Growing our Souls. Since all but one member of the steering committee created last October were present, a brief meeting there suggested that the enormously useful counsel and encouragement of the Haley meeting should guide forthcoming planning as we move toward a concrete, intentionally designed initiative. Click here for a comprehensive March 3-6 report of the Haley Farm gathering.

Each gathering, referred to as the Fetzer "Beloved Community" gathering and the Mott "Future of the Work" gathering, concluded with all participants asking to be periodically apprised of developments with this initiative. This is the first in a series of such notes.

Towards a Beloved Community -  September 30-October 4, 2004

The Institute for Democratic Renewal/Project Change in collaboration with Tools for Change convened a group of 25 spirit-based activists September 30-October 4, 2004, with the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, MI, serving as host for an exploration of Towards a Beloved Community. The goal of the gathering was to discover whether there might be a shared understanding of “Beloved Community” and, if so, perhaps to create a mechanism for moving forward work under this banner. A several-person steering committee was established to collaborate on this initiative, currently composed on Grace Lee Boggs, Sharon Howell, Nelson Johnson, John D. Maguire, Kathy Sanchez and Shirley Strong. This steering committee has held two meetings and several conference calls since then and is proceeding toward a design for action and the establishment of a larger advisory committee. Read the results of the gathering at Fetzer in this summary report.

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