This issue's Focus Topic asks, "What does a prophetic community look like?" A prophetic community looks like the one with whom I recently spent a weekend. A dozen members had gathered for this particular occasion, which was to share in a workshop titled, "The Universe Sparks Imagination: And Enlightens Our Way into the Future," and which was facilitated by Maureen Wild, SC. But membership in this community also includes anyone who is in love with the Universe, and who has embraced, as a personal mission statement, the living out of its story. Some of the community members who were also present by way of their teachings are Joanna Macy, Thomas Berry, and Brian Swimme.
Together we explored the issue of sustainability through William McDonough's video presentation called "Sustainability 2000." If good is understood to be what enhances the cosmic journey, and evil is what destroys the cosmic journey, then activities are sustainable when they:
•use materials in continuous cycles
•use continuously reliable sources of energy
•come mainly from the qualities of being human (i.e. creativity, communication, movement, appreciation, and spiritual and intellectual development).
Activities are not sustainable when they:
•require continual inputs of non-renewable resources
•use renewable resources faster than their rate of renewal
•cause cumulative degradation of the environment
•require resources in quantities that undermine other people's well-being
•lead to the extinction of other life forms.
We shared the knowledge and prophecy of Joanna Macy as it is found in her book, Coming Back to Life, written by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown. The book refers to the paradigm shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a Life-Sustaining Society as "The Great Turning". In an Industrial Growth Society, earth is both supply house and sewer. But a Life-Sustaining Society "operates within the carrying capacity of its life-support system;both in the resources it consumes and the waste it produces"(Macy, p.83). The good news of the book is that the Great Turning is germinating now. It is happening on three levels simultaneously:
1. At the first level the "turning" is written on our hands: it is made up of the "holding" actions that defend life on Earth. They may be the most visible actions of The Great Turning. They include letter writing, marching, picketing and blockading; documenting the environmental detriment of pesticides, toxic waste etc, and promoting corrective regulations; lobbying and protesting against international trade agreements, unethical corporate practices, and the global arms trade (Macy p.17).
2. At the second level the "turning" is written on our minds: it is made up of critical analysis actions. They comprise the study of the causes of the global crisis, and the creation of alternative institutions. They include citizen-based, non-violent defense programs to replace reliance on the military; the solution of problems by means of mediation instead of litigation; the promotion of the use of alternate fuel sources; the increase of communal living opportunities and marketing cooperatives; fostering alternative medicine as a supplement to traditional practices; initiating education methods that will connect children to their natural world (Macy p.19).
3. At the third level the "turning" is written on our hearts: these are the shifts we are making in our perception of our relationship to the world. This transformation is coming out of three sources: anguish for our world, scientific breakthrough (ex. quantum theory), and ancestral teachings. Some of the manifestations of this awakening are theories such as: general living systems theory showing the self-organizing nature of reality and the presence of mind in nature; deep ecology movement calling us home to community with all beings; Creation Spirituality and Liberation Theology. Other manifestations are in the resurgence of ancestral teachings: shamanic traditions, engaged Buddhism and similar Eastern traditions, Ecofeminism which blends political critique with the women's spirituality movement, and the simple living movement (Macy, p.21).
The concept of imagination, as it was presented in the workshop, comes from Brian Swimme's video series, "The Earth's Imagination," and from his book, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. For Swimme, imagination is creativity. And all creativity comes out of the creativity of the Universe. The mind-boggling thing is that the creativity of the Universe is actually the void, the emptiness, but it is an all-nourishing emptiness because it is the source of all being. And you and I are filled with it. It's a scientific fact. Atoms are made up of a nucleus and their outer parts, with emptiness in between. If all that empty space was taken out of us, the remaining molecules, all the atoms that make up each body, piled together, would be smaller than a grain of sand. We are predominantly empty space. The good news is that this emptiness in us is the same emptiness that spawned the Cosmos, and it is the same emptiness that is the source of all being. It is the same "nothingness" that medieval Christian theology understood as the nature of the Godhead, and in Buddhist teaching it is the same "nothingness" from which all things arise.
It is this imagination, this fecund abyss filling every pore and cell of our bodies and minds, that holds the answers to all the questions and the solutions to all the problems in both our planetary and our personal lives. Our history has been an agricultural revolution, an industrial revolution, and now an ecological revolution. Because this time we do not have centuries, only a few years, in which to effect a revolution, Macy's concern is that "we have no assurance it (The Great Turning) will happen in time. We cannot tell which will happen first, the point of no return when we can no longer stop the unraveling of the systems supporting complex life forms or the moment when the elements of a sustainable society cohere and catch hold" (Macy, p.23). But it is more than possible. Teeming, effusive, exuberant imagination lights our way. Thomas Berry's poignant Dedication in his book, The Great Work, compels us: the book is dedicated "to the children, to all the children, who swim beneath the waves of the sea; who live in the soils of the Earth, the children of the flowers of the meadows and the trees of the forest; the children who roam over the land and fly with the wind; and the human children."
The closing exercise of the workshop asked us to go for a nature walk and to return with a symbol that would speak to the question, "Where do I go from here?" When we reconvened it was with feathers and stones and bark and leaves and rosehips and apples and grass, each a flag for a personal vision of hope and resolution. I didn't bring back the object of my nature-walk encounter because it was a ladybug, but I brought back the story. I came upon her in the silence, unexpectedly. She immediately recalled for me that childhood rhyme, "Ladybug, ladybug, flyaway home, your house is on fire, your children alone," and I was overcome with a wave of loneliness. I realized then that, since childhood, I had connected the ladybug with loneliness and sadness. These emotions reverberated now because they are currently high profile in my adult life. What could my new awareness and connectedness to the Universe and my new understanding of Imagination do for me in this struggle with emotion? I whispered to the Universe, "Where do I go from here?" The Universe whispered back, "What are you in love with? Fall in love with me."
Sophia wisdom is this: Every time we journey to the deep center of our heart, we have reached the deep center of the Universe. It is there we will hear the cries of the Earth. It is there we will unleash the unlimited, infinite, triumphant Cosmic Imagination. It is there we will be deepened as a prophetic community and discover the directives for the next step.
  Important websites:
www.SustainWellBeing.net             (A Choice to Consider)
www.earthcharter.org                       (The Earth Charter)
www.ecozoicstudies.org                   (Thomas berry’s writings)
www.joannamacy.net                        (Training programs in the work that reconnects)
www.earthlight.org                           (Earthlight magazine)
www.SustainWellBeing.net              (7th Generation Initiative)
www.globaleduc.org/genfarm.htm    (Genesis Farm)