»How We Began
Emergence
of a New Initiative
Beloved Communities: Growing Our
Souls
IDR/PC in collaboration with Tools for Change convened a group of 25 spirit-based activists September 30-October 4, 2004 with the Fetzer Institute serving as host in Kalamazoo, MI, 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 of 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.
In response to a “commissioning” grant from the Mott Foundation, IDR/PC convened at Haley Farm, TN 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 the title: Beloved Communities: Growing our Souls. Since all but one of the steering committee members 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.
