tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91165069925335228162024-02-21T10:08:36.080-05:00'City of Peace'Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you. Jeremiah 29:7Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9116506992533522816.post-24689134338318246852013-01-29T09:51:00.000-05:002013-01-29T12:05:22.468-05:00Group Epignosis Launches New Blog!<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Group Epignosis</i> Launches New Blog!</td></tr>
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<a href="http://theemergenteconomist.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><i>Group Epignosis</i></a> of Roanoke, Virginia announced its launch earlier today of a new blog it's calling, <a href="http://integralcity2roanoke.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><i>Integral City 2.0 - Roanoke</i></a>. "To say we're excited<span style="color: #073763;"><i> </i></span>in taking this 'next step' of exploring the creative potentials inspired by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Hamilton" target="_blank">Marilyn Hamilton</a> at <a href="http://www.integralcity.com/" target="_blank"><i>Integral City</i></a> this Fall through, "<a href="http://www.integralcitycollective.com/fe/27589-about-the-conference" target="_blank">The City 2.0 Online Conference</a>" is something of an understatement" said group director, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-mcconnell/7/9/841" target="_blank">Brian McConnell</a>.<br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;">"</span><i><span style="color: #351c75;">The</span><b> </b><a href="http://www.integralcity.com/discovery-zone/eLaboratory%20invitation.html" target="_blank">Integral City 2.0 Online Conference</a> <span style="color: #351c75;">gathered 60 visionary thought leaders, designers and practitioners, with 600 participants from 6 continents, to inquire into how to design a new operating system for the city. The 12-day Conference allowed exploration of each of the 12 intelligences from the book,</span> <a href="http://www.integralcity.com/Podcasts/podcasts.html" target="_blank">Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive, and their contributions to city vitality</a><span style="color: #351c75;">.</span></i><span style="color: #351c75;">"</span> from "<a href="http://marilyn.integralcity.com/2012/12/21/radically-optimistic-solstice-exec-summary-from-integral-city-2-0-online-conference/" target="_blank">Radically Optimistic Solstice Exec Summary from Integral City 2.0 Online Conference</a>"</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="295" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/47511039?byline=0&color=E50090" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="525"></iframe></center>
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/47511039">Hamilton: Integral city - city boundaries related to consciousness</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/freedomlab">FreedomLab</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</center>
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By integrating social media platforms like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2CDF463A833E6B9B" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke,_Virginia" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>, <a href="http://vimeo.com/groups/epignosis" target="_blank">Vimeo</a> and <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/groupepignosis" target="_blank">Slideshare</a> together on <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506" target="_blank">Blogger</a>, the <i>Integral City framework</i> readily translates as a multimedia context through which emergent (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_theory" target="_blank">integral</a>) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_theory" target="_blank">thought</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_theory" target="_blank">theory</a> can be shared with a global audience across multiple disciplines including <i>leadership, education</i>, <i>governance</i>, and <i>economics</i>.
This in turn, initiates a laboratory setting for collaborative,
transdisciplinary practice and methodologies in which city practitioners
can communicate with each other through, or across, an <a href="http://marilyn.integralcity.com/2012/01/26/education-creates-habitats-for-learning-what-works-in-city-2-0/" target="_blank">integral 'meshwork'</a> to further discuss, test, and harvest their respective visions.<br />
<br />Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9116506992533522816.post-70209099955336729512012-02-13T13:48:00.000-05:002012-04-27T10:52:54.320-04:00Transforming Kingdom Architecture - Beams and Struts<div style="text-align: center;">
<span data-mce-style="color: #333333;" style="color: #333333;"><span data-mce-style="color: #808080;" style="color: grey;"><i><span style="color: #666666;">When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from </span><a data-mce-href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=the+kingdom+of+God&t=NASB&sf=5" href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=the+kingdom+of+God&t=NASB&sf=5" target="_blank">the kingdom of God</a><span style="color: #666666;">." After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.</span></i></span><span style="color: #666666;"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Mar&c=12&t=NASB#34" href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Mar&c=12&t=NASB#34" target="_blank">Mark 12:34</a> (<a data-mce-href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Mar&c=12&t=NASB#34" href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Mar&c=12&t=NASB#34" target="_blank">1</a>)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/item/786-understanding-the-apostles-creed" target="_blank">"Understanding The Apostles Creed"</a></td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #333333;" style="color: #333333;">I've recently discovered a newly introduced magazine describing itself
as an "experiment in collective intelligence" and whose content is
directed towards those like myself, supposedly, possessing 'hungry
brains and thirsty souls'. Consequently, and comprised of an ingenious
conclave of associates (sometimes) assuming double-duty as publishers,
editors, and contributors, <i><a data-mce-href="http://beamsandstruts.com/" href="http://beamsandstruts.com/" target="_blank">Beams and Struts'</a></i>
mixed-media format, high-tech presentation, and 'deep' commentary
appears to place it conspicuously at cyber-media's leading edge.</span><br />
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Acceding however that the "<i>modern knowledge </i>quest
has largely been characterized by specialization and analysis" that's
in turn, left an immense amount "of fragmentation in its wake"; <i>Beams and Struts</i> instead, takes a crosscurrent approach in exploring "how that vast body of <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_philosophy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_philosophy" target="_blank">post</a>/<a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge" target="_blank">modern knowledge</a> hangs together." A noble and all together worthy objective, indeed.</div>
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<i style="color: #351c75;">"Since no one person can possibly accomplish this project alone, we've gathered an assemblage to work together. The intention behind the site is to inquire into, envision, and help usher in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-postmodernism" target="_blank">post-postmodern</a> world. We live in a troubled time rich with possibilities for transformation. Beams and Struts is a place to exchange information, share perspectives, and initiate action. Together we can make a complex world understandable and act appropriately within it."</i> from "<a href="http://beamsandstruts.com/about-us" target="_blank">About Us: The Beams Team</a>" (<a href="http://beamsandstruts.com/about-us" target="_blank">2</a>)</div>
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Yet to my way of thinking, because a 'post-postmodern' approach to <i>knowing</i> suggests a tact far more '<a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogic" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogic" target="_blank">dialogic</a>' than <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernity" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernity" target="_blank">modernity's</a> pathological compulsion towards <i><a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism" target="_blank">authoritarianism</a></i> (or <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernity" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernity" target="_blank">postmodernity's</a> <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism#Authoritarianism_and_totalitarianism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism#Authoritarianism_and_totalitarianism" target="_blank">with <i>totalitarianism</i></a>), I've found <a data-mce-href="http://beamsandstruts.com/writers/itemlist/user/65-trevormalkinson" href="http://beamsandstruts.com/writers/itemlist/user/65-trevormalkinson" target="_blank">Trevor Malkinson's</a> apologetic in "<a data-mce-href="http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/item/786-understanding-the-apostles-creed" href="http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/item/786-understanding-the-apostles-creed" target="_blank">Understanding The Apostles Creed</a>",
exemplary. No tired rumination of staid doctrine here; to the
contrary, we're actually discussing 'the stuff' of which the Cosmos is
created.<br />
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: #674ea7;"><b>Toward the Soul's Awakening</b></span><br />
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Similarly too, but beginning with the premise that there's "arguably no
more important and pressing topic than the relation of science and
religion in the modern world", <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber" target="_blank">Ken Wilber's</a>, "<a data-mce-href="http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/maseso_foreword.cfm/" href="http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/maseso_foreword.cfm/" target="_blank">The Marriage of Sense and Soul</a>" has artfully proposed a framework for the prodigious enterprise of "integrating Science and Religion".<br />
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<span data-mce-style="color: #808080;" style="color: #351c75;"><i>"The
reconciliation of science and religion is not merely a passing academic
curiosity. These two enormous forces--truth and meaning--are at war in
today's world. Modern science and premodern religion aggressively
inhabit the same globe, each vying, in its own way, for world
domination. And something, sooner or later, has to give."</i></span> from <i>The Marriage of Sense and Soul</i> (3)<br />
<span data-mce-style="color: #ffffff;" style="color: white;">.</span></div>
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As Wilber's work attests however, the bigger picture involving how this <i>knowledge</i> is transmuted to <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_religion#Developmental_approaches_to_religion" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_religion#Developmental_approaches_to_religion" target="_blank">spiritual</a> or even <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_developmental_biology" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_developmental_biology" target="_blank">evolutionary</a> development in relation to the human <i><a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul" target="_blank">soul</a></i> accordingly, resides within <i><a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_contemplation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_contemplation" target="_blank">contemplative</a></i> or <i><a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation" target="_blank">meditative</a></i>
practice itself. In this regard, Wilber fervently contends that "(a)ll
knowledge is based upon practice--that is, at the core of every truth
lies an injunction that essentially says 'if you want to know this, do
that.' This is true for all branches of human knowledge, whether
ecology, psychology, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, or
mysticism--data can only be enacted and observed if you are willing to
perform the experiment" (<a data-mce-href="http://www.kenwilber.com/news/show/505" href="http://www.kenwilber.com/news/show/505" target="_blank">4</a>).<br />
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For these same reasons then, it's especially compelling to me that contemporary practitioners like <a data-mce-href="http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/itemlist/user/75-gailhochachka" href="http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/itemlist/user/75-gailhochachka" target="_blank">Gail Hochachka</a> ("<a data-mce-href="http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/item/249-enacting-a-post-secular-spirituality-or-why-yoga-is-so-cool" href="http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/item/249-enacting-a-post-secular-spirituality-or-why-yoga-is-so-cool" target="_blank">Enacting a Post-Secular Spirituality</a>") and <a data-mce-href="http://www.faithandleadership.com/multimedia/phileena-heuertz-its-not-easy-be-human" href="http://www.faithandleadership.com/multimedia/phileena-heuertz-its-not-easy-be-human" target="_blank">Phileena Heurertz</a> ("<a data-mce-href="http://www.qideas.org/blog/yoga-as-christian-spiritual-formation.aspx" href="http://www.qideas.org/blog/yoga-as-christian-spiritual-formation.aspx" target="_blank">Yoga as Christian Spiritual Formation?</a>")
are both such sterling partisans of a revolutionary, but yet emerging,
yogic discipline. Consequently, but in this same respect, what could be
simpler than to traverse our own paths from their respective example?
Hmmm?</div>
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<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><b><span data-mce-style="color: #339966;" style="color: #339966;"><span style="color: #674ea7;">Works Cited</span></span></b></span><br />
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<span data-mce-style="color: #339966;" style="color: #351c75;">1.</span> <a data-mce-href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm" href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm" target="_blank">Blue Letter Bible</a>. "Gospel of Mark 12:34 - (NASB - New American Standard Bible)." Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 9 Feb 2012. <a data-mce-href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Mar&c=12&t=NASB#34" href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Mar&c=12&t=NASB#34" target="_blank"><http: bible.cfm?b="Mar&c=12&t=NASB#34" www.blueletterbible.org=""></http:></a><br />
<span data-mce-style="color: #339966;" style="color: #351c75;">2.</span> <a data-mce-href="http://beamsandstruts.com/" href="http://beamsandstruts.com/" target="_blank">Beams and Struts</a>. "<a data-mce-href="http://beamsandstruts.com/about-us" href="http://beamsandstruts.com/about-us" target="_blank">About Us: The Beams Team." Beams and Struts</a>. 2011-2012. 9 Feb 2012. <a data-mce-href="http://beamsandstruts.com/about-us" href="http://beamsandstruts.com/about-us" target="_blank"><http: about-us="" beamsandstruts.com=""></http:></a><br />
<span data-mce-style="color: #339966;" style="color: #351c75;">3.</span> Wilber, Ken. <i>The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion</i>. New York: Random House. 1998. Print.<br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;">4.</span> de Vos, Corey. "<a data-mce-href="http://www.kenwilber.com/news/show/505" href="http://www.kenwilber.com/news/show/505" target="_blank">Integral Ecology, Part 1: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World - Sean Esbjorn-Hargens and Ken Wilber</a>." <a data-mce-href="http://www.kenwilber.com/home/landing/index.html" href="http://www.kenwilber.com/home/landing/index.html" target="_blank">kenwilber.com</a>. 10 Feb 2012. <a data-mce-href="http://www.kenwilber.com/news/show/505" href="http://www.kenwilber.com/news/show/505" target="_blank"><http: 505="" news="" show="" www.kenwilber.com=""></http:></a></div>
<br />Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9116506992533522816.post-81467603082993760522011-09-30T14:26:00.002-04:002011-10-07T11:07:31.106-04:0058: Conscious Christian Leadership<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;"><i><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Group-Epignosis/157383137620799">Group Epignosis</a> (City of Peace) in concert with <a href="http://www.gmumc.org/">Greene Memorial United Methodist Church</a> and Roanoke's interfaith community is hosting a <a href="http://i.live58.org/an/eventDetails?eventId=d665f260-e375-43c3-86bc-e4c64a326994">Release Screening</a> of <a href="http://live58.org/58-the-film/">58: The Film</a> at 6 pm on Sunday, October 16th. This special showing has been said to depict "an empowering vision of the Church rising up to its remarkable potential to end extreme poverty". </i><i>Reflecting on a broad range of related issues, this article subsequently invites community support, participation, and attendance in response to <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=58&v=1&t=NASB#1">Isaiah's</a> plea to 'God's people'.</i></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU1It-WIpQVesGy8lVrqiH8iS43DM1JcjcVuE4fJ410Vl_d_9ji38DkJOLqSKMDKtfC3qkIzO12XFb3CHU12tS-ka1J4D1aCBbdS8bs9uaqQdbJ_yJwUOdMTNhDFQfHpVHLKKQDfLzB5Q/s1600/Jesus_Rejected_in_Synagogue_Tissot_1894.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU1It-WIpQVesGy8lVrqiH8iS43DM1JcjcVuE4fJ410Vl_d_9ji38DkJOLqSKMDKtfC3qkIzO12XFb3CHU12tS-ka1J4D1aCBbdS8bs9uaqQdbJ_yJwUOdMTNhDFQfHpVHLKKQDfLzB5Q/s320/Jesus_Rejected_in_Synagogue_Tissot_1894.jpg" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://freechristimages.org/biblestories/jesus_rejected_in_nazareth.htm">Jesus Rejected in Nazare</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;">To Judaic and Christian heritages in particular, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah">prophet Isaiah's</a> writings as transcribed in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Isaiah">Book of Isaiah</a>, bear a deep cultural, historical, and spiritual, relevance. Though contextualized in a setting of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria#Neo-Assyrian_Empire">Assyrian</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonia#Early_Iron_Age">Babylonian</a> domination, including the imposed exile of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ancient_Israel_and_Judah">divided Israel</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Minion Pro;">, its content prophetically directs the course by which 'God's chosen' (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Jeremiah">Jeremiah</a> <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Jer&c=32&v=38&t=NASB#38">32:38</a>) are to</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Minion Pro;"> realize a future 'kingdom' in which justice (again) reigns supreme. It's similarly significant in this respect that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus">Jesus</a> himself, in addressing Nazareth's citizenry (<a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Luk&c=4&v=14&t=NASB#14">Luke 4:16-21</a>) reads from <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=61&v=1&t=NASB#1">Isaiah 61</a> in pronouncing the underlying purpose (and authority) of his own ministry.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."</span><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Luk&c=4&v=18&t=NASB#18">Luke 4:18-19</a></span><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Minion Pro;"></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">In Luke's account, and as alluded to previously in "<a href="http://ciaroanoke.blogspot.com/2010/06/leading-in-unthinkable-world.html">Leading in an 'Unthinkable' World</a> - </span><span style="color: black;">Towards Holistic Community"</span><span style="color: black;">,</span><span style="color: black;"> Jesus' proclamation to reinstate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_%28biblical%29">Jubilee</a>; or the <i>healing</i> conferred by 'forgiving indebtedness' and 'releasing from bondage', met only with raucous opposition from local religious, civic, and business leaders (<a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Luk&c=4&v=23&t=NASB#23">Luke 4:23-30</a>). Nevertheless, yet in this same spirit perhaps, a creative team of film makers including Directors Tony Neeves, and his son Tim, along with Associate Producer Scott Todd, have adopted <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=58&v=1&t=NASB#1">Isaiah 58</a> as their project's guiding theme. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">In so doing, they've boldly adopted Isaiah's precept to "loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke" and "let the oppressed go free" (<a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=58&v=1&t=NASB#comm/6">58:6</a>), as a call "to create, shape and join communities of passionate, like-minded Christians who will work together to end <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_poverty">extreme poverty</a> in our lifetime" (<a href="http://www.live58.org/thefilm/58/the-58-initiative/">1</a>). Consequently, and joining with <a href="http://www.accordnetwork.org/">Accord</a>, the 58: team has forged a partner network comprised of established ministries including <a href="http://www.compassion.net/">Compassion International</a>, <a href="http://www.water.cc/">Living Water</a>, <a href="http://yuki.pair.com/hopeintl/58/">Hope International</a>, and <a href="http://www.plantwithpurpose.org/">Plant with Purpose</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>"Toward a Sustainable Future: Leadership in the New World Economy"</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="color: #351c75;">"The world's economic, technological, agricultural, and political systems are breaking down. While the causes are debated, it's certain that the human assault on the natural world has wiped out vast numbers of species and polluted the land, the air, and the oceans. After the past 100 years of history, with two world wars and low-grade but vicious warfare going on almost continuously somewhere in the world since World War II ended, it seems impossible for human beings to live together in a state of harmony either among ourselves or with the planet we call home."</span> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C._Cook">Richard C. Cook</a> from "<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19273">Global Crisis: The Time of Testing is Here</a>" (<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19273">2</a>).</div>
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">At the same time however, both the scope and complexity of the systemic breakdown to which Richard Cook alludes in the preceding quote, suggests that mankind has entered an unparalleled stage of evolutionary challenge (see - "<a href="http://ciaroanoke.blogspot.com/2010/01/whats-next-fence-moving.html">A New Era Has Begun</a>"). As the video, "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsqRF2g8Iis">Ecologize Growth</a>" below attests however, where modernity's <i>empirical approach</i> over the last four hundred years has fashioned socioeconomic systems that appear sorely inadequate of "better supporting value(s) of human relatedness", an increasing number of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_consciousness">socially conscious</a> individuals including clerics, artists, academics and everyday citizens are stepping into roles of global advocacy (<a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7qaTBjzI8w_OTZmZWI4ODMtYzA2OS00NjY3LWI3OTctYWFiMjM2NjdjNDFh&hl=en_US&pli=1">3</a>).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">Among these are <a href="http://www.s3integral.net/">Barrett C. Brown</a> whose recently published findings in "<a href="http://integralthinkers.com/wp-content/uploads/Brown_2011_Conscious-leadership-for-sustainability_Full-dissertation_v491.pdf">Conscious Leadership for Sustainability</a>", evince the orienting mindsets of highly developed 'leaders' and 'change agents' with established backgrounds in designing sustainability initiatives. Although there are a number of factors which distinguish these figures from their cohorts, one of the things Brown notes is an underlying difference in referential worldviews between values associated with a dominant social paradigm (DSP) and those aligned with a new ecological paradigm (NEP).</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupq0AnQtBJv-_f2dksSpxfWZ5C99oF0z1Ks2-oObME0278MI0IfwQFZFSBLY0mk90gl-nKxHpVzfP7ysIlwD2aZHTW2spLzxY_DgIbUkGa9EqkAd4MOWmquCAfoae0pYnMLhOzwFFX4M/s1600/Table+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupq0AnQtBJv-_f2dksSpxfWZ5C99oF0z1Ks2-oObME0278MI0IfwQFZFSBLY0mk90gl-nKxHpVzfP7ysIlwD2aZHTW2spLzxY_DgIbUkGa9EqkAd4MOWmquCAfoae0pYnMLhOzwFFX4M/s400/Table+7.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://integralthinkers.com/wp-content/uploads/Brown_2011_Conscious-leadership-for-sustainability_Full-dissertation_v491.pdf">Dominant Social Paradigm contrasted with New Ecological Paradigm - Table 7</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">Consequently, but where the (DSP) is "characterized by belief in the virtues of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_growth">economic growth</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market">free enterprise</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_technology#Measuring_technological_progress">technological progress</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotheology">human domination over nature</a>", the (NEP) by contrast "is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocentrism">ecocentric worldview</a> based on a belief that economic growth is limited by natural resources, that technology will not necessarily overcome our environmental challenges, and that humans should live in harmony with nature" (<a href="http://integralthinkers.com/wp-content/uploads/Brown_2011_Conscious-leadership-for-sustainability_Full-dissertation_v491.pdf">4</a>).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu275eQ35dN1e6CXJdt60B1z4okvAN-nI0E71Ka63FUXdVKLzCXRKM9P1nI8GmCI5t7wmeGe2fNvLWpVCKwb-Oclg-JULEd9c8gm0Rp0MHnmOwa2oHBstJWf1o72jgoQde9UUwmp5Hk5A/s1600/Innovation+Curve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu275eQ35dN1e6CXJdt60B1z4okvAN-nI0E71Ka63FUXdVKLzCXRKM9P1nI8GmCI5t7wmeGe2fNvLWpVCKwb-Oclg-JULEd9c8gm0Rp0MHnmOwa2oHBstJWf1o72jgoQde9UUwmp5Hk5A/s1600/Innovation+Curve.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/104/17/7301.full.pdf+html">Innovation Resets Singularity - Fig. 4</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">As one might imagine however, the respective 'truth claims' associated with each of these two perspectives differ dramatically in their theoretical approach to '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability">sustainability</a>'. There are those like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_West">Geoffrey West</a> from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe_Institute">Santa Fe Institute</a> for example, who in a recent <a href="http://www.ted.com/">TED talk</a> entitled, "<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_west_the_surprising_math_of_cities_and_corporations.html">The surprising math of cities and corporations</a>" presented findings concerning an "inexorable trend toward urbanization worldwide" where not only does 'the city' serve as a "predominant engine" for societal innovation and wealth, but also purveys "its main source of crime, pollution, and disease."</span></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM4cagTizasYkCMK4gmW0MUmPXZO75obxWTcbJUp64UtBGEOeU7KQvH51hqOnNwK1qYtdh6Ytup9gGZo58ts_0OY2QLT_aTEePY7iSQ27xbfjszVah_zIWjBk8EP_E5M-YCnnRdPY-QgQ/s1600/Sustainability+Curve+-+Lietaer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM4cagTizasYkCMK4gmW0MUmPXZO75obxWTcbJUp64UtBGEOeU7KQvH51hqOnNwK1qYtdh6Ytup9gGZo58ts_0OY2QLT_aTEePY7iSQ27xbfjszVah_zIWjBk8EP_E5M-YCnnRdPY-QgQ/s400/Sustainability+Curve+-+Lietaer.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lietaer.com/images/Journal_Future_Studies_final.pdf">The "Window of Viability" - Figure 2</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">As a result, the group subsequently concluded that were it not for the generation of "major innovation cycles" at "a continually accelerating rate to sustain growth", those same 'systems' become subject to the vulnerability of "stagnation or collapse" (Bettencourt et al. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/104/17/7301.full.pdf+html">5</a>). In its own way then, their research mirrors the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Lietaer">Bernard Lietaer's</a> team with natural ecosystems, where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficiency"><i>efficiency</i></a> isn't obtained by imposing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale">economies of scale</a> as an arbitrary function of design. Instead, their study suggests that systems not utilizing man-made, ultra-efficient (e.g. monopolistic, constrained) streams to control and distribute <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money"><i>money</i></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy"><i>energy</i></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water"><i>water</i></a>, or whatever, aren't dependent on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation"><i>innovation</i></a> for survival but rather, <i>resilience</i>. Consequently, their conclusions render "a single metric as an emergent property of (the ecosystem's) structural diversity and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interconnectivity">interconnectivity</a>" which, in turn, represents a <i>sustainable</i> balance between <i>efficiency</i> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resilience"><i>resilience</i></a> (<a href="http://www.lietaer.com/images/Journal_Future_Studies_final.pdf">6</a>).</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">"The effects of current economic and monetary policies are starting to approach the level of genocide against large segments of society, if not in their intention, at least in their effects. Crime, health, and income statistics identify vast areas of both urban and rural environments as what have aptly been called 'death zones'"</span><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"> (Cook <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5905">7</a>).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Tragically though, but as the "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature">Planting Hope</a>" video above illustrates and is further conferred by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Neuwirth">Robert Neuwirth's </a>TED Talk on '<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_neuwirth_on_our_shadow_cities.html">shadow cities</a>', factors accompanying <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_of_Developing_Countries">global debt</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization">globalization</a> are increasing urban slum populations at a rate of 25 million per year. Similarly then, and as recent events like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring">Arab Spring</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street">Occupy Wall Street</a> seem to make plainly obvious, the world is poised at an epochal point of turmoil in witnessing a rare convergence of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_and_evil"><i>good and evil</i></a> . . . one comparable to that envisaged by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley">Aldous Huxley</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World"><i>Brave New World</i></a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Nevertheless, yet for these same reasons, the <a href="http://live58.org/">Live 58:</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"> project affords a unique opportunity to connect with others as a holistic community of compassionate practitioners, heeding Isaiah's injunction to "divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house" (<a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=58&v=1&t=NASB#comm/7">Isaiah 58:7</a>). We'd encourage you to join us.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>Works Cited</b></span><br />
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</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">1.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"> "<a href="http://www.live58.org/thefilm/58/the-58-initiative/">The 58: Initiative</a>." <i>Live 58:</i>. <a href="http://live58.org/thefilm">live58.org/thefilm</a>. n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">2. Cook, Richard. "<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19273">Global Crisis: The Time of Testing is Here</a>." (2010): <i>Centre for Research on Globalization</i>. 22 May 2010. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">3. McConnell, Brian. "<a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7qaTBjzI8w_OTZmZWI4ODMtYzA2OS00NjY3LWI3OTctYWFiMjM2NjdjNDFh&hl=en_US&pli=1">Toward a Sustainable Future: Integral Leadership in the 'New World Economy'</a>." (2011): <a href="http://integralleadershipreview.com/2011/06/toward-a-sustainable-future-integral-leadership-in-the-new-world-economy/"><i>Integral Leadership Review</i></a>. June 2011, <a href="http://integralleadershipreview.com/2011/06/june-2011-table-of-contents/">Vol. 11, no. 3</a>. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">4. Brown, Barrett. "<a href="http://integralthinkers.com/wp-content/uploads/Brown_2011_Conscious-leadership-for-sustainability_Full-dissertation_v491.pdf">Conscious Leadership for Sustainability: How Leaders with a Late-Stage Action Logic Design and Engage in Sustainability Initiatives</a>." (2011): <i>Fielding Graduate University</i>. 2011. Web. 27 Sept. 2011.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">5. Bettencourt, Luis, Jose Lobo, Dirk Helbing, Christian Kuhnert, and Geoffrey West. "<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/104/17/7301.full.pdf+html">Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities</a>." (2007): <a href="http://www.pnas.org/"><i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)</i></a>. 24 April 2007, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/104/17.toc">Vol. 104, no. 17</a>. Web. 27 Sept. 2011. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">6. Lietaer, Bernard, Robert Ulanowicz, Sally Goerner, and Nadia McLaren. "<a href="http://www.lietaer.com/images/Journal_Future_Studies_final.pdf">Is Our Monetary Structure a Systemic Cause for Financial Instability?: Evidence and Remedies from Nature</a>." (2010): <a href="http://www.jfs.tku.edu.tw/sarticles.html"><i>Journal of Futures Studies</i></a>. April 2010, Vol. 14, no.3. Web 27 Sept. 2011.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #281786; font-family: Minion Pro; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">7. Cook, Richard. "<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5905">Poverty in America: Progressive Schemes to Reduce Poverty will Fail Without Monetary Reform</a>." Chapter 7 of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Hold_These_Truths:_The_Hope_of_Monetary_Reform"><i>We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform</i></a>. (2009): Tendril Press., 2009. <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?authorFirst=Richard%20C.&authorName=Cook&context=listByAuthor"><i>Centre for Research on Globalization</i></a>. Web 29 Sept. 2011. </span><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9116506992533522816.post-85726644947740917582011-04-11T17:18:00.000-04:002011-04-13T16:57:10.137-04:00Leaders Bridge Pathways to Peace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="color: #666666;"></div></div><div style="color: #666666;"><i>Participants of <a href="http://www.roanokeva.gov/WebMgmt/ywbase61b.nsf/DocName/$creative">Roanoke's Creative Communities Leadership Program</a> together</i><i> with various civic and interfaith members are hosting a <a href="http://www.downtownroanoke.org/do/bridgewalk">BridgeWalk</a> at 3 pm on Sunday, April 17th in efforts to promote 'tolerance, diversity, and understanding in our ever-evolving community'. This article offers a reflective overview and calls for a collective response in support of the occasion.</i></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-G2vEuKVQTfpsVo7EYo4CiTWHfIm7sm3iv0MgK8itOdgK-t6HnHY0Lvs5TLkyt8pzjQk_RoSiXieN3Dl_G49mCIpEwaicSg0TegESqxDcu_igTGj225bxs3fHbm1F_LIiWmxQYstG8O0/s1600/VA+Tech+-+Korean+Community.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-G2vEuKVQTfpsVo7EYo4CiTWHfIm7sm3iv0MgK8itOdgK-t6HnHY0Lvs5TLkyt8pzjQk_RoSiXieN3Dl_G49mCIpEwaicSg0TegESqxDcu_igTGj225bxs3fHbm1F_LIiWmxQYstG8O0/s320/VA+Tech+-+Korean+Community.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<a href="http://iamkoream.com/exploring-the-shame/">Exploring the Shame</a>" - Salvation in Forgiveness </td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="color: black;">For whatever reasons, perhaps only because Spring has initiated her graceful embrace, I find myself again pondering the meaning of cast shadows. Although a fourth year approaches since the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre">Virginia Tech massacre</a> too, a renewed sense of hope nevertheless rests perched in response to the lessons emanating from an extended string of heartbreaking catastrophe. As I blogged in "<a href="http://theenemyslies.com/crisis4.aspx">A Crisis in American Leadership</a>" some nine months after the Tech incident, and for grounds I couldn't possibly fathom in their entirety at the time, its occurrence marks a significant crossroad in my life.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9B4MwnqG49lwKw2Xm_NbHCkwqTfAEsBKOWD7fcHYakTCXNwfDiWQCvpocLUwtOWTOgABMeqHHFT-oHHjp1GZzPTVO5X7YaBUwAFh9eRhBXXcO5vhsUyp901OdGrQaKTSrJ_YWkxRCjmA/s1600/Columbine+Students+Holliday+and+Perez+-+Kochaniec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9B4MwnqG49lwKw2Xm_NbHCkwqTfAEsBKOWD7fcHYakTCXNwfDiWQCvpocLUwtOWTOgABMeqHHFT-oHHjp1GZzPTVO5X7YaBUwAFh9eRhBXXcO5vhsUyp901OdGrQaKTSrJ_YWkxRCjmA/s320/Columbine+Students+Holliday+and+Perez+-+Kochaniec.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://socialpsychologyeye.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/ostracism-and-school-shootings-whats-the-connection/">Columbine Students Holliday and Perez</a> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="color: black;">More recently though, and as </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Marilyn Hamilton at <a href="http://www.integralcity.com/">Integral City</a> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">mused <a href="http://marilyn.integralcity.com/2011/01/14/colony-collapse-for-human-hive-or-cracks-where-light-gets-in/">in her blog</a> only days after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting">Tucson shooting</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Giffords">Rep. Gabrielle Giffords</a> in January, such episodes appear to reflect </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">"strong “weak signals” that may be indica</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">tions of onset of the human hive’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder">CCD</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> in America"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">(<a href="http://marilyn.integralcity.com/2011/01/14/colony-collapse-for-human-hive-or-cracks-where-light-gets-in/">1</a>). Likewise, and as a former public school instructor, my own perspective over the last decade and a half has been profoundly affected by </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">a pervading sequence of similar tragedies originating with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing">Oklahoma City bombing</a> but including also the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre">Columbine High School massacre</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks">9/11</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina">Hurricane Katrina</a>, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Illinois_University_shooting">Northern Illinois University (NIU)</a> killings perpetrated by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Illinois_University_shooting#Perpetrator">Steven Kazmierczak</a> (see also - "<a href="http://gospelnous.newsvine.com/_news/2008/02/18/1307031-revolution-anarchy-or-madness-a-crisis-in-american-leadership">Revolution, Anarchy, or Madness?: A Crisis in American Leadership</a>").</span><br />
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<div><b><span style="color: #674ea7;">Jane Vance - Bridging East and West</span></b></div><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Subsequently then, I suppose, it's all the more astounding that a role in community involvement has drawn me into the collaborative company of such an illustrious group of soulful others. I'd already had the pleasure of meeting one of these exceptional individuals named </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.janevance.com/about.htm">Jane Vance</a>, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">at a <a href="http://newsroanoke.com/?p=9931">recent opening</a> of her <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WtuyeqGkQI">downtown gallery</a> in February. As "</span><span class="storytext" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">an adjunct professor of the Creative Process through the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">" and </span><span class="storytext" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">aide to "special needs children</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">" with a Floyd County middle school, the art she induces is an eloquent testament of her imbued passion for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Buddhism">Tibetan Buddhism</a>.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nW55ANe1smVZ-k40BeD6nisifRnof2t2ZLPWaNfMJA-MBDh5tolebacaW0OowxYyKqpztZyeAec9eauy2nI8WFyW7yr2q39NF9HCRpxqeRx8i8WYnfuOV56aFyhvTgDHejKnYT3n2W8/s1600/Amchi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nW55ANe1smVZ-k40BeD6nisifRnof2t2ZLPWaNfMJA-MBDh5tolebacaW0OowxYyKqpztZyeAec9eauy2nI8WFyW7yr2q39NF9HCRpxqeRx8i8WYnfuOV56aFyhvTgDHejKnYT3n2W8/s320/Amchi.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.janevance.com/amchi.htm">Amchi</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">In fact, it's her enchantment with the colors, sights, and sounds of Eastern culture that effectively inspired Jane's travels to South Asia beginning in 1985. As fate sometimes evinces itself too, she first met </span><a href="http://www.agiftforthevillage.com/tsampa.html"><span class="storytext">Dr. Tsampa Ngawang</span></a> on just such an excursion in 1995. Heralding from a long line of 'amchi' practitioners, in addition to using a complex combination of <span class="storytext">"herbs, mud and prayer" to facilitate healing, </span>Tsampa is also recognized as <span class="storytext">an "artist, mind-healer, physician and veterinarian, public health expert, settler of village disputes, village chairman and farmer"</span><span class="storytext"> within the </span>"<span class="storytext">Mustang district of north-central Nepal</span>".<br />
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In the months surrounding the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks">September 11 attacks</a> however, and having instructed a course on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_culture">Himalayan culture</a> at Virginia Tech that same year<span class="storytext">, Tsampa nonetheless returned to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal">Nepal's</a> villagers to share the legacy of his experience after only an initial semester on campus</span><span class="storytext">. </span>While led to chronicle the <i>amchi's</i> story artistically, yet concerned it would be construed as 'disrespectful', <span class="storytext">Vance in turn "wrote a personal letter to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Dalai_Lama">His Holiness</a> the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama">Dalai Lama</a> explaining her intentions" and entreating the leader's approval. Upon receipt of his blessing however, Jane began work on her project in 2002, becoming </span><span class="storytext">"the first westerner and the first female in history to be granted permission to do a lineage painting of a prominent Tibetan amchi".</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="318" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2fArOIKG1N8?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" width="512"></iframe></div><br />
Although the portraiture itself would take only ten months to paint initially, the task group congregated to document its delivery to the lama's village of Jomsom wouldn't make its trek to the Himalayas until June of 2007. On their arrival though, and because he'd learned by phone of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Hui_Cho">Seung-Hui Cho's</a> slaying of fellow Tech students less than three months earlier, Tsampa resolved that "the first order of business" should entail holding a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fArOIKG1N8&feature=player_embedded">candle-light vigil</a> in honor of the campus' dead and wounded (see video above).<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote><i><span class="storytext" style="color: #666666;">"It was so important to me to honor the people lost, but also to honor this strong bridge that now exists between two very unlikely places"</span></i> <span style="color: black;">- Jane Vance</span></blockquote></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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</tbody></table>Where the village had cooked "<span class="storytext">for days" in preparation "to feed a thousand people", the unveiling of "Amchi" now became a cause for celebration, giving rise to</span><span class="storytext"> "horseback races and archery competitions, and the village's first game of Twister".</span><span class="storytext"> There was dancing, and laughter, and in the midst of this polyphony of life, as Jane herself recounts, two distinct groups of people, as if awakened to a timeless dream, "became family". Just as miraculously too, t</span>his extraordinary convergence of the human spirit has been captured in the triumphant production of an award winning documentary entitled, "<a href="http://www.agiftforthevillage.com/">A Gift for the Village</a>" (Deacon <a href="http://www.planetblacksburg.com/2010/06/a-gift-for-more-than-one-villa.php">2</a>).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYbHHVixWocoVMDDdRaEXsXyAvX0vjtrO8THDynOw8lGq4kO2JoOnjRECROWsEjHNNPjV9vl0vWapGZhxafdbaqtEzjCcqreLyFltCczY6Ss1JLki_bTuVEEx-G98vCOBBp7-UgHJ9go/s1600/Student+picture+of+Morgan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYbHHVixWocoVMDDdRaEXsXyAvX0vjtrO8THDynOw8lGq4kO2JoOnjRECROWsEjHNNPjV9vl0vWapGZhxafdbaqtEzjCcqreLyFltCczY6Ss1JLki_bTuVEEx-G98vCOBBp7-UgHJ9go/s320/Student+picture+of+Morgan.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://newsroanoke.com/?p=5757">A Student Memorializes Morgan</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Regrettably though, yet as we're sometimes brutishly reminded, destiny can prove a capricious lover. The truth of this is reflected in the fact that among the students scheduled "to travel to Nepal" for the film's World Premiere this past summer was a Tech co-ed named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Dana_Harrington">Morgan Harrington</a> (Acclaimed Artist, <a href="http://newsroanoke.com/?p=9696">3</a>). For those who aren't otherwise aware, Morgan disappeared in October of 2009 from a Metallica concert she'd attended at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Virginia">UVA</a>, and though her body was recovered more than a year later, the case involving her 'abduction, rape, and murder' remains unsolved.<br />
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<div><b><span style="color: #674ea7;">Kurt Steger - Bridging Worlds through Art</span></b> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote><i><span style="color: #666666;">In addition to Jane, we'll also be joined for BridgeWalk by two remarkable individuals who, each in their unique way, is gifted with a genius for touching or otherwise shaping human hearts.</span></i></blockquote></div>The first of these is a regional sculptor by the name of <a href="http://burdenboatproject.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/about-kurt-steger/">Kurt Steger</a>. Along with a few friends in January, I had the good fortune of attending a showing of his ethereal creations at Roanoke College entitled, <a href="http://fwix.com/roanoke/share/3a67aeb3c9/art_exhibit_review_kurt_stegers_silent_nature_at_roanoke_college"><i>Silent Nature</i></a>.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzrlk5BNRsF04gMPoYV-cLNlm66YWi9HUb7CEveBBkfQhhHcJjm0wuOfPyOxhLJocW7QwwfSTHVQYEXwSaysiGMmHsYBj88GRH5vZcVCP-Tfo_8gO7HaDCYKj4tzMBaN66LO5Oc4ev2ws/s1600/Burden+Boat+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzrlk5BNRsF04gMPoYV-cLNlm66YWi9HUb7CEveBBkfQhhHcJjm0wuOfPyOxhLJocW7QwwfSTHVQYEXwSaysiGMmHsYBj88GRH5vZcVCP-Tfo_8gO7HaDCYKj4tzMBaN66LO5Oc4ev2ws/s320/Burden+Boat+3.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/audio/201102151007480.BURDENS.mp3">Steger's 'Burden Boat'</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><i style="color: #666666;">"</i><i><span style="color: #666666;">To get into the exhibit at Roanoke College's Olin Gallery you start by walking through a piece called "</span><a href="http://ccad.digication.com/charnorman/The_Pearl_Gate">The Pearl Gate</a><span style="color: #666666;">" . . . As the piece came together we started realizing it had a bridge like quality, and then we saw the metaphor of the bridge from this world into the other world -- the sculptural world."</span></i><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: black;"> - from a <a href="http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/audio/201102151007480.BURDENS.mp3">public radio interview</a></span></span></blockquote></div>Kurt's work subsequently has the affect of eliciting almost a somatic connection between the viewer and his art which in turn, serves as a portal for transporting those venturing the journey, into a realm of mystically altered forms of space and time. But, at least in this instance, "<i>healing</i> (was) the point of the show<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: black;">; where the center piece is the 'Burden Boat', a fifteen foot long sculpture with a ceramic section inside it, filled with tiny wads of paper. These are the 'burdens' visitors to <i>Silent Nature</i> have scrawled out and placed in the boat" (Silent Nature, <a href="http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/audio/201102151007480.BURDENS.mp3">4</a>).</span></span><br />
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Originated initially in 'response to the regional trauma' of the the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre">Virginia Tech tragedy</a>, the <a href="http://burdenboatproject.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/hello-world/">Burden Boat Project</a> was envisaged as an interactive experience to 'symbolically' release the weight of a participant's spiritual or psychological affliction. First showcased in 2009 on the Tech campus with his display of <a href="http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2009/09/2009-705.html"><i>Primal States and Portals</i></a>, the burdens of community members are ceremoniously cremated and then, returned to the earth in burial.<br />
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<div><b><span style="color: #674ea7;">Carl Tinsley - Bridging Community Relations</span></b></div><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/264965">Rev. Carl Tinsley - 'Facing the Future'</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>As the article ('<a href="http://ciaroanoke.blogspot.com/2010/02/beyond-bombs-and-barriers-building.html">Bridging Community Gaps</a>') written in support of last year's BridgeWalk attests, the underlying theme of the event emanates from a shared observance that the city's bridges have traditionally served alternately to either divide, or unite, the people of Roanoke as neighbors. The third individual who'll be amongst the key guest figures this Sunday, and highlighting the values of 'tolerance' and 'diversity' in particular, is the Reverend Carl Tinsley.<br />
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<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;"><i>"Four times a year, branch leaders meet with the school superintendent to review discipline issues, and Tinsley said he often meets with law enforcement officials to bridge the gap between police and the black community."</i><span style="color: black;"> quote from, "Facing the Future" (Rucker <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/264965">5</a>)</span></div><blockquote style="color: #666666;"><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote></blockquote></div></blockquote>Although long recognized as one of the community's foremost advocates of 'social justice' and 'human rights', especially in relation to Cabell Brand and TAP, the Reverend Tinsley is most recently identified with a crusade on behalf of area youth. Consequently, it's with considerable zeal I look forward to joining not only with those whom I've already mentioned, but local denizens at large, in a gathering that will undoubtedly afford us the opportunity to meet, interrelate, and in the process, grow in our learning and understanding of each other.<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> 1. Hamilton, Marilyn. "<a href="http://marilyn.integralcity.com/2011/01/14/colony-collapse-for-human-hive-or-cracks-where-light-gets-in/">Colony Collapse for Human Hive or Cracks Where Light Gets In?</a>." (2011): <a href="http://marilyn.integralcity.com/"><i>Integral City: The Blog</i></a>. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> Jan. 2011. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. <a href="http://marilyn.integralcity.com/2011/01/14/colony-collapse-for-human-hive-or-cracks-where-light-gets-in/">http://marilyn.integralcity.com/2011/01/14/colony-collapse-for-human-hive-or-cracks-where-light-gets-in/</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> 2. Deacon, Darlene. "<a href="http://www.planetblacksburg.com/2010/06/a-gift-for-more-than-one-villa.php">A Gift For More Than One Village</a>." (2010): <a href="http://www.planetblacksburg.com/"><i>Planet Blacksburg</i></a>. Jun. 2010. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Web. 06 Apr. 2011. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.planetblacksburg.com/2010/06/a-gift-for-more-than-one-villa.php">http://www.planetblacksburg.com/2010/06/a-gift-for-more-than-one-villa.php</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> 3. "<a href="http://newsroanoke.com/?p=9696">Acclaimed Artist Jane Lillian Vance To Premier New Works at Gallery Opening in Downtown Roanoke</a>." (2011): <i>The Roanoke Star Sentinel</i>. <a href="http://newsroanoke.com/">NewsRoanoke.com</a>. Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://newsroanoke.com/?p=9696">http://newsroanoke.com/?p=9696</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> 4. "<a href="http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/news.php?audio_id=2222">Silent Nature - 2.15.11</a>." (2011): <a href="http://www.wvtf.org/"><i>WVTF Public Radio</i></a>. <a href="http://www.wvtf.org/">www.wvtf.org/</a>. Feb. 2011. Radio. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <a href="http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/news.php?audio_id=2222">http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/news.php?audio_id=2222</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> 5. Rucker, Janelle. "<a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/264965">Facing the future</a>." (2010): <i>The Roanoke Times</i>. <a href="http://roanoke.com/">roanoke.com</a>. Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/264965">http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/264965</a>.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><buzzword d="Aq6vhx5lTYiCMjd-joXnAg" doc="<document version="14"><stream objID="1:1" name="body"><section objID="1:2"><paragraph objID="1:5"><textRun objID="1:6">Brian McConnell, BA has worked with the underpinnings of Integral thought and theory, primarily in the fields of education and psychology, since first introduced to Ken Wilber's, </textRun><textRun objID="1:7" fontItalic="true">Eye to Eye</textRun><textRun objID="1:8"> in 1997. Having worked with a diverse set of popular subcultures over this same period, 'learning' and 'leadership development' currently command his central focus. He presently serves as Creative Director for Group Epignosis, a community of learner/collaborators in Roanoke, Virginia.</textRun></paragraph></section></stream></document>" id="68495996" objid="1:2" xmlns:vu="http://www.virtualubiquity.com/buzzword"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brian McConnell, BA is a divorced father of two college/career aged youth residing in Virginia. As a member of Roanoke's <a href="http://gospelnous.newsvine.com/_news/2008/11/11/2059918-in-the-belly-of-the-beast-report-from-a-homeless-american">homeless community</a> over the last two and a half years, a former educator and community advocate, <i>learning</i> and <i>leadership development</i> are currently his central focus of study. Similarly, Brian is also a </span></buzzword><span style="font-family: inherit;">Researcher/Practitioner with the <a href="http://integralresearchcenter.org/open">Integral Research Center</a> in <a href="http://www.ideal.forestry.ubc.ca/cons481/Readings/Integral_SD.pdf">Integral Sustainable Development</a> (<a href="http://www.ideal.forestry.ubc.ca/cons481/Readings/Integral_SD.pdf">SDv</a>) and serves as <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-mcconnell/7/9/841">Director</a> for <a href="http://theemergenteconomist.blogspot.com/">Group Epignosis</a>.</span></div>Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.com0Roanoke, VA, USA37.2709704 -79.941426637.207875400000006 -80.0214821 37.3340654 -79.8613711tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9116506992533522816.post-63271339719252105412010-06-18T14:17:00.000-04:002013-02-11T13:25:01.170-05:00Leading in an 'Unthinkable' World - the Transformation to Holistic Community<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="color: #666666;">"Particularly in the wake of the global economic crisis, we need to rethink our values, redesign our systems, and rebuild our institutions to make them more proactive and strategic, more inclusive, more reflective of the new geo-political and geo-economic circumstances, and more reflective of inter-generational accountability and responsibility."</span></i> (from the Preface to "<a href="http://www.weforum.org/pdf/grs2010/GRI_Report_2010.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Everybody's Business</span></a>" a 'Report of the Global Redesign Initiative')</div>
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Because occasionally assessing one's experience can prove helpful in navigating destiny's footpath, I've been pondering the sequence of events and developments lately, that have transpired since <span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">our</span> initial <a href="http://www.centerforurbanministry.org/reflections/2009/12/11/urban-congregations-must-move-fences-not-build-them.html"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;">City of Peace conference</span></a> back in November. This assembly featuring <a href="http://divinity.wfu.edu/faculty-bailey.html"><span style="color: blue;">Dr. Doug Bailey</span></a>, served as a gathering for Roanoke civic leaders, local clergy, and community members, and culminated in an invitation by Carol Tuning, Human Services Coordinator for <a href="http://www.roanokeva.gov/85256A8D0062AF37/vwContentByKey/N2555QUN297LABTEN"><span style="color: blue;">Roanoke's Homeless Assistance Team</span></a> (HAT) and Chair of the Blue Ridge <a href="http://www.roanokegov.com/WebMgmt/ywbase61b.nsf/vwContentByKey/N262VPES639LABTEN"><span style="color: blue;">Continuum of Care</span></a>, to co-host a service along with <a href="http://centralbrethren.org/minops.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">Congregations in Action</span></a> (CIA) in commemoration of <a href="http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/honoring_the_homeless_who_died_in_2009_resolving_to_do_better_in_2010"><span style="color: blue;">National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day</span></a>. The cooperative planning of this event in turn, resulted in a ceremonial observance on December 18th at Greene Memorial Methodist Church.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihlXW6fIB6cfBuiG4AlU7QnBZLc5c4HOlsBKwwf5zUxfeETJNPh7luO7tXpqVy5QboWB8DHokqLpTX2TflPl65Zt1XaKI68FOvAGMZnUjhKZsBU1pYISBH21_e2mteBYP5VvS9uKmizl4/s1600/homeless+on+bench.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihlXW6fIB6cfBuiG4AlU7QnBZLc5c4HOlsBKwwf5zUxfeETJNPh7luO7tXpqVy5QboWB8DHokqLpTX2TflPl65Zt1XaKI68FOvAGMZnUjhKZsBU1pYISBH21_e2mteBYP5VvS9uKmizl4/s320/homeless+on+bench.jpg" width="320" /></a>Also, in assisting a collaborative effort between the <a href="http://www.rvarc.org/homelessness/home.htm">Roanoke Valley Alleghany Regional Advisory Council</a> (RVARAC) and the <a href="http://www.councilofcommunityservices.org/">Council of Community Services</a> with con-ducting the <a href="http://www.roanokegov.com/85256A8D0062AF37/vwContentByKey/E9FCE438CD0EE38B85257703006A5E21/$File/Final%202010%20PIT%20Report%203-29-10.pdf">Winter Shelter Survey Report</a> (2010), an opportunity was extended in February to meet with members of <a href="http://www.roanokeva.gov/85256A8D0062AF37/CurrentBaseLink/N27YUM4U362LGONEN">Roanoke's Economic Development Department </a>who'd also assumed responsibility for heading <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Florida">Richard Florida's</a> <a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/rfcgdb/articles/is%20the%20creative%20economy%20our%20future.pdf">Creative Connectors</a>. In part, but arising primarily from this author's interest in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability"><span style="color: blue;"><i>sustainability</i></span></a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_entrepreneurship"><i>social entrepreneurship</i></a>, the session's dialogue was summarized in an email entitled, <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/31549666/Bridging-Community-Connection">'Bridging Community Connection'</a> and relayed back to those who'd attended.</div>
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In an effort to further extend its outreach within the immediate community, '<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=%22City+of+Peace%22+and+Roanoke&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1"><span style="color: blue;">city of peace</span></a>' next joined with "<a href="http://starroanoke.wordpress.com/">S.T.A.R.</a> (Spirit of Tolerance and Art in the Region) in concert with local civic and interfaith groups" to host a <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/community/virginia/religion/wb/240528">BridgeWalk</a> on March 28th as a "means of nurturing 'tolerance, diversity, and understanding in (our) ever-evolving community'." This site subsequently supported the affair's theme by initiating an '<a href="http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=81479218341"><span style="color: blue;">event page</span></a>' at Facebook and publishing an accompanying piece entitled, <i><a href="http://ciaroanoke.blogspot.com/2010/02/beyond-bombs-and-barriers-building.html">Bridging Community Gaps . . . 'Body and Soul'</a>.</i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://blogs.roanoke.com/rtblogs/fridgemagnet/2010/04/06/sneak-peek-at-new-restaurant-lucky/"><span style="color: blue;">Sneak Peek</span></a></td></tr>
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Around this same time however, the year-long relationship between Florida's <a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class_communities/">'creative communities leadership pro-gram'</a> and Roanoke was coming to an <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/241433"><span style="color: blue;"><i>unceremonious</i> end</span></a>. Much to his credit though, Kirk Avenue Music Hall founder Ed Walker, who with the city had "split the bill for Florida's $50,000" two-day fee, determined instead, now was a superb time to celebrate its "second annual <span style="color: blue;"><i><a href="http://fromtheeditr.blogspot.com/2010/03/warner-to-help-kirk-ave-music-hall.html"><span style="color: blue;">gathering of the tribes</span></a><span style="color: black;">"</span></i></span>. The mini block-party, featuring an appearance by <span style="color: blue;">Senator Mark Warner</span> along with <a href="http://blog.mtvmusic.com/2010/03/30/needle-in-the-haystack-presents-my-radio/"><span style="color: blue;">My Radio</span></a>, whose "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-lPy-_DJeM"><span style="color: blue;">Yeah, Yeah, Yeah</span></a>" had been showcased in a newly released trailer for <a href="http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-joneses/trailer"><span style="color: blue;">The Joneses'</span></a>, bestowed a certain credibility to Roanoke's aspirations of being recognized as 'Virginia's Music City'.<br />
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In the wake of all this activity, the article's author also had the privilege of meeting a group of innovators who reflect the very essence of community in Roanoke's <a href="http://grandinvillage.blogspot.com/2010/04/celebrate-earth-day-2010-saturday-april.html"><span style="color: blue;">Grandin Village</span></a>, and contribute to their efforts in coordinating events for <a href="http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=266585153812"><span style="color: blue;">Earth Day 2010</span></a>. It should be noted, these individuals constitute the front line of putting ideas related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecovillage"><span style="color: blue;">sustainable culture</span></a> into practical application and are thus, well deserving of our respect and admiration for so doing.</div>
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<span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">An 'Unthinkable' World</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i>"National and local governments are consumed by social and political challenges at home as they contend with crisis-related economic slowdowns and fiscal deficits. The financial industry has just experienced one of its worst governance failures in history resulting in an enormous privatization of gains and socialization of losses with which societies will be coping for years to come."</i></span><span style="color: black;"> (from "<a href="http://www.forumblog.org/blog/2010/05/forum-report-calls-for-postcrisis-overhaul-of-the-international-system.html"><span style="color: blue;">Everybody's Business: Strengthening International Cooperation in a More Interdependent World</span></a>")</span></blockquote>
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For a sundry of different reasons, I've developed an astute awareness over the last four years of the existence of disturbing parallels between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism_in_Europe"><span style="color: blue;">1930's Fascist Europe</span></a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism"><span style="color: blue;">postmodern world</span></a> of today. Consequently, but from my perspective, a United States' citizenry appears to be adopting a comparable pedagogic subservience to impoverished political ideologies as did the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_powers"><span style="color: blue;">Axis powers</span></a> prior to World War II. Therefore, and whether we're especially cognizant of it or not, navigating the didactic of individual <i>choice</i> in our day-to-day socioeconomic relations is assuming almost Biblical significance and likely to prove nearly as vital in shaping our evolutionary future(s).<br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i>"Civilization – not the institutional order – is in a critical condition, one brought on by the failure of our intellectual and spiritual immune systems to resist the virus of institutionalism. This crisis is not to be found in Washington, or Detroit, or on Wall Street, but in our thinking about who we are as individuals and as members of society. As long as we revere the interests of organizations more highly than we do our own; as long as we continue to invest the lives of our children and grandchildren as resources for institutional consumption, this crisis will continue unto the disintegration of civilization itself." </i><span style="color: black;">(Butler Shaffer from, "<a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer203.html"><span style="color: blue;">The Establishment in Crisis</span></a>")</span></span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitzZpFBv0FbqER1gS8DLcbHjtHsm9DeofIsL87K8lykFEMu9ql7QrVFEiDzfp6gYMvPyy4kjg4EGUMxc08807wZAMgpYdAUFwaKixJ__HcvQJLQ_DLO2U8ylo79BQUo4iH-RW86gAGPgU/s1600/Warsaw+Ghetto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitzZpFBv0FbqER1gS8DLcbHjtHsm9DeofIsL87K8lykFEMu9ql7QrVFEiDzfp6gYMvPyy4kjg4EGUMxc08807wZAMgpYdAUFwaKixJ__HcvQJLQ_DLO2U8ylo79BQUo4iH-RW86gAGPgU/s320/Warsaw+Ghetto.jpg" width="320" /></a>Consequently, when faced with such pressing realities, it's absolutely crucial we begin to acknowledge that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution"><span style="color: blue;">evolutionary</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution"><span style="color: blue;">development</span></a> isn't strictly a given, linear, function. In fact, and at virtually any point, it's subject to diversions which can transfigure otherwise purposeful objectives into heinous acts of deprivation which subsequently represent an increased likelihood for apocalypse.</div>
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Along these same lines, but in practical terms, perhaps no one was any more central in negotiating and hence affecting, the underlying structure of the contemporary (global) economic/monetary system to which I've already alluded, than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes"><span style="color: blue;">John Maynard Keynes</span></a>. As "a delegate of the British Treasury" to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versailles_Conference"><span style="color: blue;">Versailles Conference</span></a> which set the terms for the payment of reparations following World War I and author of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economic_Consequences_of_the_Peace"><span style="color: blue;">The Economic Consequences of the Peace</span></a></i>, Keynes' input was especially instrumental in forming the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund">International Monetary Fund</a> as an elemental component of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system">Bretton Woods System</a> at the end of World War II.<br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: #666666;"><i>"The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and co-operation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life."</i></span><span style="color: black;"> ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler%27s_religious_views"><span style="color: blue;">Adolf Hitler's religious views</span></a>" from, <i>My New Order</i> - 1941)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Towards Holistic Community</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">What has become increasingly obvious with the passage of time however, is that the sheer magnitude of change occurring around us is nothing less than epochal. From an <a href="https://acrobat.com/#d=AJi5qfrQvEyIFNuZGUODOA&x=s">integral perspective</a></span> <span style="color: black;">however, </span><span style="color: black;">that is, one viewing evolutionary development as a process weaving its way through premodern, modern, and postmodern unfolding (see, "<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/26212405/Economic-Timeline-From-an-Integral-Perspective"><span style="color: blue;">Economic Timeline from an Integral Perspective</span></a>"); all within the context of four interrelated dimensions of reality (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber#AQAL:_.22All_Quadrants_All_Levels.22"><span style="color: blue;">AQAL</span></a>), 'the future holds phenomenal potential for human realization'. Yet, and at the same time, perhaps a caveat should be issued; 'if we don't first annihilate each other in getting there'.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4_sypB84GuHC3bsH0qwh-hFy4c-4AAM43SWxninLBC_-cGZ4uzyuzMXBJWhV-8lQUsElWjGtf5Z_IG71IBh7MCcBYeVCx_A0e_zlPHJXplyI_yKgr-NlT0gjIX-49m_PAz2wVKb7AEAc/s1600/Boundaries+of+Order.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4_sypB84GuHC3bsH0qwh-hFy4c-4AAM43SWxninLBC_-cGZ4uzyuzMXBJWhV-8lQUsElWjGtf5Z_IG71IBh7MCcBYeVCx_A0e_zlPHJXplyI_yKgr-NlT0gjIX-49m_PAz2wVKb7AEAc/s320/Boundaries+of+Order.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;">As a result, the technological advances undergirding our current realities have brought about a clash, or perhaps more accurately, a <i>convergence</i> of cultures along with their respective <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_view"><span style="color: blue;">worldviews</span></a>, on a scale that's rarely, if ever, occurred be-fore. Similarly, the 'truth claims' associated with these cultures, as translated by science, theology, or philosophy, are evincing new borders of contact and communication for interaction and relationship between previously disjoined agents, members, and players.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Yet, interestingly enough, it's at this point of encounter, not only is the role of government its most captivating, but the prospect of a 'risen Christ' likewise, most consummate. Considering the matter of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governance"><span style="color: blue;">governance</span></a></i>, Butler Shaffer has written a fascinating, if not exhaustive, exposition entitled, <i><a href="http://mises.org/store/Boundaries-of-Order-P589.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">Boundaries of Order</span></a></i> wherein he boldly proposes the ownership of private property as a social system. If nothing else, Shaffer's treatise is an astutely articulated, yet scathing condemnation of the State's incapacity "as a pyramidal model" to serve "any socially useful end", owing primarily to a necessitated reliance on violence in fulfilling its decidedly collectivist agenda (see "<a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker154.html"><span style="color: blue;">Private Property as a Social System</span></a>").</span></div>
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Yet somewhat oddly, the extent to which this viewpoint resounds a comparable theme to that of 20th Century French cleric <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_and_Magda_Trocm%C3%A9"><span style="color: blue;">André Trocmé</span></a> (1901-1971), is intriguing to say the least. Having experienced the needlessness of World War I firsthand, this same background "cemented his orientation as a pacifist" early on. Consequently, on the first Sunday following France's surrender "to the Nazis" in June 1942 and its subsequent agreement "to arrest and deport" on demand, exiles fleeing the Third Reich; Trocmé and fellow pastor Edouard Theis "preached about resistance:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVa-913DObbLuhpkqfTz0uFLda4Dydi4DgLvxyj8aJrl62FSCr_9DKkS3V3FgUivMryl4P1-6CcuiVMbsSfL-b9CbpNZUDfLXrcysV9OTA-7NQO113VNTgOPmqIb9H4zTU2SzIcXawJE/s200/Le+Chambon-Sur-Lignon+Children.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="193" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007518"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-small;">Jewish Children Sheltered in Le Chamon-sur-Lignon</span></a></td></tr>
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<i><span style="color: #666666;">Tremendous pressure will be put on us to submit passively to a totalitarian ideology. If they do not succeed in subjugating our souls, at least they will want to subjugate our bodies. The duty of Christians is to use the weapons of the Spirit to oppose the violence that they will try to put on our consciences. We appeal to all our brothers in Christ to refuse to cooperate with this violence…"</span></i></blockquote>
Thus, having established the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coll%C3%A8ge_Lyc%C3%A9e_International_C%C3%A9venol#Founding_as_L.E2.80.99Ecole_Nouvelle_C.C3.A9venole"><span style="color: blue;">L’École Nouvelle Cévenole</span></a> with Theis in 1938, Trocmé became a key figure in the region's forming of "a massive, organized network to protect and even educate Jewish children who had been taken out of internment camps". Operating in covert resistance to Hitler's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution"><span style="color: blue;">Final Solution</span></a> to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_question"><span style="color: blue;">Jewish question</span></a>, community members "opened their homes to the refugees, sometimes to stay, sometimes to wait until accommodations could be arranged elsewhere or until they could be smuggled across the Swiss border." Ultimately, this unified effort is said to have "provided a haven or safe passage" for between 2,500 to 3,500 refugees (see, <i><a href="http://www.plough.com/ebooks/pdfs/Jesus.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution</span></a></i>).<br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i>"All of us, Christian and non-Christian alike, are responsible for the hunger, injustice, egoism, exploitation, and wars that devastate our time. Christians bear special responsibility: knowing that God can change both people and their situations, the disciple of Jesus can help bring into being God’s future for humanity."</i></span><span style="color: black;"> (André Trocmé from the Preface to <i><a href="http://www.plough.com/ebooks/pdfs/Jesus.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution</span></a></i>)</span></blockquote>
Amazingly enough however, and as a heroic testament to his community's power to stand down oppression, Trocmé seems to direct credit for that feat towards far loftier aspirations in, <i><a href="http://www.plough.com/ebooks/pdfs/Jesus.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution</span></a></i> (1961). So, while his underlying premise on one hand is exquisitely simple, at the same time it's radically powerful in positing his conclusion that -- Jesus Christ's mission on earth, proclaimed the arrival of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_God"><span style="color: blue;">God's Kingdom</span></a> based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_%28Christian%29"><span style="color: blue;">Jubilee</span></a> principles <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_%28Biblical%29"><span style="color: blue;">of the Old Testament</span></a>. In a very cogent exegesis then, Trocmé outlines the scriptural foundation of a social order reflecting the immutable plan of God's intended will for world justice and humanity's liberation from the imposed tyranny of debt, slavery, and oppression.</div>
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Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.com0Roanoke, VA, USA37.2709704 -79.941426637.1343654 -80.1748861 37.407575400000006 -79.7079671tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9116506992533522816.post-91115180233829983362010-02-23T10:02:00.000-05:002011-04-04T10:42:05.620-04:00Bridging Community Gaps . . . 'Body and Soul'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border: medium none;"><div style="color: #666666;"><i>"</i><a href="http://s.t.a.r./"><i>S.T.A.R.</i></a><i> (Spirit of Tolerance and Art in the Region) in concert with local civic and interfaith groups, is hosting a BridgeWalk at 3 pm on Sunday, March 28th as a means of nurturing 'tolerance, diversity, and understanding in an ever-evolving community'." This article affords a 'backdrop' in support of the event.</i></div><b><i><span style="color: white;">.</span></i></b><br />
Beginning last year, and as many already know, the <a href="http://www.roanokeva.gov/WebMgmt/ywbase61b.nsf/DocName/$creative">City of Roanoke</a> partnered with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Florida">Richard Florida's</a> <a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class_communities/">Creative Class Group</a> in a community project comprised of <a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2009/03/06/roanoke-creative-connectors-selected/">30 (local) connectors</a> formed expressly to vitalize our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_economics">'regional economy</a>'. As one of the most popular and 'best-selling' authors on the topic, Florida's "basic thesis" in <i><a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0205.florida.html">The Rise of the Creative Class</a> </i>centers on the idea "that the economy is transforming, and creativity is to the 21st century what the ability to push a plow was to the 18th century. Creative occupations are growing and firms now orient themselves to attract the creative." Consequently, the "urban lesson of Florida’s book is that cities that want to succeed must aim at attracting the creative types who are, Florida argues, the wave of the future" (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Glaeser">Edward L. Glaeser's</a>, <a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/rfcgdb/articles/GlaeserReview.pdf">Review of <i>The Rise of the Creative Class</i></a>).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb31TjoOZJ26qBEKELAKPdRZOHllmNIW1Ha7KrbVaW_K7zn9lURTXJerHkdTiCnhErLwFcDFKW_SkRbxgbRUPmf1VFLydiJZH2oMkPJK6_N8A5f4llCrvSsKxUZrDeDOAg7NIX3eeDk_k/s1600-h/Dr+Pepper+and+H+%26+C+Coffee+signs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb31TjoOZJ26qBEKELAKPdRZOHllmNIW1Ha7KrbVaW_K7zn9lURTXJerHkdTiCnhErLwFcDFKW_SkRbxgbRUPmf1VFLydiJZH2oMkPJK6_N8A5f4llCrvSsKxUZrDeDOAg7NIX3eeDk_k/s320/Dr+Pepper+and+H+%26+C+Coffee+signs.jpg" /></a>Well, uhh Duh! Good, so being the intelligent and high functioning individuals we are, we're all in agreement and working on the same page with this then . . . right? Right? I mean that's our shared objective, wooing or otherwise nurturing a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_class">'creative class'</a>. After all, Roanoke's cultural heritage is second to none, affording the richest of seed beds from which societal greatness has, in times past, almost magically sprung forth and flourished.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="border: medium none;">As proof of our city's merit on this count, yet lurking under the shadow of rather dense racial overtones, there was a brief point in Roanoke's earlier history that it afforded creative space and refuge on <a href="http://www.roanokeva.gov/WebMgmt/ywbase61b.nsf/docName/$walktour">Henry Street</a> to one of the most prolific, if not obscure, innovators of the 20th century. Born in 1884, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Micheaux">Oscar Micheaux</a> was the first African-American to produce a 'feature-length' film and easily the most prominent contributor to the entire <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_film">'race movie'</a> genre, literally inspiring dozens of completed projects over the course of his career (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Micheaux">Oscar Micheaux - Wikipedia</a>).</div><div style="border: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3-BpZmkuzvCTbGutDZdvJstlmzCuQYYpN2041jJ9amOasGkzJ5tvnUL7pSSKXUcPQwLFSBAKHP29YiAPASq_5iomo1eFilfIQB1Jfs0cOtqkN56WQol6W0fPaorBL9gFDFZZXwSkxNH0/s1600-h/Lincoln+Theatre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3-BpZmkuzvCTbGutDZdvJstlmzCuQYYpN2041jJ9amOasGkzJ5tvnUL7pSSKXUcPQwLFSBAKHP29YiAPASq_5iomo1eFilfIQB1Jfs0cOtqkN56WQol6W0fPaorBL9gFDFZZXwSkxNH0/s320/Lincoln+Theatre.jpg" /></a>Making his "first trip to Roanoke" in 1921, Micheaux had already begun filming "on location" in the surrounding vicinity by 1922. With an opening of the 703 seat capacity <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/176522">Strand Theatre</a> (later the 'Lincoln', pictured at right) in 1923, he established "an office" and operated "the Oscar Michaeux film Corporation" there from "1924 until 1925". Conveniently, he also chose "the <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6076987">Hotel Dumas</a>" just across the street, for his local residence during this same period. Thus, but while in Roanoke, with the financial support of "(l)ocal investors", Micheaux was able to render "a total of eight films using nationally known as well as local actors and settings from the Gainsboro neighborhood".</div><div style="border: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border: medium none;"><div style="border: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgigTOLt2aMEUb-BKpUIuChRzTaIP0IHpHoU5oyQrDJGk1hpB6flpEH62JVgYva4X6NJNXkjTjN1JQt7Os73o5155XQU1xYGbieCK-nHEjSxUSsED0Z5eHElVAJbdbFTKm74pCpoZQCJYQ/s1600-h/Hotel+Dumas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgigTOLt2aMEUb-BKpUIuChRzTaIP0IHpHoU5oyQrDJGk1hpB6flpEH62JVgYva4X6NJNXkjTjN1JQt7Os73o5155XQU1xYGbieCK-nHEjSxUSsED0Z5eHElVAJbdbFTKm74pCpoZQCJYQ/s200/Hotel+Dumas.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Too, because of its proximity to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Roanoke">Hotel Roanoke</a>, a number of the most prominent jazz musicians of the era "including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington">Duke Ellington</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie">Count Basie</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Waller">Fats Waller</a>", "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Waters">Ethel Waters</a>", "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cab_Calloway">Cab Calloway</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Hampton">Lionel Hampton</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Domino">Fats Domino</a>," and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizzy_Gillespie">"Dizzy Gillespie"</a> typically stayed "at the Hotel Dumas" (pictured above) following their performances. Consequently, but over a span of the three decades witnessing an end to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I">World War I</a> on through the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression">Great Depression</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II">World War II</a>, the Gainsboro area in general, and Henry Street in particular, became a sparkling testament to the vibrancy of the region's African-American culture (see <a href="http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Roanoke/128-5764_Henry_Street_HD_2004_Final_Nomination.pdf">National Register of Historic Places Registration Form</a>).</div></div><div style="border: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border: medium none;"><div style="border: medium none;">Today however, in stark contrast to the rich aura of this cultural (i.e. <i>artistic</i>) heritage, it's disconcerting that a looming penumbra of dominant (and let's face it) 'white', societal mores should yet, so insistently cast its pallor across our city's contemporary landscape. During the societal tumult that was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Twenties">Roaring Twenties</a> however, and at a time when many of the churches in Roanoke's extended downtown section had been only recently constructed, a young, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_industry#Hollywood">Hollywood-based</a> film industry, catapulted to success in part with its 1915 Klan-glorifying production of, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation">The Birth of a Nation</a></i>; towered omnipotently over the toil of Oscar Micheaux.<br />
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<div style="border: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjikOHkyU8QRba8v_mO_xa9XvXtH12F9IVmrX9-6qhBITcwnVjza8EC5sEF7h1X1k9PEizbI6iLCHuiht4MacFvzsFzGj5LPA9vvIyHTV73gxj1flVkAbfjTL0XJHQxvrYfq2hj-3vFbjc/s1600-h/Body+and+Soul+Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjikOHkyU8QRba8v_mO_xa9XvXtH12F9IVmrX9-6qhBITcwnVjza8EC5sEF7h1X1k9PEizbI6iLCHuiht4MacFvzsFzGj5LPA9vvIyHTV73gxj1flVkAbfjTL0XJHQxvrYfq2hj-3vFbjc/s320/Body+and+Soul+Poster.jpg" /></a></div></div><div style="border: medium none;"></div><div style="border: medium none;">Nevertheless, and having already obtained a modicum of commercial acceptance himself, Micheaux enlisted the talent of a 27 year-old actor named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson">Paul Robeson</a> to make <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_and_Soul_%281925_film%29#Production">"his film debut"</a> playing the dual role of Reverend Isaiah T. Jenkins and his brother Sylvester, in <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_and_Soul_%281925_film%29#Production">Body and Soul</a></i> (1925). Where mainstream cinema at this juncture still portrayed Black Americans in varying stereotypes of <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cinema_journal/v043/43.1wallace.pdf">"comedic caricature"</a>, the aspiring filmmaker instead spun an intricate story of an "escaped prisoner" plotting to swindle a town's parishioners of their offerings while masquerading as a preacher. Ironically however, when Micheaux "applied for an exhibition license from the Motion Picture Commission of the State of New York, it was denied approval on the grounds it would 'tend to incite to crime' and was 'immoral' and 'sacrilegious'" (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_and_Soul_%281925_film%29">Body and Soul - Wikipedia</a>).<br />
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Without minimizing the complexity involved, Roanoke's <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/199894">Creative Communities Leadership Program (CCLP)</a> represents a very practical, yet significant step in engaging its citizens in the development of "a more authentic, sustainable and prosperous community" (see <a href="http://www.roanokeva.gov/85256A8D0062AF37/CurrentBaseLink/N27NSMKF547EDINEN">Creative Connector Description</a>). In this same respect, these 'connectors' have subsequently translated the "four T's" Florida equates with actually realizing these objectives (Talent, Technology, Tolerance, and Territorial Assets) into <a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2009/04/03/roanoke-creative-connectors-establish-four-initiatives/">separate <i>initiatives</i></a>. Consequently, <a href="http://starroanoke.wordpress.com/">S.T.A.R.</a> (Spirit of Tolerance and Art in the Region) in concert with local civic and interfaith groups, is hosting a BridgeWalk at 3 pm on Sunday, March 28th as a means of nurturing "tolerance, diversity, and understanding in an ever-evolving community". Beginning at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Winston_Link_Museum">O. Winston Link Museum</a>, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on steps towards social justice and unity in route to the Henry Street (e.g. Martin Luther King Memorial) Bridge.<br />
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</div></div></div>Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9116506992533522816.post-5983883477333590252010-01-05T14:52:00.000-05:002010-08-02T10:12:08.101-04:00What's Next? . . . Fence Moving!<a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3341&t=KJV">metanoia</a> - "<em>a change of mind, as it appears to one who repents, of a purpose he has formed or of something he has done"</em> (from the <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm">Blue Letter Bible</a>)<br />
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Since launching this blog site following a seminar featuring <a href="http://divinity.wfu.edu/faculty-bailey.html">Dr. Doug Bailey</a> in early November, a number of those who attended the original conference have inquired more recently, "What's next for 'City of Peace'?". To help in exploring some possible answers, George Kegley has written an excellent review of the workshop entitled, <a href="http://www.centerforurbanministry.org/reflections/">"Urban Congregations Must Move Fences, Not Build Them"</a>.<br />
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As it relates to the underlying themes of 'radical truth telling' and 'social justice', but especially since discovering <a href="http://www.swlaw.edu/faculty/faculty_listing/facultybio/70115">Butler Shaffer's</a>, <em><a href="http://mises.org/books/boundaries.pdf">Boundaries of Order: Private Property As a Social System</a></em>, Dr. Bailey's analogy of <em>fence moving </em>as a means of better fostering an intricately knit community, impresses me as being particularly profound. Yet, no more so than the implication for this 'change' as a <em>movement</em> of practical transformation in terms of <em>mission</em>, with the potential to transcend various levels of human experience all the way from <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1262790845509"><em>third world</em> </a><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World">village</a> </em>to our local neighborhood(s).<br />
<blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: #666666;">Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed (<em><a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3339&t=KJV">metamorphoo</a></em>) by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.</span></div><div align="right" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Rom&c=12&v=2&t=NIV#comm/2">Romans 12:2</a></span></div></blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3v2VtCEW9i0/SzpcLQku6fI/AAAAAAAAAC8/2paySV2Jf7E/s1600-http://www.briansewell.com/artist/b-artist/banksy/banksy-palestinian-tag.htmlh/beach+fence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4KDowoj9_Fq0y3oS6dXrD0Ja1gdBFHxDL2SCcy5Cn0HvemU_1iyJdEE1WkEgyeYjhkd-OvXQOwy6dXLM1-tOD-DGSkiLykQNECWBpeE3mNeHOT_-RThFHUjXtXZnoKri09gNQVZvF4tE/s320/beach+fence.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.briansewell.com/artist/b-artist/banksy/banksy-palestinian-tag.html">Banksy Hacks the Wall</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Yet, because even a rudimentary study of the Old Testament reveals an ongoing and rather persistent rebellion on the part of God's <em>elect</em> (e.g. the nation 'Israel') in ignoring some of the most basic tenets of His will, what kind of future might actually await our own citizenry for imposing on subsequent generations a seemingly irredeemable national debt? Similarly, but perhaps more importantly, what natural circumstances will befall a people who no longer hold to the idea of natural (e.g. Divine) provision and have subsequently become both the world's greatest debtors and its most exploitative consumers?</div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Consequently perhaps, now might be an appropriate time for the Christian Church to reevaluate the worth of self-assessments based exclusively on a history of its own rusting prosperity and instead, consider weighting its present condition in terms of 'Christ-likeness'. Fortunately for us however, the bigger picture isn't all one of doom and gloom, there's more than adequate reason for hope.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">"A New Era Has Begun"</span></div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: #666666;">"<em>A new era for the human race has clearly begun. When I compare the state of people’s awareness today with what it was just a few years ago, remarkable changes are taking place. People are finally waking up to the fact that the world of big money, big media, and big business is taking them absolutely nowhere except into degradation, alienation, and slavery. People are finally becoming cognizant that their destiny lies in their own hands and within their own consciousness."</em></span> - <strong>Richard C. Cook</strong>, from <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16638">"A New Era Has Begun"</a></div></blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">There are those too like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Walsh">Roger Walsh</a> who in a paper subtitled, <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/integral-life-home/Walsh_State_of_the_Integral_Enterprise_Part%20II.pdf">"Key Ideas for a World at Risk"</a>, expresses a well qualified viewpoint similar to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C._Cook">Richard Cook's</a> that 'religion' has the capacity to "catalyze" human development and if that possibility were "widely appreciated" to in turn, "transform the culture". The type of 'religion' to which Walsh refers however is not the "<em>conventional narrative religion</em>" with which most people are familiar, but something he calls "<em>transconventional psychotechnologies</em>".</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Where <em>conventional narrative religion</em> typically arises from a group's shared belief in a unifying 'story' or narrative, the "central theme" of <em>transconventional psychotechnologies</em> is by contrast, the possible necessity of training "the mind (and metaphorically the heart) in order to foster mental and spiritual maturation and well-being". Walsh substantiates this point further by noting that "(p)reliminary research on meditation supports the idea that it can foster certain kinds of development (Walsh & Shapiro, 2006)".</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Consequently however, there is also a shared responsibility (or 'exemplar' as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber">Ken Wilber</a> has called it) on the part of those same practitioners to "foster (their) own psychological and spiritual maturation". For example, rather than rigidly observing less creative or interactive forms of 'traditional' charity, individuals instead engage in what Walsh describes a "millennia old" variety of service (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_Yoga">Karma Yoga</a>) as a means of transforming "one’s work in the world into spiritual practice".</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Presence, Prayer, Peace . . .</span></div></div></div><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #666666;">There seems to be a contradiction between the needs of the Knowledge Era and the reality of centralized power (Child & McGrath, 2001) that leadership theory has not yet addressed. "The dominant paradigms in organizational theory are based on stability seeking and uncertainty avoidance through organizational structure and processes . . ."</span> <strong>Uhl-Bien</strong>, <strong>Marion</strong>, and <strong>McKelvey</strong>, quoted from <a href="http://billmckelvey.org/documents/2007%20Uhl-Bien,%20Marion,%20McKelvey(07)-Leadership%20Quart.pdf">"Complexity Leadership Theory"</a></span></div></div></blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.briansewell.com/artist/b-artist/banksy/banksy-palestinian-tag.html" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDa41fnE4dcjvUVFerhyrukCytmQybW6Dux8SOeqhyiuU1_LixCvYjyyzDmeGFSA0JdMOJFjd8GUaf-32wNwm8Bt4S5KA5GO8ocC-JuBSYYXog2lhtzrXiSDuePvMWuNk30oI544l79gk/s320/Boy+Through+the+Wall.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.briansewell.com/artist/b-artist/banksy/banksy-palestinian-tag.html">Banksy Hacks the Wall</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="color: black;">From my perspective, the 'City of Peace' workshop did a brilliant job of providing a forum and framework for a diverse group of civic leaders from various sectors of our local community to further explore ways together, for contributing even more effectively to Roanoke's overall health and economic vitality. This group then, represents nothing less than the potential to inspire and instill 'can do' attitudes much in the way that <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/columnists/flowers/wb/184397">Congregations in Action</a> has been doing in the area's public schools for some time now.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The key here however, whether addressing issues of homelessness, education, or economic vibrancy, is that we do so with an appreciation that we're not just witnessing a phenomenal point in history involving unprecedented <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity">creativity</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation">innovation</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning">learning</a>, but we're actually participants in its unfolding. I hope we'll continue to both celebrate and honor that in relation to one and other . . . and in rejoining Dr. Bailey, Namaste.</div></div></div>Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9116506992533522816.post-32866209788660900192009-11-18T09:28:00.000-05:002010-03-07T17:16:23.508-05:00Group Launches New Blog Site<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">.</span><br />
Representing a number of Roanoke interfaith, civic, and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roanoke-VA/Creative-Communities-Leadership-Program/47710752087">'creative'</a> groups attending a recent seminar featuring guest lecturer Dr. Doug Bailey of Wake Forest University's School of Divinity, participants of a "Next Step Follow-up" meeting announced the creation of a new blog site. As a recognized authority and Founder of the <a href="http://www.centerforurbanministry.org/">Center for Urban Ministry</a>, Dr. Bailey emphasized the importance of three components in vitally shaping the city's 'soul'. The first of these entails <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_presence">Presence</a> as an 'indwelling of Spirit', the second <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer">Prayer</a>, in respect to divine leading and the third <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace">Peace</a>, as a natural attestation of this relational process.<br />
<blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg6SXOdYoXll5pX3xHwwdxVJkAYvXwOQ9A5zv2XSdsCDIKUm6I4pZGX5yYBKi8f1RCtz-ocm8CZ2j3nVVA6dAEsQdfB799x_lm_IF_WFZaz6gJDRgurTYioSJmeqMtKGC7OzHD-8fPcCY/s1600/Doug+Bailey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg6SXOdYoXll5pX3xHwwdxVJkAYvXwOQ9A5zv2XSdsCDIKUm6I4pZGX5yYBKi8f1RCtz-ocm8CZ2j3nVVA6dAEsQdfB799x_lm_IF_WFZaz6gJDRgurTYioSJmeqMtKGC7OzHD-8fPcCY/s200/Doug+Bailey.jpg" yr="true" /></a>"Our churches are largely co-opted by an American folk Christianity, based on a nationalistic, prosperity theology. There is hardly a distinction any longer between the church and popular culture. The slide into a consumer church mentality versus the servant church has been steep in the recent decades." excerpt from <a href="http://www.congregationalresources.com/PRV/InterviewBailey.pdf">"An Interview with Doug Bailey"</a></div></div></blockquote></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">With more than forty in attendance, group members reflected a diverse spectrum spanning the religious, civic and cultural identities that comprise Roanoke's populace. Consequently, the recognized need to sustain connection, communication, collaboration and celebration amongst community members was the inspiration for initiating the 'City of Peace' blog site.<br />
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<strong>Visitors are invited to take a minute or two to register as a 'Follower', and further encouraged to offer comments expressing constructive ideas or questions.</strong></div></div>Brian McConnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170423905684908506noreply@blogger.com2