[Springboard] Welcome From Jack Gilles
Jack Gilles
icabombay at igc.org
Tue Sep 4 06:13:07 EDT 2007
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the Springboard Listserv. Your name is part of the
original recipients because you either participated in one of the
Springboard gatherings or expressed an interest in the work. Of
course you can delete your name from the list if you don't care to be
part of the dialogue and discussions regarding the future work of the
Order. This listserv is not for everyone. We are about giving form
and substance to the task of "caring for Those Who Care (TWC)." This
is the term that we used 30 years ago to describe what would be the
task of the Order Ecumenical once it was no longer focusing on
Profound Awakenment (Town Meeting) and Social Demonstration. We did
not know at the time (1977) what that third campaign would look like
nor did we anticipate the fact that the Order Ecumenical would be
dissolved and its members scattered into a diaspora. Now thirty
years later we find ourselves called to look again at what that task
might be. But this is not a reconstituting of the Order Ecumenical.
This Order has yet to be named and has no structure, polity or
membership. All of these can come if and when necessary. It is
however a covenanted body, committed to work together and supporting
one another in this common task. (See the covenant at the Abbey North
report at the web page noted below.)
We will have many people joining this listserv who have had little or
no contact with OE, ICA or EI, but who see themselves as part of this
covenanted body and wanting to be part of this work. That is why we
aren't using the old OE listeserv for this new work. I will be
announcing this listerv on the ICADialogue and OE listerv with an
invitation to participate. Gordon Harper will be posting a list of
those who received the original invitation, but if you know of
someone who needs or wants to be part of our common mission then
please send the name and email address to Gordon Harper. I intend to
extend the invitation to at least 15 new colleagues here in India.
We will be announcing shortly the third Springboard gathering for the
weekend of November 30th, December 1-2 at Lake Junaluska near
Asheville NC. Marshall Jones has explored this for us and I will be
sending out his email as a separate notice.
Immediately before us will be to begin the dialogue on this meeting,
it's design, content and products. We hope all will join in so that
we might get a lot done online before the gathering happens. We hope
to have electronic linkage at that gathering with Abbey North as well
as with individuals who cannot travel to Asheville but might join us
via Skype. We also need to start a dialogue on the design and
content of a web page that would be a resource for a much larger body
of people with whom we will be interacting (TWC). We have a tech
team in place, but need input and help from those who are
knowledgeable on web page design as well as those of us who will be
sending people to this web page.
Some months ago several of us had some wonderful interchange on the
concept, form and task of the Guild. This work has been preserved by
David Dunn and is in the process of being transferred to our
Repository site <http://twiki.wedgeblade.net>. I will shortly be
starting a specific dialogue on the Guild with a position paper. If
you haven't done so we would encourage you to visit the site, click
on "Recent Changes" and then on "Abbey North" to see the results of
the last Order gathering.
So welcome aboard and let the creativity flow!
Jack Gilles
More information about the Springboard
mailing list