summer 73 congregation a

The following is the fourth document of the Form of the Guild section of the summer '73 Research Assembly. It represents the current wisdom of the Spirit Movement on the practical functions and forms of the guild and general principles of its implementation. It is a working document, setting the context for the designing of specific procedures for giving new form to the guilding dynamic of history. THE SOCIAL FORM OF THE GUILD ­Contents- I The Revolutionary stance of the Guild II The Image of the Guild III The Form and Function of the Guild IV The Guild Implementation Principles V The Guild Manifest

Summer '73 Thursday

Research Assembly July 12, 1973

Second Week

INTRODUCTION THE RESURGENT TIMES	1. The unknown, the untried, the unheard­of is in the air; people catch it, are intoxicated by it, throw themselves away, and laugh at the cost. So the 20th Century moves into the future out of a new awe­filled possibility. Who would have said that after two global wars, the collapse of the traditional value and symbol systems, and the crises of the sixties the seventies could emerge as a time of resurgence, a breakloose of creativity that may exceed any of the dreams of men. The tension­filled vulnerability of our time has not gone away, but man everywhere senses that the world has been given back to him as possibility in a radical way. The vision of the earth rise from the moon, the end of the Vietnam War, the Nixon trip to the People's Republic of China, the serious engagement with ecology, the fact that the emerging nations are into their second and third decades of development and the realization that the post­modern world is being built in spite of many critical conditions has given to all men the releasing possibility that they can rebuild the earth. Man is now open to the development of inclusive plans for creating the new time and space of the human journey. Behind the still audible moans from the world he has been given, there is now the dread­filled fascination to claim the earth of the 20th century as a gift of creation.
THE CRY FOR FULFILLMENT	2. The innocent suffering present in the 20th Century is now selfconsciously impinging on all men. Men yearn for a practical opportunity to participate in the reconstruction of society and for the sense of fulfillment that would come from that participation. He cries out for tools and structures that will allow him to care for both his local community and the total globe.
THE GUILD FUNCTION	3. Out of the response to the times and the cry of humanity, the form called for is the guild. The guild becomes that corporate, catalyzing vehicle through which man re­engages authentically in the process of re­creating humanness in a local community, out of a global network. Secular enticement, the new evangelism, becomes the approach and tool of the guild which releases the deeps within every man and calls forth his spirit transformation
THE TIMES INTRODUCTION	4. Local man in the 20th Century lives in a restless atmosphere. The traditional symbols, styles, and structures no longer serve as guideposts. and he is searching to replace them. In the midst of a meaningless mosaic of fragments, he seeks a way to introduce the rational into the oncoming future and a comprehensive local structure that will enable him to engage his life authentically in creating the future of the globe.

IMPOTENT POLITICAL PARTICIPATION	5. The events of symbolic power, broadcasted to the world, demonstrate the unclarity of how local man participates in the decision making process. Such events as the Watergate Affair and sporadic declines in voter registration indicate the collapse of the political structures, particularly in regard to the electoral process. The attempts to cut back welfare programs, the inability of the government to prevent the present energy crisis, and the inflation of food prices indicate that governmental forms block rather than focus radical care for human need. Cynicism and mistrust are common responses to the "Watergate Scandal" and collegiality between the executive and legislative branches of the government has evaporated. A crying pain arises out of local man from his inability to grasp or to influence the political structures.
REVOKING TRADITIONAL FORMS	6. Man cries out for a new persona1 significance: significance which he no longer find's in the traditional fashion. One of the many events that has raised vocational questions is the cutback of government funded contracts and grants. This has reduced opportunities, emphasized unemployment and created dissatisfaction within specialized fields. An unrealistic educational program is not preparing students for responsibility in the business world. Student teachers do not have the opportunity to practice­teach until their last semester in college which leaves them virtually untrained in the classroom and with no screen to apply their past training. Little emphasis has been placed on manual skills as significant and has contributed to labor shortages in many fields. Family values and relationships are no longer furnishing adults with adequate ways of understanding the change of sexual roles. New images are being searched for that manifest authentically what it means to create the 20th Century family educational programs, governmental responsibilities, and responsible skills.
NEW MAN EMERGES	7. The picture of the earth rise has burned into man's consciousness an awareness of being one people, the inhabitants of a common island in the midst of space. This has intensified the understanding that man must cooperate to survive, and has called into question existing privilege structures. Oppressed persons have been handed new bargaining power. Consequently, value systems which have reinforced previous special status structures have collapsed and the global family is scrambling for new values which embody man's new global image or himself. Nixon's visit to China has become a sign of hope of the increased activity of nations in seeking new ways of cooperating. The exposure of varied cultures and their values is creating a climate conducive to experimentation with a wide variety of styles and values.
SHIFT FROM SHALLOWNESS TO DEPTH	8. One of the dramatic shifts in human consciousness is toward the serious questioning of life and of the purpose and meaning of life engagement. A search for basic life meaning has emerged, and may be seen in the massive and sometimes parochial experimentation in spiritual methods, especially in the Jesus movement of the youth culture and in the influence of Eastern meditation and Mysticism. Although it is a reduced context, the shift from shallowness to depth may also be seen in dissatisfaction with specialized occupational tasks, resulting in a desire on the part of many to discover a genuine life vocation. Finally, the shift to depth in human consciousness is revealed in the desire of individuals to make their own moral choices rather than accepting the social mores of another age. This is particularly evident in the cry for "new morality"; and in the concern over abortion, organ transplants and other radical medical advances.
SHIFT FROM PAROCHIAL TO GLOBAL	9. Today man is experiencing a shift in mindset from local to global consciousness. Through mass media and the acknowledgment of the need to relate to the East, the West is being impacted by the total globe. Goods have become available from anywhere in the world and travel is a possibility for more and more people. We are benefiting from sharing of scientific and technological data on a global basis. as has been done in space programs and in medicine. There is a prevailing awareness of the danger of total global destruction and therefore a vision of needing to participate in new international political cooperation. Large international corporations are creating a global economy where national economic systems are interrelated and influenced by global events. This global impact has given mankind a new appreciation of world gifts and commonness among cultures. Old stereotypes and images are breaking down, perhaps demonstrated in the election or black politicians in the U.S. and the liberation movements all over the world.
SHIFT FROM OPTIMISTIC TO REALISTIC	10. The relationship that people are taking to society has shifted in the recent past from a naive, optimistic stance to a questioning, practical one. This is illustrated in the style of social activism, which has shifted from short­range solutions to a long­range practical approach. In the ecological arena there has been a shift from a narrow concern for the preservation of natural beauty to a more comprehensive approach to ecological issues now facing the globe. There is a shift from blind trust in public institutions to a recognition of the collapse of integrity within democratic institutions and the need for a new integrity. The shift in a more realistic posture toward social issues has seen more emphasis on limited demonstration projects as opposed to broad scale experimental programs.
INCREASING GLOBAL INTERCHANGE	11. Globa1 1nterchange is becoming the rule rather than the exception in the world today. It manifests itself in many ways: the West and the East are exchanging philosophic and religious concepts and disciplines, a portion of one recent U.S. Russian agreement exemplifies a trend on cultural exchanges. and foreign foods appear in every city. The most radical trend in global interchange is occurring in the economic field as exemplified by the rise of the multi­national corporation and increasing importance of Far Eastern and European industrial power. This is producing a decline in U.S. dominance of global trade. Finally, in the political arena there are signs or increased international cooperation, the U.S. talks with Russia and China, the cooperation or nations in space research and the new talks of unity among the Pacific Islands.
SOCIAL ROLES DELINEATION	12. A trend is seen in local mar, seeking and taking responsibility for social roles in the economic, political and cultural spheres. Consumer protection groups are emerging, birth control centers are struggling with social morality and a new context for making intentional decisions regarding family size and thus life direction and style, and local communities are becoming aware of their own power as a community of capable, gifted human beings. In the midst of the racial, the women and the youth revolutions an awakenment or corporate power is being realized. New possibilities of shifting political trends has been brought about by the lowering of voter age to eighteen. Capable female political leaders are emerging throughout the world. Articulation of the story of the heritage within ethnic groups has led to decisions by the American Indian to struggle for his political rights, by Black Americans to produce films with Black Heroes and by Africans rewriting their continent's historical. Today individuals are becoming conscious of the demand to experiment with the various styles of other cultures in the areas of the religious, the family commune, and individual, clothing. In response to an awakening elder consciousness, there is appearing a trend to provide care structures for elders that honor their wisdom rather than provide for their keep. Such enabling structures include construction of low­cost retirement apartment buildings in community neighborhoods, thus providing the possibility for continued community involvement for elders.
ESCAPE PATTERNS	13. A strange unexpectedness, lingers about our world. Individuals sense an increased frustration in the diversity of choices. The trend of escape is in withdrawing from that complexity by searching for religion or by turning to violence. Individual and collective withdrawal is seen in the "turn on" syndrome manifested by escapes through misuses of drugs. and increased promiscuity. It may also be seen in wirhdrawa1 from political participation and an ignorance of who's who in local government. The trend to look elsewhere is manifesting in fadish use of religions and experimentation with inauthentic beliefs such as astrology and witchcraft. The increase in violence occurs as people react explosively to being blocked in their striving to find authentic engagement.
THE TIMES: CONCLUSION	14. What appears to be a breaking down of civilization may well be simply the breaking up of old forms by life itself." Joyce Carol Oates The times in which we live ­­ with rapid explosions of new life; the accompanying shifts in consciousness, and the emerging trends are times when the traditional structures of the political, economic and cultural dimensions of society are seen as unsuited for authentic life in the future. Local man finds himself in the morass which has been brought about by the collapse of the old and the fadishness or the new. Unable to find a comprehensive method of acting out the Dance of Life and of caring for the globe, he could easily resign himself to despair. Yet the unpredictable world, the open­endedness of time and the explosions of cultural intangibles do not allow creativity to be paralyzed. These are the times or Resurgence.
THE RESURGENCE INTRODUCTION	15. We are a society bemused in its purposes and yet secretly homesick for a world of meaning. As twentieth century man experiences the collapse of his social fabric, he also encounters the reality of a force shaping history, the force of resurgence. Three characteristics of resurgence in our time can be seen: the forging of a new human mythology, the seeking of authentic expenditure and a passionate caring for the globe. This bubbling of resurgence elicits and beckons man to plunge into life in order to create grappling irons that dramatize the possibility of new 1ife.
HUMAN WORTH MYTHOLOGY	16. The first characteristic of resurgence mythology has been the alteration of peoples' relationships. The emergence of a new mythology with regard to the rights and responsibilities of all men explodes each one's sense of personal dignity, basic human worth and creativity. Appropriating this myth revolutionizes a man's thinking and reveals new life patterns. This gives him the chance to re­interpret the past from a new perspective and to project into the future with a new vision. At the same time, man radically grasps the fact that he is a caring human being in a new world.
HONORING OTHERS GREATNESS	17. Resurgence mythology shots itself in the honoring of particular mindsets out of a local/global context and leads to a new openness and exchange of concepts. values and traditions. In the midst of these encounters the multiplicity of the other's treasures and wisdom is revealed. Old barriers of exclusiveness are being resolved in the common cauldron of life in the 20th Century. The great riches of "strange" cultures and the viewpoint of the next door neighbor are seen as enriching one's own panoramic worldview. This is nothing less than the creation of a new self­story of one's relationship to that other.
INTER- RELATEDNESS OF ALL MEN	18. The third aspect of mythology deals with a new awakening to the inter-relatedness or people. The underlying pre­supposition is that man recognizes a common basis or humanness. Man sees a vision for the future which enables coordinated global planning. In this inter­relatedness man senses himself as standing before all men. Local man finds himself willing to risk caring for his neighbor. In a new view of the common factors of all men, emphasis shifts from the parochial to a new global perspective. The whole world is a labyrinth of man's wanderings and dreams, and there is no limit to the web of one intricate passageways.
MAN'S PASSIONATE INVOLVEMENT	19. The second characteristic of resurgence is the seeking for authentic expenditure. Resurgence shows up in the midst of the pathos of life and in the excruciating pain of our times. Local man cries from the deeps for a way to authentically participate in the creation of his own destiny and the destiny of the globe. Through significant involvement, he insures that life doesn't pass him by. The concern is less with superficial issues than with the attempt to discover engagement This is done by making decisions relative to local community, by passionately planning and by building models with other local men to insure humanness and to become seasoned corporate troops. This concern is the foundation of a new mythology which allows local man to see himself as significant and as the one who will create history. This involvement articulates the consensus that local man is the one to bring forth humanness in our times.
CORPORATE CARE NETWORK	20. In local man's yearning for ways to engage his care, he experiences the pain or caring. Signs of this radical caring take many forms. He refuses to deal with superficial issues and yet there is no comprehensive form through which he can express his care effectively. This leaves him awakened and yet vulnerable to the greater pain of unsatisfied passion. Knowing the inadequacy of individual action in the complexity of everyday life, he is driven to invent new forms or care, of engagement. In the midst of experimenting with corporate care forms he has become aware of missional effectiveness and the humanness that is released in the midst of the corporate nurturing dynamic.
PROBING LIFE' S MEANING	21. What is revealed in this passion for engagement is man's erratic search for profound significance. As the search goes on, it becomes evident that a self­conscious rehearsal of the deep joy and anguish of life is absent. Therefore all of his life ­ the nitty gritty everydayness ­.is nor grasped as meaningful. Nevertheless, people are apprehending a sense of their greatness and possibility; they are sensing that life is not to be merely endured but enjoyed.
VISIBLE COMMON DEMONSTRATION	22. The third characteristic of resurgence is through a new concern for the globe. This is evident in numerous visible demonstrations of global care. Demonstrations such as foreign exchange systems provide a practical model that allows students to become familiar with different styles and customs. Businesses, the sciences, and other professions incorporate gifts from other cultures as they share technical and cultural wisdom. The value of global corporate wisdom is manifest through these recurring demonstrations of possibility that are breaking loose new creativity in approach and impact.
PRACTICAL GLOBAL SOLUTIONS	23. One sign of this care is the participation in the creation and development of practical solutions to the global issues. The arena in which this is happening as the world monetary system. Another sign of resurgence is the seeking after practical solutions in the utilization of natural world resources. People are realizing and responding to the fact that keeping one's own back yard clean does not guarantee the quality of the world one's child will grow up in. Other examples that manifest resurgence are international controls in space, the search for alternative settlements to wars and global controls on testing atomic weapons.
EFFECTIVE GLOBAL STRUCTURES	24. The cry is not for moral goodness but for structures which will enable local man to participate in a passionate way, in caring for the globe. Amid the turbulence of the world, he is frustrated by the impotence of ex sting structures such as Red Cross, multinational corporations, the United Nations and the World Council of Churches. His pain stems from the awareness that existing structures are ineffective in implementing their vision and in allowing him real participation as local man. On the other side of his cry is his vision of global structures which will permit his direct involvement in the care for the world. The shift from the cry to the vision is resurgence.
RESURGENCE: CONCLUSION	25. In conclusion, man no longer sees himself as an isolated human being, but as a man who relates to all mankind and knows himself only as a result of that interaction. These are times of bubbling forth of grateful awareness of the "other" in life; the gifts of humanness of cultures, the gift of encounter with the opposite sex, and the uniqueness of four life phases. He senses that the excitement of life is found when he pushes through the surface event to that which holds the comprehensiveness of life's meaning. These are times when local man senses the possibility and yearns to participate in seeing the transparency in life and in engaging in significant action. Life is bound to Life. Every man sees that this is the practical time of demonstrating the new primal community that is inter­linked in a global network of signs of possibility. Man recognizes his responsibility for the creation of the globe as it spins on its journey through the galaxy of time.
THE NEW EVANGELISM INTRODUCTION	26. Resurgence is born out of the juncture of society at which hopes and yearnings cry out for a contemporary articulation of the meaning that lies at the center of life. A new evangelism is needed to witness to life as passion. This new evangelism calls forth man's longing for significance and creates a window that gives man a look at his entire past and future. Strategically, the new evangelism employs imaginative style which allows the world to appropriate the new images of itself. The style of the new evangelism provides new depth to man's understanding of life by seizing each moment, exploding it and showering the possibilities of life on every man. It is the new evangelism which enables every man to be his authenticity, his integrity, and his fulfillment.
INDICATIVE STANCE EMBODIMENT	27. The new evangelism is created as the indicative. It reveals the depths of life moving beyond the moral and the doctrinal to the foundation of humanness. It is a revelation of a pattern of wholeness, a reality in which man discovers healing within himself in the midst of the brokenness of the human situation, a wholeness which he experiences as fulfillment. It deals with sociological reality rather than subjective relationships. It points to the permission which life continually gives for life to go on. Those who engage in the new evangelism do so by acting out their basic and given human concern for others, and it is therefore an exercise of compassion, celebrating the new responses of mankind.
UNIVERSAL WORD EMBODIMENT	28. The new evangelism has to do with embodying the story which releases new life. This story includes the vision and struggles of all men in all times and points out the single human journey of which all mankind is a part. It calls all men to be vital participants in the swirl that life is and therefore create their key role and task in grasping what's required in the continuation of life. This story is based upon the one Word of Life on which all other words of life are based. Self conscious involvement reveals to every man that life gives life.
RELEASING FULL HUMANNESS	29. The new evangelism is liberating. It removes those barriers which prevent men from participating in society. They are freed from the paralysis of guilt and worthlessness, from moralistic values and from forms of reductionism such as psychological problems and parochialism. Therefore, man is released to unleash his full creativity which gives him the power to act out his care and to dramatize his responsibility to God for the world.
CATALYZE TRANSFORMA- TIONAL HAPPENING	30. The strategy of the new evangelism is to enable lives to be awakened and then transformed. This has to do with the creation of new, meaningful images that ground the ontological concepts of humanness. A new image of humanness that allows music to be born, and all things learn to sing: the awakening dawn, the dreaming man, the waiting woman. These images release the vitality of the New Man to create the new world
DESIGNING COMPREHENSIVE MODELS	31. The strategy is the designing of comprehensive models that deal with every facet of man's life. Only as man understands that all parts of his existence, both the secular and the religious, are involved in only one vocation ­­ of creating opportunities for every man to participate in full humanness ­­ does he experience the wholeness that life has to offer. These models become effective when designed to be used in every local situation across the globe.
UTILIZE IMAGINAL PRACTICS	32. The strategy for new evangelism includes utilizing imaginal practice. Imaginally educating allows one to see life experiences and images as relevant and gives new methods that transform relationships to the world. The vehicles by which Imaginal Education are utilized include such arenas as demonstration projects, art, music and mythology. This is the 20th Century method of carrying on the tradition of Christian Evangelism, that is, the awakenment of men to their freedom. This will include secular symbols to hold new images of the deeps of life, practical images that are expressed through a new vocabulary and new screens that highlight the mysteries.
BECKONING LIFE ENGAGEMENT	33. The style of the new evangelism is that of being an invitation to do the impossible, the unknown, the untried, the unheard of. It is the art form that elicits anew the depth. It takes up the role of the master of ceremonies, the music man, or the magician to catalyze the cabaret style and seduce every man into the dance of life. It is a style that is sparkling and scintillating and makes the offer in a way that no man can refuse.
PASSIONATE DELIBERATENESS IN STYLE	34. The style of the new secular evangelism is one of a daily struggle to transform love of humanity into concrete deeds. It is grounded in the inventive as well as the intuitive modes of creativity. It assumes an intentional disciplined stance. It comes off as a style of passionate engagement in life, reflecting the promise of human wholeness and fulfillment.
TANGENTIAL WITNESSING	35. The style of new evangelism is witnessing to both the secular and the religious. This witnessing touches simultaneously the secular world and the religious. It reflects the mystery of the religious man, beckons him to experience the freedom and to participate in the possibilities of caring for every man. It addressee secular man in his indicative situation, and enables him to see the fulfillment of life in his mundane activities.
THE NEW EVANGELISM: CONCLUSION	36. The New Evangelism is carried by its style. Resurgence is to be seen and touched. It is visible. It creates the impossible possibility. It declares every nobody a somebody, every Marlboro man a knight­errant. The New Evangelism is the key of the future that allows for the flow of the centuries into a new epoch of human history.
CONCLUSION LOCAL­GLOBAL TASK	37. Throughout the ages, the guild dynamic concretely responds to the cry, or the resurgence of the times. The guild's task is the global task rooted in the local where it works to articulate and spread the new mythology, to celebrate the life of every person, to hold up a vision of the future, and to catalyze social structural change by training local leadership and implementing the direct tactical system. It acts as a sign of possibility by being a disciplined, effective, revolutionary body in the local community.
NEW DAY STYLE	38. The guild's style must be intensely corporate, fully global, and utterly tactical. It must deal with the spirit reality of the community. It will provide and continually hold forth the sign of possibility by abolishing cynicism within itself and by dealing with every situation in terms of its possibility.
IMPLICATIONS FOR MOVEMENT	39. Finally, we need to state the implications for the Movement. It will require the wearing of two hats ­ the secular/religious, and the religious/secular. It will hold these two roles in a creative tension. The Movement's twenty years of rehearsing life as it is ­ full of limits, possibilities, freedom, and inter­relatedness ­ will be invaluable in the creation of a secular liturgy, without which a guild can not be sustained. The Movement will need to be responsible for supplying guildsman with the tools they will need, and to continually enable the troops to stand by means of training, nurture, and back­up systems. The recruitment for the initial signal guilds will be immediately generated out of existing social structures and dynamics. Ultimately every dynamic in society will be enabled by the Spirit Movement through the guild.
	"Only to a magician is the world forever fluid, infinitely mutable and eternally new. Only he knows the secret of change, only he knows truly that all things are crouched in eagerness to become something else, and it is from this universal tension that he draws his power." ­­Peter Beagle