[Oe List ...] Mayflower Compact

Tue Nov 23 16:52:18 CST 2010

Hi Herman,

Thanks for re-affirming Thomas Berry's and your and my understanding of what 
happened as a result of our arriving.  It resulted in the devestation not only 
of the environment, but also of unnumbered people.

However, I think that for a day or two people are trying to stand in the shoes 
of that small band of people who were trying to get to a place where they could 
worship they way they desired unhindered by a state church.  There is a sense in 
which we could say that was a small concern in relation to the ultimate 
happening to this continent, but we should also ask ourselves "What are the 
dreams we have today, that are kin to those of the people one the Mayflower?"

Thanks Again.
Charles

________________________________
From: Herman Greene <hfgreene at mindspring.com>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Tue, November 23, 2010 5:34:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Mayflower Compact

And again here is Thomas Berry’s view on understandings in the Compact

In his chapter on “The North American Continent,” Thomas juxtaposes the culture 
of the American Indians and that of the Europeans settlers. The arrival of the 
Europeans in North America , he says, “could be considered as one of the more 
fateful moments in history, not only of this continent but of the entire 
planet…. Every living being on this continent might have shuddered with 
foreboding when that first tiny sail appeared over the Atlantic horizon” (p. 
40).

      The first peoples of North America and the European settlers held two 
sharply contending views of nature. “To indigenous people…the natural world was 
the manifestation of a numinous presence that gave meaning to all existence…. As 
seen by the Europeans the continent was here to serve human purposes though 
trade and commerce, as well as through the more immediate personal and household 
needs of the colonists. They had nothing spiritual to learn from this continent. 
Their attitude toward the land as primarily for use was the critical issue” (p. 
44).

      Culturally derived anthropocentrism caused insuperable difficulty for the 
Europeans in establishing any intimate rapport with the North American continent 
or its people. To Thomas, “Such orientation of Western consciousness had its 
fourfold origin in the Greek [humanistic] cultural tradition, the 
biblical-Christian religious tradition, the English political-legal tradition, 
and the economic tradition associated with the new vigor of the merchant class” 
(p. 45). To the Europeans “[t]heir human-spiritual formation was complete before 
they came. They came[, they thought,] with the finest religion of the world, the 
highest intellectual, aesthetic, and moral development, the finest 
jurisprudence. They needed this continent simply as a political refuge and as a 
region to be exploited” (p. 43). They were committed to a “divinely commissioned 
task of commercially exploiting this continent [and] could even experience a 
high spiritual exaltation in what [they] were doing” (p. 46).

________________________________

From:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of 
Charles or Doris Hahn
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:25 PM
To: OE; Dialogue
Subject: [Oe List ...] Mayflower Compact

Hi All
Here is a copy of The Mayflower Compact.  It is from the 1951 World Almanac. 
Enjoy
Charles Hahn

The Mayflower Compact
In the Name of God, Amen.  We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects
of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of Good, of Great Britain 
,
France and Ireland King, Defender of the faith, etc,.
Having Undertaken,  for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith
and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the
northern parts of Virginia , so by these presents solemnly and mutually in the
presence of God, and on of  another covenant and combine ourselves together into
a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance
of the ends aforesaid: and by virtue hereof  to enact, constitute and frame such
just and equal laws, ordinances, act, constitutions and offices, from time to
time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the
Colony: unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11 of
November, (Nov. 21 new style Calendar), in the year of the reign of our
sovereign Lord, King James of England , France and Ireland the eighteenth, and 
of
Scotland the fifty-fourth, Ano. Dom. 1620.
John Carver
William Bradford
Edward Winslow
William Brewster
Isaac Allerton
Myles Standish
John Alden
Samuel Fuller
Christopher Martin
William Mullins
William White
Richard Warren
John Howland
Stephhen Hopkins
Edward Tilly
John Tilly
Francis Cook
Thomas Rogers
Thomas Tinker
John Rigdale
Edward Fuller
John Turner
Francis Eaton
James Chilton
John Crackston
John Billington
Moses Fletcheer
John Goodman
Degory Prist
Thomas Williams
Gilbert Winslow
Edmond Margeson
Peter Brown
Richard Britterdge
George Soule
Richard Clark
Richard Gardiner
John Allerton
Edward Doty
Edward Leister

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