Government leaders were attempting to remove people of the Occupy Movement from public places in the last weeks. These conflicts resulted in more people noticing this movement and the truth they are trying to tell with their bodies, their tents and their voices. Occupy Oakland was one of the places where the use of teargas, which resulted in serious injury of a veteran, became national news.
I was in Oakland last weekend and decided to visit Occupy Oakland. I witnessed an assembly in progress in which the speaker spoke into a not-so-loud bullhorn speaker, and people closer to him repeating each sentence so people in the outer perimeter can hear. There were places for people to eat, to donate food and clothes, to get medical treatment, to read, to play and to sleep. More importantly, the place they occupied became a space for dialogue, amongst the gathered – curious bystanders, passionate protesters, truth-seekers, law enforcement personnel, public officials and media. By occupying this space, relationships, antagonistic as some of them might be, were created where there was none before. The Occupy Movement showed us that public places can be occupied in exchange for relationships and truth, and hopefully will leads to changes – changes that would create sustainable wellness for more people in our communities.
In Detroit, places where there were houses crumbling, boarded up or missing altogether, are now occupied by community gardens and urban farms, some legal and some illegal. Andrew Kemp tends a lush garden on 7 city lots he owns. “It could never happen in another city. I mean, this is ridiculous to think about this much land,” Kemp says in an NPR radio interview. “There are very few houses that have another house next to them. So everybody can have at least an extra yard, you know. That’s really the gift of Detroit.” The urban farmers occupy Detroit and transforms parts of this economically desolate land into places where wellness can be recreated by reconnecting with the abundance of the land.
What I admired most about the people of the Occupy Movement and the urban farmers of Detroit is their courage to take risks. Without their risk-taking, the land in Detroit will continue to be wasted and the public squares or parks are just front lawns for the government and corporation buildings. If a place is not being used as a currency exchange, it becomes a buried treasure that does not serve any purpose or good for anyone; it is just buried. In order to turn the places we occupied into a currency, we need to not be afraid and take risks, so that in these places, new relationship can be built, truth can be told, wellness can be established, and leaders can be formed.
What places are you occupying these days? What currencies (leadership, relationship, truth, or wellness) can these places exchange into? What risks do you need to take?
 I and my partner occupy a big house with 3 big bedrooms on ½ acre of land in Rancho Mirage, CA. (About 10 miles from Palm Springs.) It has been a safe place for me to rejuvenate in between my travels and as well as a place for families to come and reconnect and strengthen relationships. But this place can be so much more. Over the years, I have offered the house for retreats and leadership training programs periodically. The guests who came to the first retreat helped me name the house: La Casa de Gracia (House of Grace.) In the coming years, I will increase the time set aside for these retreats to maximize the currency of this place in exchange for wellness and leadership for my friends. The next retreat is scheduled on December 8-14, 2011. Anyone interested in coming for 3 to 6 days of prayer, reflection, leadership development, and incubation of new sustainist ideas can register through our website: HERE |
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Gather your community to explore the currencies of the places they occupy.
- Invite participants to list the places that they own or have access to.
- Write down a list of activities that has taken place at each location.
- Categorize each activity according to the currencies into which they are exchanged: Leadership, Relationship, Truth and Wellness.
- Invite participants to explore the strengths and challenges as they discover how they are using their currencies of place.
- Invite participants to discuss how they can increase their community’s sustainability by developing the use their currency of place.
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Reflection Questions for Proper 28 (Year A)
Judges 4:1-7
What can you learn from Deborah, the prophetess, about God’s action in human community?
Psalm 123
When have you related to God depicted in this psalm?
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
Why is God angry at those who rest complacently on their dreg?
Psalm 90:1-9, (9-11)
How do you number your days and apply your heart to wisdom?
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
How do you become a child of light?
Matthew 25:14-30
What stops you from being an entrepreneur of ministry?
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Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org
Come to Los Angeles in 2012 to study with The Sustainist, the first two opportunities:
February 27–March 2, 2012
Kaleidoscope Winter Institute
Holy Currencies
Conversations on Money and Sustainable Ministry
March 14–18, 2012
Face to Face
Seeing and Hearing Each Other . . . Knowing God
Creative liturgy & music for a diverse and changing world
An ecumenical gathering of church leaders to create worship experiences that are authentic, relational and missional
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What would the celebration of Halloween be like if we decide to measure our success using the following currencies:
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