SPRING 1991 PAGE 9 SEA OF FAITH MAGAZINE GREEN SPIRITUALITY A START-UP GUIDE FOR GROUPS Margaret Chisman (This practical approach has been tested success/Et/4f by Margaret C/7/.:5/77,9/7:5' daughter who set up a Green SpintU8/14/ group along these /lies last yea4) Introduction The initial notice or advertisement should be modest yet slightly provocative. "Is green spirituality a waste of time ? Come along on .... at .... and share and air your views." "Must I be religious to come to a green spirituality meeting ?" "Can only Christians be spiritually green ?" "What does 'green spirituality' mean ?" THE FIRST SESSION It is generally a sound idea at the first meeting of any group for the convenor to ask all of you to give your name and just a few details about yourselves. As well as your name and how long you have been in the green movement, you could mention any aspects of it about which you feel strongly. This breaks the ice a little. It may be necessary for the convenor to help the atmosphere along by taking the initiative in being very open and so encourage others.
The next step is find a consensus of meaning. This could be boring but handled properly can be fun. You will need a blackboard and chalk, or a flipboard and black marker pen (yes, I know you would rather have a green one but black shows up better !). You could improvise with part of a roll of cheap wallpaper and drawing pins.
The convenor could ask everyone to have a little think - a minute or so perhaps - to formulate what you each mean by the words 'green spirituality' and then write these up on the paper so all can see.
Have a discussion on each definition. This may take some time, either if feelings run high or if some of you are a little nervous. The job of the convenor at this point is to encourage those silent to speak and to restrain somewhat those who find no difficulty in putting their ideas into words.
After all have had their say, it will be necessary to try to find enough overlap of views to agree upon a workable definition. The convenor must make sure that none of you feels that this cuts across your ideas to the extent of not wanting to continue in the group.
Remember that in most human groupings there are as many different opinions as there are members and finding a consensus is not easy.
The main aspects to explore are questions of :
Is green spirituality different from other spirituality ?
Must green spirituality be Christian ?
Can there be a secular spirituality ?
Can people have religious (with a small 'r') feelings and needs without belonging to a church or believing in an established religion ?
Is the idea of green spirituality the beginning of a new religion ?
In what essential ways does green spirituality differ from other green activity ?
What is the opposite of spirituality ?
Can people have fun and still be spiritual ?
Consumerism Colonises the mind ; but Truth frees head and heart.
SESSION TWO Perhaps it would now be useful for each of you to say what you expect from the group. The convenor could throw in a few ideas to stimulate thinking. These could include :
What do you feel is lacking in the green movement that would be fulfilled by green spirituality ?
What is lacking in your own life that you think green spirituality would fulfil ?
Do you have any views about right and left lobe activity of the brain (roughly speaking, left - logic and reasoning ; right - images, symbols, emotion) ?
Would you like a somewhat different form of meeting ?
Instead of restricting it to talking, would you like, say, a short item of music, or a few minutes of quiet PAGE 10 SPRING 1991 SEA OF FAITH MAGAZINE meditation ? Would you like a meeting place that you felt to be more in line with green spirituality ? (Some rooms in public meeting places are so bleak that it is impossible to generate an atmosphere in which the spiritual emotions can flourish. I have often wanted to take in some greenery and put it up when faced with such accommodation.) I heard about a group formed to encourage generalised (rather than just green) spirituality in which each member brought along all the candle stubs in their home. These were melted down and made into a new multi-coloured one. This was kept alight during their meetings. It represented frugality, recycling and group co-operation on a symbolic as well as practical level.
Do you feel that being green refers only to one's relationship with the natural or man-made environment ? Or are you also concerned to change you own inner self, your habits and outlook, and your interactions with other people ?
What do you feel about the GAZA hypothesis ? (There are some books on this topic, particularly by James Lovelock - its originator.) The mere is stagnant.
Green grow the rushes ? Oh, no !
Poison rules , OK.
SESSION THREE Now that the group has had two sessions (or more, if longer was taken to work through the ideas so far), you are, hopefully, beginning to feel more at ease with each other and fairly ready to voice deeper experiences.
The convenor asks you all, "In natural surroundings or in the man-made environment have you ever experienced :- feelings of joy, happiness, delight, gratitude, exhilaration, fulfilment, exaltation, inspiration, wonder, awe, reverence, worship, poignancy, a need for prayer, for thanksgiving, maybe even some feeling almost impossible to describe, or any other positive emotion ?" Next, the convenor can ask you all to think about the opposite experiences. "In natural or man-made surroundings have you ever experienced :- feelings of disgust, revulsion, resentment, repugnance, alienation, guilt, envy, indignation, anger, a desire to do violence, despair, personal inadequacy, pessimism, fatalism or any other negative reaction ?" "Have you experienced vague yearnings or even what could be called spiritual hunger ? Do you ever feel that you need sources of renewal for your innermost being ?" Try and find a pattern. What aspects of our total environment cause the various strong reactions ?
If a picture is beginning to emerge, then real progress is being made. Social change is achieved by facts and rational thought being dynamically linked with strong feelings. People will not voluntarily or willingly reduce their comfort unless their reason and their emotions are involved in a belief in some greater scheme than individuals can fully comprehend. This need to believe in something that transcends us may take the form of conventional religion and a belief in a Supreme Being but there are other possibilities. This may be what the group will later tackle.
You are probably ready for some exercises. You might like to try this for your next meeting : between now and when you come together again, take a walk around your locality with a 'green hat' on and look at everything with a new eye. Jot down your observations.
SESSION FOUR Share your green hat observations with others in the group. What has emerged ? Try to convey your feelings as well as the actual facts. Is there any information you could pass on to the local committee of any green organisation to which you may belong ?
You may like to try a refinement of this. Instead of having just a general purpose green hat, try linking it to a profession or role such as a green teacher, green parent, green local councillor etc.
Great cathedrals now Are banks and supermarkets, Metamorphosis ?
You may perhaps wish to continue with this approach of choosing an exercise that will need some preparation ready for the next meeting. Some suggestions are listed below :
Keep an eye open for an object that you can bring with you when you next meet that, in your opinion, is symbolic of what you feel about the need for a spiritual approach to green activities.
Devise you own green credo. A creed is a concise, formal statement of the essential articles of Christian belief. The word 'credo', which in Latin means 'I believe', is being used nowadays for people to work out for themselves a statement of their own personal, and not necessarily Christian, beliefs.
Devise your own green affirmation. This would cover those aspects of your belief and activities about which you feel confident enough to make your own personal statement.
SPRING 1991 PAGE 11 SEA OF FAITH MAGAZINE Similarly, devise your own green statement of aspirations. To aspire is defined as to desire eagerly, to aim at or strive for higher things, and what you hope to achieve.
You may have seen the famous Desiderata. Have a try at formulating your own. To desiderate is to long for or earnestly desire. This will give you an opportunity to mention some of your innermost yearnings, however unobtainable or utopian they might appear to be in this particular epoch. Do not forget that it is longings on this deeper level that become, eventually, the greatest motivators, when their time comes.
You might even have a go - no blasphemy intended - at devising a new green decalogue - your own version of what ten commandments could be written on the tablets. Incidentally, it is interesting to see the phrase quite often now that '.... is not written on tablets of stone' implying that things, even commandments, could change over the centuries.
Formulating your own personal green covenant. Most of us are familiar only with covenanting for charitable purposes. It has, however, a much older usage referring to a mutual agreement between God and man in which both parties enter into a binding arrangement. It is possible to apply this to making one's own contract with planet Earth as an entity, if you feel you cannot quite accept the God concept.
Speaking with forked tongues The developers promise Increased health and wealth.
After all, the people of Israel had to interpret the words of God for His side of the arrangement. So, with inspired humility, we should be able to put ourselves into a state of being able to understand what the Earth will promise us if we keep our covenant.
You could make a list of what you are going to promise and try your best to achieve. This should include, not only the great sweep of activity such as working for peace, and the preservation of the rain forest, but the small, daily offerings which you intend to make to planet Earth. You could compare covenants and after an interval of, say, some months, have a discussion about your experiences of trying to keep to your promises.
You could devise your own green grace before meals.
You could try to write a short article on what 'green heritage' means to you.
What about an evening of music that expresses to you some of your feelings about green spirituality.
You might like to discuss the following quotation from Charles Pickstone, writing in 'Updating God' ed.
Walter Schwarz (Marshall Pickering pbk 1988). "All human beings need space (although this is often at a premium in cities) but also they need 'significant space' in which one's own inner resonance can be heard and amplified." An evening of extracts from books or articles about green spirituality. Perhaps someone in the group would like to take on the job of keeping a suitable bibliography. 'Breaking Through _: Theory and Practice_ol Wholistic Living! by Walter and Dorothy Schwarz (Green Books 1987) has a chapter on the Spiritual Dimension. Marilyn Ferguson's '_The Aquarian Conspiracy : Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s' (RKP 1981) contains much useful material. '_The_God Idea and Conservation' by S.J. Streek (Volturno Press, Bridgend, Laurieston, Castle Douglas, Kircudbrightshire DG7 2PW 1989) makes many valuable and original points. Konrad Lorenz's Civilised Man's EighLDeadly Sins' _ (Methuen 1974) gives valuable insights.
You could try to write some green Haiku. A Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry, each existing as a single entity - they are never joined up to form a narrative.
Each verse has three lines of 5-7-5 syllables. Ideally it should be epigrammatic, that is, bringing ideas together in a slightly obscure way that causes one to think and to have new insights. (The five examples scattered through this article are by the author.) You may find one among you that has a special gift.
Recently I read that we need stories told by good story tellers, who could put the new green ideas, new ways of thinking and morals in such a way as to interest ordinary folk, as much on TV and in newspapers passes over them. Perhaps there is a good story teller among you ?
You might feel you want to convey the idea that it is possible to act in a green way yet still have fun.
Particularly at the festive season you could try to get the message across that a green Christmas is not only just as enjoyable as a white one, but kinder to the Earth. For this you will need to have done quite a lot of thinking and discussing as to those aspects of Christmas that can be made more friendly to our total environment, which includes other living beings.
Instead of concentrating almost exclusively on material gifts we could, for instance, practise being more thoughtful to our neighbours, and to take steps PAGE 12 SPRING 1991 SEA OF FAITH MAGAZINE to keep friendships in repair.
If you belong to a larger local organisation, you could devise a green Christmas party for them. Obviously, all items of food would pass the green test. What light-hearted games would you play ? By this time you will, I hope, be inventing your own, but here is a suggestion :- Imagine that you are the Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Prime Minister. A magic wand has given you three wishes to lay down new green moral edicts or parliamentary laws. What would you wish for?
I hope you will enjoy your quest for green spirituality.
What we are seeking to do is not easy. We are on the boundaries of conventional beliefs, and like all pioneers we have many unknown dangers to face.
One of these is the possibility of green fatigue.
Remember that all 'establishments', that is the conventional holders of power, seek to weaken and finally to 'digest' new threats.
You may find yourself becoming stale and dispirited by sheer overload of TV programmes, books and articles of all shades of green. Learning how to handle this is part of the search for green spirituality.
Take courage : new territories of the mind and heart are worth the struggle. We literally have a world to win.
Be kind to yourself ; Gently nurture each other And care for the earth.
MARGARET CHISMAN is a retired Civil Servant resident in Tring. She is a Director of the Institute for Social Inventions and has published three books, each containing about 80 exercises or themes "covering ways to encourage flagging imagination, exploring concepts such as Truth, Beauty and Goodness, and seeking gentle ways of discovering our own personality".