Community Building

4— 11 June  —  Rusty Myers and Sharon Usher    —    KISSOS CAMPUS

What is Community Building?

There is a yearning in the heart for peace. Because of the wounds—the rejections—we have received in past relationships, we are frightened by the risks. In our fear, we discount the dream of authentic community as merely visionary. But there are rules by which people can come back together, by which the old wounds are healed. It is the mission of the Foundation for Community Encouragement (FCE) to teach these rules—to make hope real again—to make the vision actually manifest in a world which has almost forgotten the glory of what it means to be human.”*

Authentic community is defined as a group of two or more people who, regardless of the diversity of their backgrounds, have been able to accept and transcend their differences. They are able to communicate openly and effectively; and to work together toward common goals, while having a sense of unusual safety with one another.

Community Building (CB) is a group process that can lead to deeper, more authentic communication. It is based on the principles identified by Dr. M. Scott Peck in his books, The Road Less Travelled and The Different Drum. Dr. Peck and a group of eleven colleagues further developed this process through the work of the Foundation for Community Encouragement (FCE). Its principles were expanded on in his book, A World Waiting to be Born.

Scott Peck mapped 4 phases of community building:

• pseudocommunity
• chaos
• emptiness
• community

Have you ever experienced hiding aspects of yourself when communicating with someone you don’t know, or you don’t agree with, or dislike, or like too much? That’s pseudocommunity. Have you ever been convinced that if only this other person would see things your way everything would be solved? That’s chaos. Have you ever felt the heartbreak of not being able to communicate your love, or the pain of your alienation and loneliness? That’s the process of emptying. Have you ever felt still and soft and open and completely unknowing with a quiet mind and at the same time profoundly interconnected? That’s community.

Experiential in nature, Community Building is an adventure in human interaction based on a set of guidelines and principles rather than an agenda or particular procedure. Participants are gently guided by trained facilitators who take the group through a process that shows how to look beyond the cultural, political and religious differences that prevent us from embracing our common humanity.

This week the group’s goal will be to form an authentic community. We shall spend some time each day building community in a circle, and bring that experience and learning into our collective life at the Kalikalos centre, and into our enjoyment of the beauty of Pelion. We shall be weaving community building sessions with work and play times at Kalikalos, on the understanding that finding the bridges between conscious community building and it’s application in every day life is the key to building a new world of peace, partnership and sustainability.

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Facilitators

Rusty Myers and Sharon Usher are both trained in the FCE model of facilitation. Rusty was a founder member of FCE and is currently Chair of the FCE Board. Sharon was amongst the first group of facilitators to be trained by FCE in Britain and has also lived for 11 years in intentional community. They first facilitated a Community Building Workshop together in 1993.

Contact Rusty or Sharon at:

21 Church st
Sutton Courtenay
OX14 4NJ
ENGLAND

Telephone: +44 (0) 1235 848132
Mobile: 0773 274 9573

Email:
website:forthcoming

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