“The Beloved Community is not an organization of individuals seeking private and selfish security for their souls. It is a new adventure, a spontaneous fellowship of consecrated men and women seeking a new world.
“It is the comradeship of those who forget themselves in their passion to find the common life where the good of all is the quest of each.”
Clarence Skinner, Worship and Well Ordered Life
As an illustration of epochal change underway within and beyond our tradition, the religious vision of beloved community continues to ignite imaginations and hearts as a creative, hopeful, and unifying symbol. Moving from “I” church to Beloved Community offers all of us a way of Being that focuses our missions, directs our action, and sustains hope.
Beloved Community is an outcome of practicing keeping our covenants with one another and in relationship to our surrounding communities – especially amidst the turmoil of inevitable change. Loyalty to community stirred the vocational passion of Josiah Royce, who originally coined the term “beloved community” to describe the deep and abiding loyalty to community necessary for a meaningful life. “Love going to any length to restore community” is at the root of today’s Unitarian Universalist spiritual awakening: a deep emotional and spiritual complexity Thandeka named “love beyond belief.”
Whether here in MDD, in PWR, New England, or among increasing numbers of Congregational Life colleagues, we understand building beloved community to be both the means and the end for growing internally strong and externally focused 21st century religious communities.
Impact, innovation, and interdependence continue to be defining characteristics of MDD Justice Ministries/Beloved Community activities not only in our Mountain Desert District but also regionally in our Pacific Western Region (PWR) and across the continent.
Explore these slides from a March 2014 presentation for more: [wpfilebase tag=fileurl id=39 linktext=’*Beloved Community Overview Slides’ /]