Re: Question: Religious/spiritual practices
From: Liz Ryan Cole (lizryancoleme.com)
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2018 19:07:32 -0700 (PDT)
I am away from email until Friday night Sept 7.  

On Sep 7, 2018, at 9:53 PM, Liz Ryan Cole via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
cohousing.org> wrote:

> I am away from email until Friday night Sept 7.  
> 
> On Sep 5, 2018, at 2:10 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Thank you to Kathy for writing such a nice statement (copied below). I think 
> it should be preserved somewhere for new communities to adopt. We came to the 
> same thing after a few years of contention. Holiday celebrations depend on a 
> person to organize them but all holiday celebrations are welcome.
> 
> I'm particularly interested in how this related to common meals given the
> practice in many religions of praying prior to eating.
> 
> Praying before eating comes closer to observing religious practices in 
> “public” like the experience we had with Quaker and Friday night Shabbat 
> services. We have an open CH so all these are taking place while other people 
> get their mail, go to the kids room, cook dinner, etc. I don’t know how many 
> people felt this way but some felt uncomfortable walking by a religious 
> service and not participating or acknowledging it. At least whispering or not 
> talking at all—and this isn’t normal in the CH. Both groups stopped meeting 
> there — perhaps they were uncomfortable too.
> 
> Praying can be done quietly, even silently. We have had residents who 
> routinely bowed their heads a moment before eating. One couple who clasped 
> hands. Both were quick and hardly noticeable.
> 
> Having been raised in the protestant tradition, I stop whatever I’m doing 
> when people are praying. To not do so would feel disrespectful. But at the 
> same time, I would not like to be frozen by a long prayer, amens, and obvious 
> hand clasping in air.
> 
> I think the best way to explore this is what are other people supposed to do 
> while you pray, and are they comfortable doing that? Is it possible to ignore 
> you? Does it go on so long that everything else has to stop for an obvious 
> period of time? Are you imposing on others? How do Jewish members feel about 
> being subjected to Christian prayers. Two women organized a lovely 
> celebratory Christmas dinner, except that they passed out hymns that were too 
> obviously Christian. Everyone is welcome at all of the celebrations but they 
> usually don’t require doing anything that requires worship.
> 
> I’m reminded of discussions here in the 1990s about polyamory and making it 
> obvious in the CH. I think it is fortunate that that seems to have passed on.
> 
> Sharon
> Takoma Village
> 
> 
> 
> On Sep 5, 2018, at 1:01 PM, Kathy Tymoczko <kathy.tymoczko [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> We don't have any official policy at Daybreak, but we celebrate any
> holidays, traditions, etc. that anyone wants to celebrate.  One of the
> statements in our Vision Statement says "Welcoming, honoring and sharing a
> diversity of experience, wisdom, heritage, beliefs and spiritual paths".
> We've had Passover seders (with readings), Chinese New Year dinners, a
> sukkah on the lawn with dinners held inside it, Thanksgiving, Easter, and
> Christmas potlucks.  We always have an expedition to cut down a Christmas
> tree for the Common House, and then an afternoon of cookie baking,
> decorating, eating, tree decoration making, tree decorating, carol
> singing.  We usually have a menorah or two in the great room in our Common
> House during Hanukkah.  We've had a Swedish midsummer celebration with
> flower wreaths and maypole and Swedish food.  We always do a winter
> solstice dinner with a light extinguishing/relighting ceremony where people
> talk about the endings and beginnings in their lives.  It's pretty much up
> to individuals who care about a tradition to organize whatever events they
> care about.
> 
> On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 1:41 PM, Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu> wrote:
> 
> It just doesn't come up / isn't addressed here. From a practical
> standpoint, since there's a good-sized contingent of people going to church
> on Sunday morning, it's very rare for anything to be scheduled on Sunday
> morning or midday, but I don't think that's the kind of thing you're asking
> about.
>   Muriel @ Shadowlake Village
> 
> On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 10:44 AM, Karen Gimnig <gimnig [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> This is a "help with content for the new website" request.
> 
> Given that most cohousing communities include members from a variety of
> religious and spiritual traditions, I'm curious how these are expressed,
> honored, addressed.
> 
> I'm particularly interested in how this related to common meals given the
> practice in many religions of praying prior to eating. Happy to gather
> thoughts on other aspects of religious or spiritual practice as well.
> Hoping to get a variety of stories and examples.
> 
> In Community,
> Karen Gimnig
> Professional Facilitator
> 678-705-9007
> www.karengimnig.net
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Kathy Tymoczko
> Daybreak Cohousing <http://www.daybreakcohousing.org>
> Portland, Oregon
> 765-307-1083
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