Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Religious Conservatives in Cohousing

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

It does seem likely that initial organization could be easier. Wouldn't
prospective members, from the same, existing group be likely to have more
trust and see themselves as already holding common values/beliefs? I believe
that a willingness to trust the vision of your common, future success is a
huge factor in whether a group will navigate the waters of creating a
cohousing neighborhood. If your perception is that you already have your
core trust and vision in place - on a higher, yet more personal level, it
should be easier to do something "small" like a little housing development.

In my own case, I developed trust in the vision and integrity of the other
early members of Songaia. We had many conversations about our values and
beliefs. We continue to have quite distinct world views in many dimensions,
but they seem to have proven largely compatible. I'm curious about whether
this variety slowed down my own willingness to stake our family's financial
future on our successful development - if our project had failed, my family
could well have gotten into some trouble.

I am clear that, at this stage of cohousing's evolution, it almost always
takes some financial fuel from the early members to pull off our big,
complex projects. If we don't "buy into" our group's vision and plan, then
we are doomed to a year or two of potlucks sharing stories - not that this
is a bad thing in and of itself.

At this point, I found that I rambled on with some ideas about how "the
cohousing movement" might get more money, labor, and know-how flowing into
forming groups, but that is really the topic for another thread - so stay
tuned.

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 9:39 AM, R.N. Johnson <cohoranda [at] yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> I think that religious cohousing would look a little different from the
> current model, but would be recognizable. In some ways, it would be easier
> to organize.
> Randa Johnson
> New Brighton Cohousing
> Aptos, CA
>
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-- 
Craig Ragland

Coho/US executive director
http://www.cohousing.org
craig [at] cohousing.org

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