Category Archives: Intentional Communities

Appreciate Native American culture

By Jayne Reinhiller | Contributor

Photograph provided by Pax Ahimsa

Growing up in the Dakotas, I consider Native American history and culture a point of pride. From drum circles and dances at powwows to beaded regalia, the diverse cultures of North Americas first inhabitants hold a special place in my heart. However, coming to Indiana, a place with a rich but largely forgotten Native American past, I realized most Taylor students understanding of Native Americans comes from school books and movies like Pocahontas. These sources are incomplete at best and inaccurate at worst.

Now issues of tribal sovereignty and rights like the Dakota Access Pipeline are on the national stage, and we are faced with a profound question: how can we as students of Taylor University learn about the diverse Native American communities around us and treat them with honor and dignity? We can engage in intentional dialogue with members of Native American communities, ask questions and treat traditional cultures with respect.

This is a difficult topic for me to discuss. Although I grew up near the Rosebud Lakota (Sioux) Reservation in South Dakota, I am not Native American. Most of my friends were Lakota, and my family worked in Native American ministry. In many ways, I grew up as a third culture kid between the white community of my birth and the Native American community of my friends and experience. Although I do not belong to the Native American community, I am an ally and advocate for them.

The best way to learn about Native American cultures and issues is to talk with Native Americans. They are not confined to the past or fiction. They are our neighbors and friends. There are hundreds of tribes with unique cultures, and each person has their own experiences. Listen to their stories and ask questions. You may find you have more in common with your Native American brothers and sisters than you expect.

In addition to listening to the stories of our Native American neighbors, it is important to treat their culture with respect. There is considerable debate about the appropriate use of Native American art and cultural elements. Where is the line between appreciating art and disrespectful cultural appropriation? There are many different perspectives on this division and no conclusive answer. However, there are two factors to consider: origin and intent.

The origin of artworks, stories or other cultural expressions helps determine the line between honoring the culture and parody. Native Americans appreciate people who study their culture to understand the significance of religious and cultural symbols like eagle feathers or beading patterns. However, mass-produced items like Indian Halloween costumes or mass-produced jewelry made to look like Native American art lack this reverence. These items are often inaccurate and sometimes racist. Examine the origin of Native American art and seek out reputable sources. The beauty and cultural significance is well worth it.

Your intention while enjoying the art is also important. If you seek out Native American culture to learn, enjoy and understand it, you will find complexity and beauty. Each tribe has different stories, religions and art styles. On the other hand, if you see Native American culture as exotic and come with preconceived ideas of Native American culture as idyllic or barbaric, two extremes perpetuated by Westerns and other popular media, it is easy to conform your experience to these preconceptions and perpetuate stereotypes about Native Americans. As with all interactions, treating Native American culture with respect and dignity creates greater understanding and appreciation.

Examine where your opinions about Native Americans came from and ask yourself, If someone thought this way about my culture, how would I respond? Think critically about your views. Engage the culture with love and care. When you look beyond stereotypes and popular perceptions, you will find beautiful and complex cultures with lessons and stories all their own. So the next time you go to Gas City, home of the Mississinewa Indians, or hear about the Dakota Access Pipeline, think about your Native American neighbors and get to know their stories.

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Hear the stories - The Echo News

Liberalism is only honest when men spontaneously generate. Any other way of coming into being lands a man in debt.

If we are social animals, as Aristotle taught, then we owe just about everyone and everything for the existence we enjoy.

It is this innate sense of our indebtedness that makes modern people to pick up the scissors. To deliver ourselves from our debts we libel our ancestors: snip; hand over children and our aged parents to the helping professionals: snip, snip; and finally explain away God as creator, sustainer, and redeemer: snip, snip, snip.

Its necessary to cut those ties if you wish to do as you please.

But the banker will be paid, even if it means foreclosure. And so we make the minimum payments when we have to. I think Earth Day has something of that feel about it. The Social Justice Warrior phenomenon too. Call me cynical, but most of it feels like clearing the debts.

Man is a social animal is not a call to action. Is is not an imperative. This is thetruth about human nature.

It means that all of our actions are performed within a community. As Aristotle noted, wed have to be either beasts or gods otherwise. And even when we aim highertranscendental meditation, for instancewe still depend on human institutions. (There are institutions for meditation: techniques, a language, and so on.) Now, these human institutions can be so large and impersonal so as to disappear from view. But thats precisely what a community dedicated to sustaining the illusion of debt-free living would institute, dont you see?

The corporate welfare state, with its ubiquity and its unseen hands, wants you to believe you are an individual in the state of nature. Everything is designed so as to operate as automatically and painlessly as possible. Take tax withholdings from your paycheck, you hardly miss them. Why? Because they are gone even before you know theyre yours. You want to create a real tax revolt over night? Make everyone show up in person and pay taxes in cash.

This invisibility reveals itself in absurdities.

Take feminism. Womens liberation clearly owes a debt to that paradigmatically patriarchal of things, the Industrial Revolution. Without the men who moved the economy out of the household and into the workplace, there would be no institutions for women flee to from their households. And thats really what womens liberation is, trading one master for another. Feminists arent wild-women living in a state of nature. Theyre good little doobies in the corporate economy. (Just like men.)

Whenever I hear the term intentional community I roll my eyes. (I try to do it inwardly, so as not to give offense.)Just what is implied here, that we arent already in a community? that living in the same house, or on the same farm makes something a community? that every action we perform can only serve a community if we intend it to? that there is some feeling were supposed to have when were in a community and when we dont have it, were not?

I dont think we suffer from a lack of community, instead our communities are so large and difficult to understand that theyre invisible. What we really require are communities that are small and require things of us. To get that you definitely dont want some sort of unnatural environment like a hippie commune or a Shaker community. Usually those are just progressivism on a small scale. For real communities to come back, we need households with fathers, mothers, and childrenalong with aunts and uncles and grandparents and neighbors and the rest. We need more Aristotle.

As a positive development, I think what Rod Dreher is commending with the Benedict Option is a recovery of the Aristotle. It is the tuning of the church to the music of nature going on all around us. In the Benedict Option ancestors are for honoring and learning from, children are the way we extend ourselves into the future, and men and women are fellow laborers who need to work together precisely because they are different. They must complement each other. This is the sort of intentional community I can believe in.

Debts are not for clearing, theyre for passing on. The reason is we find ourselves in our debts. The debts are so important we actually place our children in our debt. Of course, Im not talking about the National Debtthats a curse. What Im talking about a debt of gratitude.

We cant actually pay our ancestors back. Instead we pay forward. We give ourselves to our children, handing on to them both ourselves and our wealthnot just the money in the bank, but the spiritual wealth contained in our arts and sciences. And by remembering our debts, and showing gratitude for the things weve been given, we find that the purposes of our lives are also givens.

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Liberalism & the Curse of Debt-Free Living - Patheos (blog)

Words YIMBY Putting the happy in Happy Valley Do It

What: YIMBY: Yes in My Backyard!

When: 9 am Sat., Apr. 29

Where: Firehouse Performing Arts Center, 1314 Harris Ave.

Cost: Free

Info: http://www.sustainableconnections.org

By Tim Johnson

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

The issues of housing affordability, of infill, of neighborhood character are frequently in collision. Acknowledged successes to bring these public goals into harmony are few, and can be slow and difficult to achieve. Andwithout meaning to be glib about a thorny problemone reason may be that efforts to approach these convergent public goals are seldom welcomed. Theyre resisted. We term it NIMBY, Not in My Backyard. And even that term draws growls of annoyance as we reduce complex concerns to terms of derision.

But what if we embraced the problem? What if, going in, we addressed the issues with better design and a greater sense of neighborliness, happy instead of annoyed?

The Happy Valley Neighborhood Association decided to work on solutions to its housing problem and volunteered to be a pilot project for detached accessory dwelling models and to test out assumptions of the citys Infill Housing Toolkit.

YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard) is an idea that our Happy Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) Board has been working on, with the goal to promote smaller, more affordable housing infill within our neighborhood, Wendy Scherrer relates. A Huxley graduate who helped grow the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association and became its executive director, Scherrer serves on the board of HVNA.

HVNA was one of 30 local organizations that received a grant from the Whatcom Community Foundation. The grant was targeted for projects to increase connections, build trust among area residents, and develop a sense of community and promote neighborliness, she said.

Its not surprising Happy Valley would take the lead on the issue. The neighborhood immediately south of campus already boasts the citys highest density of rental dwellings and multifamily housing forms.

Those rare successes? Youll find a lot of them in Happy ValleyBellingham Cohousing, Millworks CoHousing, Matthei Place, McKenzie Green Commons, Parkway Gardens, and similar intentional communities of small lots and tight design.

The neighborhood association decided to take their $5,000 grant to sponsor a series of events and information to demonstrate examples of building collaborations for increasing affordable housing stock, and the diverse development, walkability and positive aspects of living in Happy Valley.

A Saturday workshop will presentations, roundtable discussions and a trip through the neighborhoods where the group will examine alternative types of infill (such as single-family houses, cottages, ADUs and detached ADUs, tiny homes, cohousing, housing with smaller footprints, etc.).

A highlight of the day will be presentations from Bill Kreager, the architect behind Honey I Shrunk the Lots!, the initiative that touched off the conversation about infill and unique housing forms in Whatcom and Skagit counties in the past decade.

Focusing on the integration of sustainable site planning and building design, Kraegers work runs the spectrum from small, contextual infill development to large master-planned and resort communities. His passion for affordable and workforce housing is reflected in the successful completion of communities for housing authorities, nonprofit and for-profit developers across the nation.

We are all in this together. Lets work together to find solutions that do work for each neighborhood and create a model with great alternatives for housing a diverse set of demographics and people, residential designer Shannon Maris recently wrote in Whatcom Watch. Bellingham is a great place to livelets keep it that way (or make it even better!) and find ways to share that with others within our present boundaries. It might not be easy, but it will be worth it.

YIMBY is a project of the Happy Valley Neighborhood Association in collaboration with Sustainable Connections, City of Bellingham Planning and Community Development Department, NAM Films, LightSource Residential Design, Our Saviours Lutheran Church, Firehouse Performing Arts Center, Building Industry Association of Whatcom County, Whatcom County Association of Realtors, and the Kulshan Land Trust.

Photo courtesy of Max Illman Landscape Architect I.T.

Quick: name the ship whose sinking is responsible for the most deaths. The Titanic? 1,500. Lusitania? 1,198. Bismarck? 2,000.

No. The dubious honor goes to the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, a German military transport ship that sank off the coast of Poland in January 1945, torpedoed by a Russian

For the 26 years they were married, Alan Alberts and Phyllis Shacter did just about everything as a couple. They worked together in their own consulting business, traveled, played music, created a magic act, laughed a whole lot, explored their spirituality and generally supported each other

Before the 2016 election, before a million women took to the streets three months later to express their outrage that a misogynist and admitted sexual predator proud of his assaults now occupies the highest office in the land, the term feminism had faded from view. After all, the

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Putting the 'happy' in Happy Valley - Cascadia Weekly

The culmination of the research was on the theme of The Humanities & American Cultures Stakes and Specificities.

Marcela Valdivia, Staff Reporter April 26, 2017 Filed under News

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On Monday April 17, the American Communities Program (ACP) held a symposium where current ACP Fellows discussed their research on the theme of The Humanities & American Cultures Stakes and Specificities.

The American Communities Program is a non-profit organization jointly funded by Cal State LA and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The focus of the program is promoting humanities-based inquiry to engage faculty, staff, and the communities in teaching and learning through innovative research.

Maria Karafilis, Director of the American Communities Program, presented the culmination of research from the 2016-2017 ACP Fellows: Dr. Priscilla Leiva, Dr.Andrew Knighton, and Dr. Jose Anguiano. We are dedicated to examining the formation of individual and communal identities in America, said Dr. Maria Karafilis.

Dr. Priscilla Leiva, Chicana/o and Latina/o Cultural Studies and History Professor, shared her research on The Peoples Field: Race and Belonging in the City and Beyond. She opened her presentation with a story about the Christophers, an African American family that owned a house directly behind the right field pavilion of Griffith Stadium in Washington D.C.

I start with the Christophers to think about a shared history of Griffith Stadium in Washington D.C.; a history in which African Americans claimed ownership and belonging to the stadium located in a mixed class black neighborhood, said Dr. Priscilla Leiva.

Griffith Stadium, a desegregated stadium, was built by African American laborers and visited by white residents in a predominantly African American population. When plans to expand the stadium emerged, the Christophers opposed the idea, so the expansion of the stadium was built around their home.

As the expansion of the stadium continued, more decks were built on top of other established decks making Griffith Stadium a paradise for the neighborhood. By examining the history of Griffith Stadium, Dr. Priscilla Leiva has taken into perspective political, economic, and cultural aspects in historical sites of struggle.

Stadiums are in fact racial arenas that are not only windows to the city, but they are actually critical sites of racial formations for whites and communities of color, said Dr. Priscilla Leiva.

Dr. Andrew Knighton, English Professor, shared his research about Taking Thomas McGrath out of Baton Rouge. He spoke about the New Criticism movement in literary theory during the 1930s and 1940s. New critics considered this movement as the most influential in American literature studies that highly focused on a critical engagement on the format and structure of poems.

A poem is understood as a structural object in a context of isolated unity defined by tensions and by the way literary devices resolve those tensions. In other words, the reader of poetry should analyze the poems materiality, that is the architecture that holds it together, figuring out how the words work, and how they are arranged makes meaning, said Dr. Andrew Knighton.

Dr. Andrew Knighton played the poem Odes for the American Dead in Asia for the attendees to listen to the delivery. The monotone style in the delivery of the poem was completely intentional from the poet. McGrath didnt want the subjectivity of the poets voice to distract from the listeners appreciation of the formal and structural features of the poem, said Dr. Andrew Knighton.

Dr. Jose Anguiano, Chicana/o and Latina/o Cultural Studies and Honors College Professor, shared his research about Listening to the audience of The Art Laboe Connection. Art Laboes obsession for radio emerged since his childhood and he pursed his passion at Stanford University in radio engineering. By the1950s he moved to Los Angeles and created his own innovated radio program by taking dedication requests from people.

His radio station airs six nights a week for over thirty hours, known as Oldies But Goodies. Art Laboes theme for his radio show includes a collective and interpersonal connection. Fans utilize social media, especially Facebook, to engage with the radio show and express their dedications.

The Facebook page itself then is a valuable digital archive of how fans engage on the show and pour their heart into the dedication ritual, said Dr. Jose Anguiano.

At the age of ninety-one, Art Laboe continues to impact the media industry with his talent by bringing a closer connection within the public. I would say Art Laboe is one of LAs iconic voices, expressed Dr. Jose Anguiano.

The American Communities Program will hold another symposium next year for the 2017-2018 academic school year with new ACP Fellows that will conduct research on the theme of civility.

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American Communities Program Fellows Share Research - CSULA University Times

Tony Hwang

Name-calling. Vitriol. Personal attacks.

You see it every day these days in state capitols and in Washington, D.C.

Compassion might seem to be in short supply. Division? Division seems to be everywhere.

For anyone out there who has lost hope, let me tell you about the Connecticut residents that I interact with every day:

The Connecticut residents that I meet at the State Capitol and across the state believe it is firmly within our control as individuals, as neighbors and as citizens to make our community a better place to work and to live. Now more than ever, they are seeking and finding ways to join together with common purpose and put people before politics.

And thats tremendously encouraging. Times like these reaffirm my belief that when we commit ourselves to our communities, we can make a meaningful impact and improve peoples lives. By actively engaging in our local communities, we can find ways to assist those who need help and remember that by working together we can achieve favorable results for everyone.

As a state senator, I am working to put Connecticut back on a predictable, sustainable long-term path by controlling government spending without passing the burden on to taxpayers. Predictability, sustainability and pro-job growth policies will allow us to more reliably provide critical services to the most vulnerable people in our communities. When we all do our small part to care for and be kind to one another, that positive impact multiplies.

In a world full of uncertainty, we can and will find strength in unity, in personal connection, and in the will to understand and listen to each other. So let us inspire and motivate one another. Realize the lasting value of a simple act of intentional kindness. Renew our commitments to our communities and to one another.

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COMMENTARY: A renewed commitment to community - Easton Courier

Fernando Czares | Photo: courtesy F.Czares

The common stereotype of environmental activists would tell you that they're all either high-priced lawyers or trust fund hippies. That hasn't been true for decades, if it ever was at all. Our series This Is What Green Looks Like profiles Californian environmental activists fromdiverse communities andwalks of life, bringing you stories of your neighbors campaigning to protect the planet.

Fernando Czares is reluctant to call himself an environmentalist in the traditional sense.

As Senior Manager of The Trust for Public Lands Climate Smart Cities program, and working for the Natural Resources Defense Council before that, he has been professionally involved in environmental organizations for almost four years now. But he is acutely aware that his entry into environmental activism wasnt prefaced by an educational background in environmental conservation. Rather, his involvement in the environmental movement comes from a more experiential, one might say, organic, place.

One of the principles of organizing is that you dont just show up to a community and pretend that you know their issues and their solution, says Czares. You establish a relationship, you do a lot of listening, and you let folks share with you what their priorities are. In return, you share your vision and offer resources to support their agenda.

And you find opportunities to work together towards a common vision. Ive been very mindful of that for the last four years, Czares explains. Ive been inspired by the leaders of the Equipo Verde who live in the same neighborhood where I grew up, and are telling their story of organizing their vecinas (neighbors), and elementary and high school-age children to plant trees, write poetry and paint murals in the South LA Green Alleys to anyone wholl listen, including California legislators at their Sacramento offices. Ive also been inspired by the grassroots work of organizations like East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice.

Czares and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1990, making a home for themselves in South Central L.A. A middle school student, he remembers having to share a room with his parents and younger brother in a house also shared with other families. As with so many immigrant families living in crowded urban spaces, they didnt have a yard to play in. South Park was their closest public green space; he and his brother would play there with other neighborhood kids. The family would also drive to Griffith Park.

As Czares remembers, my mom would plan a whole picnic, prepare some food and wed picnic out in Griffith Park, wed hike and we would collect bottles and cans and sell them to make extra money. And so we managed to connect with open spaces, not just for recreation because we didnt have the opportunity to do that at home but also for some economic opportunities.

At that time, the young Czares wasnt particularly aware of the environmental benefits of public parks and open spaces. I didnt really think about the carbon sequestration value of parks, trees and open spaces like Griffith Park. We enjoyed them as free spaces of nature.

These early memories of open public spaces for his family and his community formed the core of what motivates Czares now in his environmental work.

"Climate justice is a social and civil rights issue our state and local climate policies and investments should be grounded in the principles of civil rights."

In 1992, he witnessed the Rodney King uprisings in L.A. As large pockets of his wider urban environment were razed, and buildings and businesses were destroyed, Czares observed first-hand the devastating aftershocks of the marginalization, alienation and degradation of low-income communities that more often than not were communities of color.

He recalls, I got to see the impact and the aftermath of buildings being burned, and communities grasping for some outlet of frustration; poor educational resources, police brutality, the lack of economic opportunity and jobs and inadequate transit to get to jobs, and the lack of affordable housing. I got to see what happens when things get burned down and you dont have resources to rebuild. It was a culture shock because I was two years into the U.S."

This experience at an impressionable age was coupled with his daily school bus ride, which crossed the city from South Central to the San Fernando Valley. His school was surrounded by gated communities with plenty of green trees, open space and an ostensibly better quality of life. To the young Czares, this chasm of inequality did not go unnoticed.

Czares subsequently earned a Public Policy degree from Occidental College and a Masters degree in Public Affairs and Urban & Regional Planning from Princeton University, both of which focused on how community organizing can influence land use planning. Since entering the environmental arena in 2013, he has worked to support grassroots activists doing day-to-day advocacy, and to ensure that organizations like The Trust for Public Land have those activists in meeting rooms along with city officials and public health representatives, so that the results of those meetings are grounded in the communitys priorities.

This desire to mobilize, support and engage with communities as an integral part of environmental activism is reflected in Czares involvement with the organization Voces Verdes, of which he was a project associate. A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Voces Verdes was founded to identify and empower Latinx leaders from business, public health, local government and academia, and engaging them to be spokespeople for why we as a nation need to move away from fossil fuels, protect public health, and promote environmental justice and energy efficiency.

As a Voces Verdes associate, he has helped build Latino leadership coalitions in key states such as Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to build support for President Obamas Clean Power Plan. He recruited and staffed leaders from organizations like the National Hispanic Medical Association, National Latino Farmers & Ranchers, the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization from Chicago to testify before the Environmental Protection Administration or speak at rallies.

Since January 2016, Fernando has worked to elevate the voices of neighborhood leaders of the South LA Green Team, in partnership with his organizer colleague Nancy Vargas. This past March, he assisted two Latina leaders during visits to California Assembly and Senate members as they spoke of their experience organizing their neighbors, children, husbands and nearby middle and high school students to paint murals, implement clean ups and tree plantings of their Green Alley, as well as to take on other pressing community issues like domestic violence and human trafficking.

Allies for alleys; Equipo Verde greens urban Los Angeles | Video: Trust for Public Land

And as much as environmental activism and climate-change issues are about science, conservation and the much-needed burgeoning of permaculture practices, activists like Czares are highlighting that that they are also inseparable from the civil rights movement.

He states as much unequivocally. Climate justice is a social and civil rights issue. As such, our state and local climate policies and investments should be grounded in the principles of civil rights quality of life, equity as a guiding value, economic empowerment and leadership of disenfranchised communities, and more than just fairness, to include an intentional effort to undo or at least not repeat the historic injustices of racism, classism, xenophobia, economic displacement and segregation in the name of progress.

In this political climate, with its all-out assault on the environment and the socially and economically vulnerable, this natural evolution of green activism to encompass civil rights issues is vital. The degradation of our natural world and our fellow humans have never been mutually exclusive. They are one and the same, and the environmental movement desperately needs more activists like Fernando Czares working to ensure that marginalized communities can be heard.

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Working Together as a Community: the Activism of Fernando ... - Link TV

Sixteen young women aged 10 to 18 from the DSdanse Youth Dance Company put on a majestic performance at the Heritage Playhouse last weekend. The Majestic Project portrayed in dance and visuals the damage to our oceans that threatens sea life. Its a conversation we should be having, artistic director Dominique Hutchinson told the audience. It was made more powerful by the fact that the dancers were obviously committed to the message and also that they had choreographed most of it themselves. This is a presentation worth working on and should be tweaked and mounted again to gain wider exposure.

Earth Day

Walk, bicycle or car pool your way to Roberts Creek for Earth Day on April 22. Saturday morning at 10 a.m., join your neighbours for an Earth Day ceremony led by Rev. Raymond Niebergall at the Roberts Creek Hall with an open meditation using sound, music and heart to connect spiritually. Then walk down to the main event at the Roberts Creek pier park, starting at noon and ending at 5 p.m. There will be live music, food, singers, speakers, a raffle, fun activities and workshops for kids and families. Learn about the amazing initiatives in our community to support sustainability. Events are free; donations are welcome.

Fundraiser

Taurean Tunez is a fundraising, all ages dance being put on for a couple who lost their home to fire, Carrie Lee and Jerry (Scully) Stanway from Roberts Creek. The event is on Saturday, April 22 at the Roberts Creek Hall. The line-up of DJs is hot and sure to keep the dance floor hopping. Its $20 at the door from eight til late. Donations of clothing and food are also welcomed.

Steve Hinton

Bring your dancing shoes to the Gibsons Legion on Saturday, April 22, for a Blues Dance Party. A fixture for years in the Vancouver blues community, Roberts Creek resident Steve Hinton is known for his smooth vocals and powerful harmonica playing. He is backed by top Coast musicians Al Alford, guitar, Sully Antonyk, bass, and Tim Rannard on drums.

Potters present

On Saturday, April 22, Ray Niebergall, one of the potters of Heat Changes Everything, the current show at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, offers a presentation Spirit of Clay from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Admission is by donation. The exhibit runs to April 30.

Piano Encore

The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts opened April 10 with piano performances and adjudication. The Piano Encore concert, highlights of performances, will be held on Sunday, April 23 at 2 p.m. at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre on Medusa Street in Sechelt. Donations at the door are appreciated. The vocal and choral segments of the Festival continue on Monday and Tuesday, April 24 and 25. See http://www.coastfestival.com for more information.

Paradise revisited

Sechelt author Andrew Scott will present his latest book an expanded new edition of The Promise of Paradise: Utopian Communities in British Columbia (Harbour Publishing) at the Gibsons Public Library on Wednesday, April 26 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The event is free and refreshments will be available. The book explores the successes and failures of the many idealistic intentional communities that have appeared across B.C. over the past 150 years, from the model Christian villages of the missionaries, through the Doukhobors, the Brother XII cult and the counterculture communes, to todays sophisticated co-housing projects. With careful research and engaging first-person accounts, the author sifts through the wreckage of the utopia-seekers dreams to lay bare the practices and philosophies of todays intentional communities.

Met at the Ravens Cry

The Met Opera can be watched live via HD satellite on Saturday, April 22 at 10 a.m. at the Ravens Cry Theatre in Sechelt. Anna Netrebko reprises one of her most acclaimed roles as Tatiana, the nave heroine of Tchaikovskys opera, Eugene Onegin, adapted from Pushkins classic novel. Peter Mattei stars as the title character who rejects Tatianas love until its too late. Robin Ticciati, music director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, conducts the revival of Deborah Warners staging, which opened the Mets 2013-14 season. Run time is almost four hours. For ticket information see http://www.ravenscrytheatre.com

Glass Slipper

Driftwood Theatre School presents The Glass Slipper, on April 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m. and April 30 at 1 p.m. at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. It runs again on May 5, 6 and 7. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students, available at Laedeli, Giggle n Bloom, The Blackberry Shop, Sechelt Visitor Centre and http://www.share-there.com.

Poetry finale

The finale at the Sechelt Library to National Poetry Month will be on Thursday, April 27 at 7 p.m. in a presentation called Eclectic Electric Eye, a spoken word event with poets John Pass and Philip Jagger. Registration is recommended at info@sechelt.bclibrary.ca.

Coffee House

The monthly Artesia Coffee House at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre is being held Friday, April 28 with music starting at 8 p.m. The grand piano will be on stage with Anna Lumiere, joined by her son Noah on violin. Val and Julie Rutter of Gemini will entertain with four hands, one piano and skilled style. After the break, for poetry month, will be poet Danika Dinsmore accompanied by Barry Taylor on percussion. To close the show is the Lynne Urquhart Band with Lynne on piano and vocals, Sacha Fassaert, guitar, Michael Munro, drums, and Gordie Birtch, bass. Tickets are $10 at the door, which opens at 7 p.m.

Hawaiian hula

Join in the spirit and power of Hawaiian hula. A new beginners group is starting Wednesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Gibsons, taught by Dhyana Kalalea Bartkow of Keia Papa Kaua, a traditional Hawaiian hula dance and performing group. She has been dancing and training in Kauai since 1999 with Puna Kalama Dawson, a kumu hula of ancient lineage and royalty who has given permission to share these teachings and also honours us with her inspirational presence in Gibsons yearly. Hula is a way of life based on aloha (unconditional love and gratitude) and ohana (family and community). In this spirit, all are welcome; no dance experience is necessary. In this four-week series ($60) you will learn basic foot, hip and hand movements as well as a chant and a hula. Classes are at Inner Moves Studio, 625 Glen Rd. in Gibsons. To register, contact Dhyana at 604-886-9737 or email Hula@InnerMoves.com.

Keep me posted

Please continue to send me your arts announcements, but note that they will run in the newspaper one day to one week ahead only. My deadline is Tuesday at noon for next Fridays paper. Email jandegrass@dccnet.com or phone 604-886-4692.

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DSdanse perform for a worthy cause - Coast Reporter - Coast Reporter

DEAR JOAN:I live in a senior community where they have now decided that feeding the birds including hummingbirds, I presume violates a new rule that bans feeding wild animals.

By the way,I will not adhere to this latest draconian edict. I love my birds, clean up after them and even provide them with a spa birdbath for drinking and splashing.

Bird Lover,Hayward

DEAR BIRD LOVER: Yes, birds are legally considered wild animals and feeding them is illegal under California law, although Id be among the thousands of backyard feeders that would be convicted if the lawwas strictly enforced.

The statetends to look the other way unless there are reasons not to. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of businesses that sell bird feeders, houses, birdbaths and food, which gives a sort of tacit approval to those who feed birds in their backyards.

The law in intended to protect wildlife from human predators, as well as those who unintentionally do harm by trying to help. Let me try to explain.

Heres what the law says: no person shall harass, herd or drive any game or nongame bird or mammal or fur-bearing mammal. For the purposes of this section, harass is defined as an intentional act that disrupts an animals normal behavior patterns, which includes but is not limited to, breeding, feeding or sheltering.

I believe the heart of the no feeding portion of the law is to prevent unethical hunters and poachers from luring an animal to a baited trap so that it can be captured or killed. However, whether we like to think about it or not, we are disrupting a birds normal behavior patterns with our feeders.If they werent coming to our yards for food, they would be out in the wild, fending for themselves.

When the birds congregate at feeders, they are at greater risk of contracting diseases and more vulnerable to predators. Every year, thousands of birds die because of this.

However, because we have removed or destroyed a lot of the birds habitats as weve built up our communities and developments, I believe we have an obligation to provide supplemental food and shelter for them, and to keep feeders clean and the areas safe.

As for the management of yourcommunity, I suspect they have a rationale for their new rule. Bird seed attracts rats, which most people dont want around their homes. Not everyone is as aware and responsible as you are, and so management companies often issue these blanket bans.

I havent seen your community, but Im guessing it has plenty of elements that are equally as attractive to rodents, such as thick ground cover and water sources, so banning bird feeders wont do the whole job.

I dont believe hummingbirds have any part in attracting rats, although they might draw a few ants. If you want to defy management and not risk getting evicted or fined, then grow some California native plantsin your yard forall of the birds.

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Senior community in California bans bird feeders - The Mercury News - The Mercury News

By John Horvat

As the situation of the nation worsens, many are weighing their options. One much-discussed alternative is what is called the Benedict Option.

The Benedict Option is the name of a just-published book by journalist Rod Dreher. The author holds that conservatives have lost the Culture War and it is time to find a way to survive in a "post-Christian" America. Rather than oppose the wave of secularism that lashes society, it is much better to build arks to ride above the fray. These arks involve intentional communities, still inside society, that will allow members to develop themselves spiritually in the hope of better times a wait that the author admits might even take centuries.

Mr. Dreher uses the example of Saint Benedict of Nursia who supposedly left decadent Rome to live an isolated intentional life away from society. Americans wishing to survive in these uncertain times are encouraged to "secede culturally from the mainstream." He insists that those involved must still have some presence in society, which might serve as an unintentional witness to those outside the option.

A great controversy has arisen around the Benedict Option. No one disputes the reasons behind the proposal. The nation faces grave dangers that merit action. However, many do question the wisdom of pursuing this option of ark-like withdrawal. The debate is complicated by the fact that there is no single option being proposed but rather many different options tailored to every religious group, dedication level or inclination.

The broad ecumenical character of the Benedict Option message may allow more to be included under its umbrella, but it also tends to reduce it to what is naturally possible to participants coming from differing religions. If all cannot agree about the role of grace in changing history, for example, then the matter must be addressed in generalities. The Benedict Option also tends to restrict it to an historical narrative that can be commonly held by all faiths.

Thus, concretely for the Catholic who is engaged in the Culture War and following the debate, there is one major omission that clouds the idea of a possibly Catholic Benedict Option.

That omission is Fatima. Nowhere in Mr. Dreher's book is there mention of Our Lady of Fatima or any role of the Blessed Mother in addressing the crisis. The problem is that the Mother of God is very central to the Catholic perspective. It is not optional.

This is especially true about the apparition of the Blessed Mother to three shepherd children in Portugal in 1917. The event has always been considered a solution directed to the present times not that of possible centuries hence. It is perplexing that a proposal to deal with the current crisis would completely ignore the most spectacular religious and historic event of the 20th century that specifically addresses these very issues.

Anyone familiar with the message cannot help but be impressed by looking at the past and seeing that things Our Lady said would happen have, indeed, happened. Her warnings about world wars, conflicts, persecutions and the spreading of the errors of Russia throughout the world have all come to pass just as she predicted.

Likewise, a look at the present leads one easilyto see how the Fatima message is more relevant than ever, especially in describing the immoral fashions, the blasphemies and the lack of Faith evident everywhere.

Given the Fatima record, there is no reason to doubt that those things that lie still in the future will also be fulfilled. To a world that has not heeded her warnings, the Blessed Mother foretold a great chastisement that will fall upon the world in which "nations will be annihilated" and the "good will be martyred." She also foretold the conversion of Russia and the world, and the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.

The means by which these results might be obtained were clearly given by the Blessed Mother. She requested some general measures accessible to everyone inside and outside of society. These center on prayer, penance and amendment of life. She asked for specific actions in the observance of certain prayers on five consecutive first Saturdays and the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart. By its omission of the Fatima message, the Benedict Option makes all these essential requests optional.

And while it might be argued that Mr. Dreher would have no problem admitting a Fatima version of the Benedict Option, such a concession would only trivialize the message. Fatima becomes an equal option among so many others and not the only real and Heaven-sent solution for a modern world in crisis and apostasy as affirmed by popes and Catholics for the last hundred years.

Perhaps that is the main problem with the Benedict Option it is only an option without a final goal. Options are by definition means or choices made toward an end. The Benedict Option is merely a means to survive the crisis for centuries, if necessary. However, it has no specific or unified end. Participants need not even be Christian. There is no desire for a final unity but rather the option facilitates the continued fragmentation of the nation into subcultures inside the larger post-Christian society.

Nothing could be farther from the Fatima message, which foresees the whole world's conversion to the Faith and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and in the near future. The means and final goal are clear. It enlists the help of the Mother of God, since it clearly is beyond the capacity of people today to overcome the adversaries of the Faith.

On this centennial of the Fatima apparitions, many rightly lookpon the year with great expectation since the Mother of God brought hope and promises for this world in crisis. It is to her that those searching for solutions should turn. She is the great and only answer. Without her, there is no option.

The author's opinions are his own and don't necessarily reflect the views of Church Militant.

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The Benedict Option Omits the Fatima Answer - Church Militant

Easter reminds us that the Church begins with witness: lives changed by an encounter with the Risen Lord; men and women who then transform others by the power of their testimony and the authority of their example.

The Gospels are remarkably candid about the difficulty the first Christian witnesses had in grasping just what they had experienced. In Johns gospel, Mary confuses the Risen One with a gardener. In Lukes resurrection account, two disciples walk a considerable distance on the Emmaus Road without recognizing their risen and glorified companion. In the Johannine epilogue, seven apostles on the Sea of Tiberias take a while to grasp that its the Risen Lord whos cooking breakfast on the seashore.

This candor about initial incomprehension bears its own witness to the historicity of the Resurrection. For what happened on the first Easter Sunday was so completely unprecedented, and yet so completely real, that it exploded the expectations of pious Jews about history, the Messiah, and the fulfillment of Gods promises, even as it transformed hitherto timid followers of the Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth into zealous evangelists who set off from the edges of the Roman Empire to convert, over the next 250 years, perhaps half the Mediterranean world.

The witness of radically converted lives has been the lifeblood of Christianity ever since, for at the bottom of the bottom line of Christian faith is the encounter with a person, the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Christianity is also about creed, doctrine, morals, worship, and all the rest but it is fundamentally about friendship with Jesus Christ and the transformation that engenders, and when it ceases to be that, it becomes the lifeless husk we see in too much of Western Europe. Where Christianity lives today, against all cultural odds, its because of witnesses like those initially confused souls in Judea and Galilee whose conversion began with life-shattering and life-changing encounters with the Risen One.

Which brings me, as Easter dawns, to my favoriteFinno-American priest, Father Arne Panula.

A 1967 graduate of Harvard College, young Arne Panula took a doctorate in theology at the University of Navarre in Pamplona, Spain, and was ordained a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei. After a distinguished career as an elementary-school, high-school, and college chaplain, and service to his religious community, Father Arne Panula was named the Director of the Catholic Information Center (CIC) in Washington, D.C., in 2007 an oasis of the spirit located right in the belly of the beast (or, if you prefer, smack-dab in the depths of the swamp): on K Street between 15th and 16th Streets, surrounded by lobbyists, lawyers, and campaign consultants. And over the next ten years, Father Arne, as he is known to one and all, became a singularly winsome and effective witness to Christ and an exceptionally dynamic builder of Christian community.

I tell no secrets when I say that his many friends and admirers, a great cloud of witnesses among whom I am honored to be numbered, expected Father Arne to be celebrating this Easter from a different station in the communion of saints. A long, heroic, and uncomplaining battle with cancer seemed to be heading in the wrong direction just a few months ago, and we all imagined that, as we watched the Easter fire being lit and were blessed with Easter water, Father Arne would be keeping an eye on us from the Throne of Grace.

But good medical care and his own resolve to keep bearing witness as long as possible beat the lugubrious oddsmakers of February, such that Father Arne, who officially became director emeritus of the CIC on March 31, is still among us. For how much longer, neither we nor he can know. But he long ago put himself into the hands of the Risen Lord, and those who love him and share his Easter faith are confident that, when his time comes, it will be less a matter of losing a friend than of gaining an intercessor.

There has been a lot of talk about a Benedict Option recently, and while no one seems to know precisely what that might mean, the Ben-Op, at least as advertised, does suggest a certain withdrawal from public life for the sake of forming intentional communities of character. Yet as I proposed in my 2017 William E. Simon Lecture, any notion that Saint Benedict opted out of the life and culture of his times is mistaken. Benedictine monasteries were crucial in preserving the cultural memory of the West during the so-called Dark Ages, and over time they became centers of learning and scholarship, prayer, and work that were instrumental in building the civilization of the High Middle Ages. Thus it seems to me that the better historical image for what we need today is a Gregorian Option: building or strengthening intentional communities of character as launchpads for witness, mission, and evangelization just as Pope SaintGregory the Great sent the man we now know as SaintAugustine of Canterbury to evangelize heathen England, and did so from the Benedictine monastery Gregory had founded in Rome.

Those who celebrate Easter in the nations capital this year may wish, however, to dub this alternative the Panula Option. For in addition to directing an exceptional Catholic bookstore and chapel where Mass, confession, and spiritual direction are available (and popular), Father Arne Panula launched a Leonine Forum program four years ago at CIC. It gives several dozen up-and-coming young Washingtonians an intense introduction to Catholic social doctrine and an experience of Christian fellowship and service before sending them out to be Easter witnesses in the White House, on the Hill, in top-drawer law firms, and in the rest of often smugly secular Washington. This years class includes 38 Leonine Fellows selected from more than 140 applicants a sure sign the word is spreading that this program, named in honor of Pope Leo XIII, founding father of modern Catholic social doctrine, is Something Special.

And its all because of Father Arne Panula and the fine staff he built at CIC over the past decade. During that time, Father Arne became, for many, the embodiment of what Saint John Paul II called the New Evangelization in the nations capital. He could do that because, like the witnesses the Church will read about during Easter Week, he had met the Risen Lord. And that made all the difference.

George Weigel is the Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washingtons Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.

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Easter and the 'Panula Option' - National Review