Rev. Bonnie Tarwater and Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. invite you to join an Earth Crisis Support Group and Potluck Party as outlined in Cobb’s new book, Confessions. Cosponsored with the Home - Living Earth Movement and Our Common Home Counseling Center groups are beginning around the world. There are all sorts of small groups that help people to deal with particular problems. But we know of none that help people to deal with the threat to human survival. Everyone is welcome! There are all sorts of small groups that help people deal with particular problems. ECSG’s are modeled after medical and phycological support groups, Twelve Step Programs and the early house churches that gathered weekly and always shared a meal together. Come to a safe place to share your thoughts and feelings about the worst existential threat humans have ever faced, the 6th extinction of life on earth, the only one created by us humans. Too many of us have nowhere to explore our roller coaster of feelings from denial to grief, and from anxiety to rage. Facilitated local groups gatherings beginning around the world, sharing stories of hope and organizing for meaningful work together. Contact Bonnie Tarwater Our Common Home Counseling Center, www.churchforourcommonhome.com www.churchforourcommonhome.com cosponsored by the Living Earth Movement, www.livingearthmovement.eco. Contact Bonnie (858) 248-5123, revtarwater@yahoo.com. www.churchforourcommonhome.com Our Common Home, a church and counseling center.
Counseling Center services include; Support Groups, Short and long term psychotherapy, Ecologic and World Crisis Issues, Group therapy, Dream work for individuals and groups, Relationships and couple’s counseling, Family and children’s counseling, Trauma and Addiction Counseling, Pastoral Counseling, Spiritual Direction, Aging and Menopause issues, Hospice and Bereavement counseling, Pre-marital counseling, Art workshops and an “Arts Ministry” with an art studio with the animals in the barn, a barn mural project, ecologic building projects, Dance parties and weekly pot lucks, Retreats, Gardening, Social Justice Projects, Career Counseling.
Counseling Center Co-founders: Dr. Walter Rutherford and Rev. Bonnie Tarwater
Our human family is undergoing a spiritual awakening as we experience interconnected oneness and the sacredness of all life.
Bridging head and heart, male and female, science and religion, East and West, right and left brain, body and spirit…. It is time to be innovative, create community and learn how to do inner work for personal and collective healing and transformation.Hope is alive because every crisis offers the invitation for psycho-spiritual growth. Our human family is undergoing a spiritual awakening as we experience interconnected oneness and the sacredness of all life. We will not find solutions to our individual or global crisis with the same means we used to create our crisis. Too often we "disable the fire alarm" in our psyches or souls and go into denial and unconsciousness. We are in a psycho-spiritual crisis as a human family with an escalating global ecologic crisis and moral crisis with escalation wars, violence, greed and narcissism. Our Common Home Counseling Center asks what really matters and offers support and encourages truth telling personally and collectively as we seek meaningful work and service. Walt and Bonnie began doing counseling work together in 2015, beginning Our Common Home as a non-profit organization with a home church and counseling center.
Rev. Bonnie Tarwater believes that loving, caring and devoted relationships heal and provide the deepest of all psycho-spiritual practices. As a dream worker, counselor and spiritual director she encourages raising of consciousness, truth telling as we create meaningful lives of purpose. The modern world is lonely and we need support to create community. As a wife, mother, grandmother, global citizen, social justice advocate, minister, artist and retreat leader she encourages passionate love of God, the natural world and one another for healing, transformation and creating meaningful lives.
Bonnie worked in the professional theater, as an actress, theater director and drama teacher. A personal crisis led to a religious search that unexpectedly turning into her new vocation as a parish minister and counselor. She has led weekly dream groups for many years. Using storytelling, ritual, and the visual and performing arts in her work she was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist in 1999 offering an Arts Ministry. She has led many different kinds of support and counseling groups and served as a hospital and hospice chaplain.
Along with Dr. John Cobb, Bonnie has created Earth Crisis Support Groups and Potluck Parties which are an offering of Our Common Home Counseling Center in order to create community and a safe place to share feelings and thoughts about the worst existential threat the human family has ever faced with escalating wars, the threat of nuclear holocaust and ecologic catastrophes.
Walt and Bonnie are exploring biodynamic farming and have created the Secret Garden Retreat Center on a five acre paradise in the fertile Willamette Valley of Oregon with an interfaith Secret Prayer Garden with twelve Tree Prayer Stations inviting prayers and love for the natural world locally and globally. BA, UCSD Visual Art, MFA, ACT Theater, CA Teaching Credential Art and Theater, USIU, M.Div. Claremont School of Theology, Certificate from Marin Institute for Projective Dream Work, International Association for the Study of Dreams Representative Pacific Northwest, and working locally with the Oregon Biodynamic Association.
Along with her counseling practice, she is the minister of Church for Our Common Home an untraditional Christian based church worshiping in the barn with the animals and on Zoom. As she often says “God (called by many names) loves you and there is nothing you can do about it
Dr. Walt Rutherford After life changing experiences serving in combat in the Vietnam war, Walt began working for peace and wholeness. Clinically, he has served veterans and other survivors of violence and abuse including those addicted and suffering from trauma. In 1979 Walt became the Director of one of the first Vet Centers in the nation, where he began his study of the phenomena later to be known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.) Today, he is known as a pioneer in the research and treatment of trauma therapies.
In the 1980’s Walt began a study of Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy and its medical approaches. He has been fortunate to learn from many Tibetan masters in this field. With a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology he has taught Buddhist Psychology and created university courses in it.
Walt is known for his work with couples, relationship counseling and multi-generational issues. His approach is driven by the knowledge that warmth, empathy and love are necessary forces of healing. He believes in the need to treat the whole person – mind, body, and spirit. Having been involved in the fields of counseling, consulting, and academic teaching for over forty years, Walt credits the many people he has co-created change with as his teachers in becoming the person and therapist he is today.
After forty years of solo practice as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Walt was excited to co-create a dynamic center with his wife Bonnie that models loving relationship. His approach is driven by the knowledge that warmth, empathy and love are necessary as the forces of healing. He believes in the need to treat the whole person – mind, body, and spirit. Having been involved in the fields of counseling, consulting, and academic teaching for over forty years, Walt’s interest in positive mental states, optimum health, and innovative forms of healing and growth inform his service to others.
Guidelines for Earth Crisis Support Group and Potluck Parties, 5/2025
“Don’t think a small group of people can’t change the world. It is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
Reader #1 Welcome to our Earth Crisis Support Group and Potluck Party (ECSG). Our group has gathered to develop close relationships. Creating community is the most important preparation for future crisis. We are facing the worst existential crisis the human family has ever known, the 6th extinction of life on earth, the only one created by us humans. Many of us live in denial or fear and many of us do not have enough people to share our feelings and thoughts. ECSG’s meet and share a meal together which is the key that creates community. These local gatherings draw upon three group models including psychological support groups, Twelve Step meetings and the early Christian church who shared a weekly meal in people’s homes. We begin like a Twelve Step meeting reading aloud these written guidelines enabling any newcomer to understand and fully participate and for anyone to be the meeting leader.
Reader #2 ECSG guidelines enable us to become a planetary network to organize and create local and global actions. All groups are alcohol and drug free and each group needs to make sure the food works for your group. Order a pizza or bring a sandwich to make it simple if you like. All tax-deductible donation are needed to continue this work and please go to the website for more information. The leader is encouraged to use their own words and possible words are also provided. All members are asked to invite new members to ideally commit to a weekly group. Each week everyone offers uninterrupted sharing for three minutes if the group is about seven people or adjust. The first time around the circle is a check in on how we are feeling and what is going on with us personally. The second time we share our feelings and thoughts about our understanding about what is happening in the world. If we do not know how we feel and have nothing to say we sit in silence. During dinner we enjoy open conversation. Please create a phone contact list and add to “More Reliable News Source List” for your group. Everyone is assigned a “Buddy” to call and be called by during the week to check in After the potluck party and before clean up and dancing have a brief check out sharing HAGS H. One Hope A. One Action G. What I will Give to group. S. What Support I need from the group. Begin HAGS by twenty minutes before the second hour to keep the meeting and dinner no longer than two hours. Clean up with dancing with music from your phone etc.
Reader #3 Leader announces four sections of group sharing. (ask for possible words for Leader if you want them.) Hold four approximately one-minute periods of prayer, silent meditation, song or ritual in between sharing. Group guidelines 1. We agree to share our feelings and thoughts about our understanding of our planetary crisis including ecologic, economic, social, political breakdowns, the risk of nuclear war and increasing ecological catastrophes. 2. Everyone is invited to listen deeply and share without being interrupted and repeat a silent mantra, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” as we listen. 3. No cross talk before dinner, meaning we do not comment on what other people have shared, and we refrain from interrupting people except to ask clarifying questions. 4. Everything shared in the group is kept in confidence. 5. We encourage “I” statements. 6. If there is a conflict in the group, we set aside a separate time solely for a discussion about the issue or conflict but not during the two-hour ECSG format. We schedule a time for the group to discuss the issue after a meeting or another agreed upon time.
Leader, please begin now with an invitation for the one-minute prayer etc before first round of sharing. Blessings and good luck. May you support and become close to one another, dream and vision together and do meaningful actions in the world. Tax deductible donations can be made Our Common Home, www.ourcommonhomecounselingcenter.org If you want to begin a new group, or want support in the facilitation of your group, contact Rev. Bonnie Tarwater, (858) 248-5123, revtarwater@yahoo.com
Possible words for the Leader or use your own words.
About One Minute Prayer, Song etc We now ask for a volunteer to offer approximately one-minute for a prayer, silent mediation, song or ritual. (This is offered before each section and before clean up.)
First Sharing: We now begin sharing for three minutes, how you are feeling and what is going on with you personally. Second Sharing: We now share what is your understanding some of the important things that are happening in the world and how you are feeling about them.
Third Sharing before dinner: It is now time to eat together. Please offer a blessing for our food.
Sharing before clean up Thank you for sharing and it now time to begin a short check out without cross talk. 1. What is a hope I have. 2. Action I will take 3. What I will give to group. 4 What support I need from the group. HAGS Hope, Action, What I can Give, What Support I need. Volunteer for dish washing, drying, putting away dishes, putting food away, clean counters, make coffee and tea, DJ of music. We suggest these jobs are rotated so everyone can learn each task.
Nancy S. Mahoney began the first Earth Crisis Support Group (ECSG) and Potluck Party in the Woodstock New York area. She is an active member of Church for our Common Home and earned a BA from William Paterson University in 1977. After raising a family she went back to college and received her MPS from Pratt Institute in Special Education Art Therapy in 1990. She later became a registered art therapist and was board certified in 1997. She became a licensed professional counselor in New Jersey in 2000 and a Creative Arts Therapist in New York State in 2012. In Nyack, NY she worked with Creative Response to Conflict as an art therapist with children whose mothers had been incarcerated. She has been an exhibiting artist in mixed media and collage. She finds the Holy in creating art and in the woods and farms of New York. She has 4 daughters and 9 grandchildren! If you're interested in joining her Earth Crisis Support Group and Potluck Party, please contact her at artnsm@gmail.com or (415) 939-7667 or (845) 321-2660.