Dallas Oregon ECSG every Sunday 5-7 pm pst call Bonnie for info
Guidelines for Earth Crisis Support Group and Potluck Parties (ECSG) , updated 9/2024
“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. We encourage new groups and no previous experince in group facilitation or membership is necessary. Zoom groups are now beginning and all groups are alcohol and drug free. There are no fees to form or join a group If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to continue this work please go to the website. We ask that two volunteers agree to be the leader and time keeper. (Agree now.) Leader, please pass the sign in sheet around now and ask for a volunteer to create a contact sheet and keep it updated. Ideally, the weekly leader and time keeper are rotated each week and can be taken on by newcomers. There is a short-suggested script at the end of these guidelines for the leader and the leader is encouraged to use their own words. Until the group has about seven members who attend weekly, all members are asked to invite new members. Each week everyone offers uninterrupted sharing for three minutes if the group is about seven people. (Please make adjustments for more or less people.)
Reader #3 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. When we sit in loving silence more thoughts may emerge and we are invited to continue to share after we are silent. During dinner we enjoy open conversation including possible plans for actions or projects and ask for support we may need. Everyone can bring a sack lunch, order a pizza or whatever you need to make the food work for your group. As we eat dinner, we share stories of hope and visions of an ecological civilization. We commit as a group to learn together what is happening in our world and share credible and reliable news sources. Please create and add to “More Reliable News Source List” for your group. The four sections include; 1. Personal sharing, 2. Sharing about our feelings and thoughts about what is happening in the world, 3. Open conversation and potluck party ending with a brief check out sharing 1. How we are feeling and our time with the group, 2. What support we need from the group and what we want to give to the group, 3. One hope 4. Action item we will do in the next week, “FNGHA” Feelings, Needs and Gifts, Hope and Action. The Leader begins this sharing time by twenty minutes before the second hour to keep the meeting and dinner no longer than two hours. 4. Clean up with dancing.
Reader #4 The leader will announce the four times of group sharing. We hold four approximately one-minute periods of prayer, silent meditation, song or ritual in between sharing and after the closing of the dinner portion before clean up and dancing.
Group guidelines include; 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. 3.Before the potluck there is no cross talk, 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.
Reader #5 6. Commit to loving everyone in the silences as well as in conversation and send a silent mantra and blessings to everyone as they share repeating silently, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” 7. Everyone helps to clean up and plays music to sing and dance together while cleaning. 8. 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. All information about the issue is shared and everyone is invited to speak about their ideas and feelings. Usually, a wise solution is revealed naturally in this manner. ECSG’s offers experienced group leaders available for consultation when requested. 9. Please keep a current members contact list and email and/or pass out to newcomers. Everyone is encouraged to give and receive support to one another in-between meetings by phone etc.
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.
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. How we are feeling and about our time together, 2. Something I need and something I want to give to the group, 3. One hope, 4. Action item we will do in the next week, “FNGHA” Feelings, Feelings about Group, Hope and Action. (After sharing.) We now ask for volunteers for the needed tasks including: 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. Time Keeper The time keeper uses their timer on their iPhone or other method. Generally, about three minutes of sharing for a group of 6-8 will enable the group to be completed in two hours.
The leader and time keeper will alert the group when it is about twenty minutes before the end of the group making it time to check out in order to begin clean up enabling the group to be completed in a two-hour period. Example: If you begin at 5 pm you would have the checkout by 6:40 pm in order to finish clean up at 7 pm. If or when people go overtime in their sharing the Leader is encouraged to name this and say something like, “Please finish your thought for your time is up and thank you sharing.”
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