Community Discernment Process

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="01ed4c00dduajq.png"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Discernment</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Most High, glorious God,</B></div> <div> <B>enlighten the darkness of my heart,</B></div> <div> <B>and give me right faith,</B></div> <div> <B>certain hope,</B></div> <div> <B>and perfect charity,</B></div> <div> <B>wisdom and understanding,</B></div> <div> <B>Lord, that I may carry out</B></div> <div> <B>your holy and true will.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Francis of Assisi</B></div> <div> <B> </B></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#C0DCC0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="558" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#6633CC" BORDERCOLORDARK="#CC99CC" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#339999 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 49 WIDTH="546"><div> <A HREF="interfaith__multifaith__transfaith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Integrated Spiritual Community"><U>Integrated Spiritual Community</U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="_interdependence_of_living_beings_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Condition of Being"><U>The Condition of Being</U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="guidance_and_skills_for_living_in_a_diverse_community_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Companions of the Way"><U>Companions of the Way</U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="practice_of_presence_to_self_and_others.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Companions in Action and Nonaction"><U>Companions in Action and Non-action</U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="questions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Frequently Asked Questions"><U>Frequently Asked Questions</U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="traditions_that_guide_us_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Traditions"><U>Traditions</U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><B>Community Discernment Process</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#339999" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cord of Unity"><U>Cord of Unity</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 73 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0d14e490.png" border=0 width="78" height="73" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#6633CC" FACE="Tempus Sans ITC" ><B>The Fourth Order of Francis and Clare </B></FONT></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="home"><U><B>home</B></U></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#6633CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>  </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#6633CC" FACE="Tempus Sans ITC" ><B> </B></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 28 WIDTH="546"><div> <B>Community Discernment Process</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> During the years 2003-2005 the Fourth Order Community will be involved in meditation, contemplation, dialogue and discernment of a working definition of an integrated spiritual community. Wisdom dictates that we listen to both tradition and vision for our time and the time to come. Native American wisdom offers the guideline that community decisions be implemented with consideration as to the effect of the decision into the seventh generation.  All our traditions suggest purifying the mind, body and spirit before decisions, to contemplate and study, to free ourselves as much as possible from attachments and aversions to outcome, to meditate and to converse. Under these conditions we can with full confidence proceed with the knowledge we are guided by the Spirit. The root word for obedience is 'to listen' and to act upon that listening. </div> <bR> <div> The Fourth Order Traditions and the Condition of Being are guidelines in the process, as well as the other writings. We also need to consider that at the very inception of the Fourth Order the understanding was given that the Fourth Order was to hold the old mysteries, cultivate the wisdom of these mysteries in ourselves and in each other, and to serve the world through the power of presence and compassion.</div> <bR> <div> The Fourth Order is a transfaith community; it is also interfaith and multifaith. A community must have praxis, practicality and general guidelines. How we use these definitions as a community to define the vision and work of  the Fourth Order and the manner in which we relate to each other is of great importance. The initial reflections on interfaith, multifaith and transfaith community are below. They raise many points of reflection. These reflections are a starting point. We may in the end choose one definition and exclude another. We may incorporate them all. We may arrive at an entirely other definition of a fully integrated spiritual community, or even decide that we do not have to decide, allowing the process to evolve over time.  </div> <bR> <div> What is essential is that we develop the self reflection and awareness of who we are as individuals and as community. A web discussion site for the Fourth Order is currently being investigated. Please send ideas regarding your vision of the discernment process as we are now on two continents.   </div> <bR> <div> The following are working definitions which were adapted from the practices and definitions of the field of interdisciplinary and intercultural studies in particular from the work of Paula Pergament, MLIS <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(Extracted from: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Disciplinary Structure of Women's Studies Literature and the Implications for Academic Libraries; 2002).</FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Interfaith Community</B></div> <bR> <div> I<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >nterfaith community is a form of spiritual life made up of the following components:</FONT></div> <bR> <div> 1.       It involves the utilization of more than one faith perspective to solve a problem or to analyze an issue;</div> <bR> <div> 2.       The merger in faith perspectives results in the emergence of a different faith and faith practice distinct from previously existing ones;</div> <div>  </div> <div> 3.       Interfaith community promotes the creation of new organizing concepts, faith practices and skills to create new epistemologies, generation of new root metaphors or the fusion of existing fields; and,</div> <bR> <div> 4.       Interfaith community is characterized by features such as interaction and co-authorship among community members of differing traditions.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Multifaith Community</B></div> <bR> <div> Multifaith community is a form of spiritual life that:</div> <bR> <div> 1.      Is a convergence of different faith perspectives including spiritual understandings and practices  for examining a question without the merger of perspectives that occurs with interfaith community; </div> <bR> <div> 2.      Allows differing spiritual understandings and practices of each contributing faith to remain intact. Practices are carried out by individual community members with different faith backgrounds; and,</div> <bR> <div> 3.     It has as its primary objective the synthesizing of wisdom without subsuming the spiritual understandings and practices inherent in each faith into a single entity. The synthesis of the results is not the responsibility of the community but is accomplished by individual members of the community as receivers of the multifaith community understandings.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Transfaith Community</B></div> <bR> <div> The Transfaith community is a whole composed of parts<B>, </B>and simultaneously, is a part of a larger whole.</div> <bR> <div> 1.     Transfaith practice occurs when wisdom, understandings, or practices learned through the multifaith experience are drawn on by community members to enhance the practice of radical awareness of God's presence within ourselves, in others and in all creation.</div> <bR> <div> 2.     Compared to the other structures and functions of community (faith, interfaith and multi-faith), transfaith is considered by some to be the most advanced stage of cooperation leading to the birth of new wisdom. </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="discernment_m.htm" TITLE="Community Discernment Process"><U>Back to Top</U></A>     <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#6633CC" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dec 04"><U><B>site guide</B></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Arial" >    </FONT></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>