In 2023 I initiated this collection (still growing) on my writings on sustaining community, especially in the context of humanism, Unitarian Universalism, and Ethical Culture. You’ll find new writings listed on this site (RevJoneLewis.com). I’ve added to the archive some older articles I wrote on the topic, with some revisions.
Full archives: Archive – Community Matters (substack.com)
Some articles you’ll find there:
- The Path of Belonging: on the very human need to belong
- What’s an Ethical Society For?: a vision of our communities
- Inspired by Those Unlike Us: A call to build movements and bases “larger than the people we feel comfortable with”
- When Our Intuition Fails: understanding statistics about COVID-19 trends
- Ethical Society Identity: what does it mean to be a Society for Ethical Culture?
- The Spirit of Play: what are you doing to keep the spirit of play in your life this year?
- The Story of Love: the power of love to fuel the work for peace, freedom, and justice
- Hate Has No Home Here: when antisemitism and racism both rear their ugly heads
- What Is Beloved Community? “Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth.”
- A Great Storm Is Over: writing on Inauguration Day, 2021
- Alternative Futures: Brueggemann, a Protestant Biblical scholar and theologian, stood for religion as providing a alternative narrative to forces of nationalism, militarism, and consumerism. While I do not share his Christian faith, I do share his basic commitment to the idea
- A Time to Imagine New Ways: as a New Year in 2021 begins, how can we use our imaginations to help create a world that is more livable, loving, just, and peaceful?
- Responding to Attacks on Inclusion and Democracy: a response to three major hate attacks in a single week
- Eight Commitments of Ethical Culture: some basics of Ethical Culture, commitments rather than beliefs.
- Stories and Story-Telling: stories include fiction, but also cultural stories of Thanksgiving; stories can cover up or tell truth.
- What Does It Mean to Be a Community of Healing? Are our communities not just escapes from traumatic religious pasts, but healing places?
- An Emotional Week: Terrorism in South Carolina – from June 2015
- Interconnections: In Ethical Culture and Unitarian Univeralism (UU), we say “deed not creed” or some variants, including “deed above creed” and “deed beyond creed”. The intent is to acknowledge that more important than what we believe is what we do with what we believe. The intent originally was also to emphasize that the unity within an Ethical Society or UU congregation is based on our deeds, not on our beliefs – for our members often have strong beliefs, and these don’t always agree.
- 10 Basics of Ethical Communication: some principles learned from Straight Talk™ and Nonviolent Communication™ as well as “best practices” for small group work in general — with a little common sense added in.