This page is part of “Creating a New Positive Religion or Spiritual Tradition”.
This is still a DRAFT.
Many religious people find community in their tradition. How does our tradition offer this?
Community is central to this endeavor. The whole point is for people to come together to “implement” together the new spiritual tradition rather than doing it individualistically. The purpose is to help each other better understand the spiritual tradition, with self-inquiry, adapting it to each person’s convictions, thus respecting their personal sovereignty.
Where we gather
A gathering can take place in someone’s home or in a park.
Our aspiration is that in the future, once many people identify with Lumessianity, we will have a community center: our counterpart to a temple, church, synagogue, or mosque. There we will come together to talk about and learn Lumessianity, to hold ceremonies, and to carry out projects inspired by it.
What happens in a gathering
Co-creation
A guiding principle of our gatherings is co-creation. There is no priest or minister who alone decides what we do. The content of a gathering is created together by everyone who wishes to take part in creating it, on the basis of the principles of Lumessianity and of Wellism.
We do this out of the understanding that everyone has something to contribute, and that creating together connects people to the content, to the activity, and to one another far more than passively consuming content, as in a sermon.
There is a menu of ideas for activities, and anyone can suggest new ones.
Reading a reminder together
One of the ideas on the menu is to read aloud together a short reminder of what Lumessianity is and why we are meeting: our wishes and intentions for the gathering, and for each person’s participation in it.
This is a way of returning to and reminding ourselves of our core beliefs, somewhat like a creed. But it is not a statement of metaphysical claims. It is a statement of the main values and beliefs of Lumessianity. See the current draft: Why We Gather.