This month the Centers for Spiritual Living are exploring the concept from the African proverb “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Both are important at different times, however one purpose of spiritual communities is to learn how to go further together.
You have probably heard of the term Beloved Community as a kind of utopia built on the divine spiritual principles of love, peace and inclusion. Josiah Royce (1855-1916) was an American religious philosopher who grew up in Grass Valley, California. He coined the term “Beloved Community” in his 1913 essay to describe “a spiritual or divine community capable of achieving the highest good as well as the common good.”
When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. attended Boston University’s School of Theology in the early 1950’s as a doctoral student, Royce’s Beloved Community was a central part of the School’s theological teachings. Dr. King built on Royce’s ideal as it became the basis for his ministry and social activism. If we live up to the American dream of equality and justice for all, we will, together, create the Beloved Community.
Why is creating the Beloved Community so difficult? Many people want to live in a society based on the divine qualities of love, peace and inclusion. It has the enticing pull of being connected to something greater than ourselves. What must we release to realize this ideal existence? And how do we retain our own individual existence within a utopia of Oneness?
This Sunday join us as we dive beneath the surface of the Beloved Community and discover who we really are as well as how we can go further together.
Love and light,
Rev Pam
