Brooklyn Center for Sacred Activism Shared Values
This is a living document and was inspired by La Casa de Paz in Oakland.
Spirituality
Commit to engage in regular spiritual practice as individuals.
Reserve silence and space for spiritual practice in our house.
Maintain the house as a temple - clean, ordered, a place for inner communion.
Commit to cultivating and practicing discernment in our spiritual lives.
Frame our agreements together as being of spiritual benefit, rather than as limitations or rules.
Witness each other as we navigate our unique spiritual paths.
Service
Commit to actively work in one’s own way toward social transformation.
Commit to engage in service, individually and as a group.
Engage directly with our local community.
Consider all our actions and service in the context of the larger needs of the world.
Analyze our service to make sure that it is helpful to the world.
Community
Build together, work on our community as a common project, contributing to the reinventing of urban life.
Practice kindness/lovingkindness with one another.
Use consensus-based decision making; non-hierarchical, horizontal decision making.
Honor art, music, joy, and celebration as essential elements of community.
Community potluck one Sunday evening a month.
Regular house meetings.
4-6 workdays a year (deep cleans, deep organization, working on garden, fixing things as needed, etc.)
No smoking within 5 feet of door- or window-ways, no drugs permitted (including cannabis), mild alcohol use is permitted.
Nonviolence
Model nonviolent living and commit to nonviolence in our approach to social change.
Address our conflicts through restorative practices.
Assume nonviolence as the foundation in our communication with one another and with others.
Regeneration
As much as is possible in our urban environment, seek to live in close relationship to Nature.
Simplicity: live simply, taking only what we need.
Trusteeship: use what we have, only in the name of the greater good.
Healthy food (kitchen culture): strive to maintain our food as cruelty-free, corporate-free, and as local as possible.
