Approximately 30 attended the Long Island Council of Churches' Fall Convocation, "Awakening the Dreamer," presented by The Pachacama Alliance and the LICC's Eastern Area Steering Committee. The event was held on Saturday, October 29, 2011 from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM at the First Baptist Church of Riverhead.

The purpose of the symposium was to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet.

THE BAD NEWS

We are on an unsustainable path with limited time - about ten years - to turn it around before the damage is irreversible. Rather than increasing the standard of living for all, our system of production has increased poverty and inequality. We're using the wrong criteria (e.g., growth in GNP) to measure success. In 1987 the United Nations declared that sustainability means using resources without jeopardizing future generations. But for the time being we're destroying the planet for future generations. Many species have lost 90% of their population in the past few decades. An incredible 70% of the planet's arable land has disappeared in the last 40 years, and we're currently using 30% more resources than the Earth can support. This is unsustainable.

The cataclysmic storms we're experiencing are symptoms that indicate that we're changing in destructive ways and much faster than we thought. We are very close to a tipping point, after which it will be too late to turn back and repair the damage. We have perhaps another 10 years until it will be too late to reverse the damage no matter what we do.

The belief that "a rising economy lifts all boats" is not happening. Instead, it's creating greater inequality and poverty. Those of us who have just the basics (food, shelter, transportation, etc.), are better off than 83% of the world. The forests are being destroyed, oil is destroying the fish, land and crops people depend on to survive, destroying entire economies. The next four years will determine what will happen in the next 1,000. Do something to help - doing something makes sense no matter how it turns out.

We're also living in great spiritual loneliness by focusing on things. This only draw people further apart and make them even more isolated.

What unexamined assumptions are contributing to the destruction of our planet? Examples:

1. Technology will solve our problems, whatever they are.
2. Government subsidies not to grow food are absurd when untold numbers of people are hungry throughout the world
3. Gated communities support the mistaken belief that we can protect ourselves from the rest of the world.
4. Mature raw in tooth and claw is a false assumption supporting the belief that competition, rather than cooperation, is the right way to go. But the reality is the reverse - cooperation, not competition, is the way of the world, and recent studies not only support the superiority of competition but also show that it is deeply imbedded in both human and animal societies.

THE GOOD NEWS

A series of videos documented indigenous, tribal peoples' cultural views/cosmologies and how they differ from hours. In a word, tribal peoples' views are integrative and see the world as interconnected both to each other and to the natural world. The idea that we are separate is a Western illusion gone awry. Our mechanistic view of the world results in a fragmented view of the world. Indigenous cultures may yet save us. We need to combine the indigenous cultures with our modern technology in sustainable ways.

Where do we go from here?

1. The power of one. Change begins with one person standing up.
2. Holding Actions - trying to hold back destruction.
3. New Structures - arising from the ashes.
4. Changes in Consciousness.

The event concluded with an exercise in which we considered the following questions:

1. What Makes Me Come Alive?
2. What's Needed in the World or In My Community?
3. Where do my Joys Connect with the World's/Community's Needs.

From these answers, we can each generate a plan of action. Consider what actions might come from the connections between our passions, the needs of my community/the world, and where do they two connect. That generates the plan of action, which can include one or all of the possibilities in "Where Do We Go From Here?"