Dear Process Colleagues,
Welcome to the Claremont Process Nexus! We appreciate your willingness to join. Around thirty organizations have done so, so we consider that our network now exists. We attach a list of the organizations with contact information. They are very varied.
Some deal with the media and publications. They include a scholarly journal, Process Studies; a publishing house, Process Century Press; a website, Open Horizons; and Religion Online. Almost all of us are engaged in some kind of education, but of special interest are a school of higher education, Flagstaff College; a PhD program in theology, Center for Open & Relational Theology; a new kind of seminary preparing people for multi-faith leadership, All Paths Divinity School; an independent holistic educational program in China, the Sunshine Academy; and a highly successful stress-free way of teaching those who do not flourish in our schools, Middle Tree learning center in the Pomona Valley.
The committee that initiated this project has members from four of the larger U.S. organizations: Center for Process Studies, Pando Populus, Institute for Ecological Civilization, and Cobb Institute, which has provided us institutional support. By far the largest and most successful organization is the Institute for the Postmodern Development of China. The most far flung is the International Process Network. Check the list for still further variety. We learn from Whitehead that the many become one, and the diversity of the many enriches the one. We celebrate differences, and, especially, communities made up of varieties of members. We have the potential of becoming a great community, that is, a group of organizations, large and small, that support and stimulate one another.
We ask each of you to tell us, in a few paragraphs, who you are, what you have done, and what you hope to do, no more than a page. Of course, you can include directions to additional information. But we think more of us are more likely to read short descriptions written just for each other. Please send us the information soon, and we’ll make it available to all of you. I hope you will all take pride in what, collectively, we have done, and will be excited about what we hope to do.
One of our plans is to build a platform that will serve all of us in our communications with one another. Some of the things we could make available are sharing news and announcements, advertising events, engaging in discussions, sharing files, and viewing a map of organizations. Richard Livingston is working with us, and he has the needed skills to lead the effort, but in order for it to be a resource that is valued by and useful to our whole group we prefer to make it a collaborative effort. We want it to be something that reflects our values and views as a community of communities, so let’s work together from the start. If you, or anyone you know, would enjoy the challenge of developing a process platform please let Richard know.
Our nexus can flourish with just the members we have. However, we see no reason to limit participation. If you know of other organizations that would like to join with us, please let us know. The only requirement is that they feel congenial with us and would like to be part of this movement. Our present expectation is that before long we will open membership to individuals. In the long run it may turn out that interested people who are not now parts of any process organization will be the ones who profit the most and contribute the most. As you think of such people, please keep a list. We’ll be asking for it soon. Meanwhile, thanks again for answering promptly and enabling us to declare success. May we all benefit from interacting with one another, helping one another, and together promoting healing ideas and actions for a very sick world.