Resource Type: Honoring Our Pain for the World

(30 to 40 minutes) Verbal expression of our concerns for the world has its limits, for words can hide as well as reveal.  We use language not only to communicate, but to protect ourselves, distracting others’ and our own attention from what is painful.   To connect with our deep responses to the condition of our… Read more

(20 to 30 minutes) Good at any point, this practice works especially well following one of the rituals of mourning. It encourages people to articulate what emerged for them from telling the truth about their world.   Method Choose a word, a theme or phrase – perhaps something that emerged in a previous process –… Read more

(30 to 60 minutes) This simple ritual can be adapted to any size group, from a handful to a large assembly.  The ritual arose from the group of 60 attending a 30-day intensive lead by Joanna and Fran Macy at Western Australia in 2005.  People shared their grief for the world by passing a bowl… Read more

(60 to 90 minutes) The Despair Ritual, one of the oldest forms of our work, serves much the same purpose as the Truth Mandala, but with greater intensity.   It has the advantage of movement, encouraging people to circle around and displace themselves at will; and more people are actively engaged at one time than in… Read more

(90 minutes) This ritual provides a simple, respectful, whole group structure for owning and honoring our pain for the world.  The practice emerged in 1990 amid a large, tension-filled workshop near Frankfurt, on the day of the reunification of East and West Germany.  Since then it has become a trusted and featured part of countless… Read more

(30 minutes) This ritual practice is similar in function to the Bestiary, but allows people to express more personally their grief for what is happening to the world.  In knowing the depth of this sorrow, they can know the depth of their belonging, from which comes the power to endure hardship and to act for… Read more

(10-15 minutes) This short exercise strikes an unexpected note, and brings up a lot of energy. By exaggerating feelings of disconnection, even indifference—almost inevitable in our mass culture—we can achieve greater honesty and sense of wholeness. As we relate to what is happening to our world, concern and compassion are not all we feel. There… Read more

This liturgical responsive reading from the UN Environmental Sabbath can be used effectively as part of Honoring Our Pain, especially before or after an intense practice.   It can be done as a responsive reading, or by passing it around the group, with everyone reading the next sentence as it comes to them.  A meditation bell… Read more

This process provides a ritual structure for recalling what the Industrial Growth Society is doing to our fellow species.  It serves to honor the unique and irreplaceable forms that are passing from us. It arose in 1981, at a midnight gathering of several hundred people in Minnesota, in the form of a simple reading from… Read more

(Revised by Molly Brown, incorporating ideas from a version by Kaia Svien.) (About 20 minutes) This active and non-verbal practice provides a change of pace after people have been sitting and talking.  The silent encounters help people to see each other more fully in their shared humanity. The present global realities strike us with greater… Read more