Last week I attended two momentous events in the Hall: the systemic constellation led by Giselle Charbonnier and Deborah Lewin, and the Findhorn Foundation community meeting attended by nearly 500 people in person and online. They confirmed my faith in the resilience of the Findhorn spiritual community and gave me hope for the future.

Like the rest of the world, we are moving through a time of deep change. Globally, we are witnessing the collapse of our civilization. All of our institutions are crumbling one by one—politics, banking, education, health care, agriculture, energy. Yet I feel that our community is thriving, moving through the chaos of transformation with courage and commitment.

I have been rereading The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium by Walter Wink. I first read it in a study group in my church 20 years ago; it is even more relevant now. His book “celebrates a divine reality that pervades every aspect of our existence”. Wink’s premise is that for the last 5,000 years we have been living in a Domination System run by what he calls the Powers. These are the institutions that uphold our society, each one of which has a spiritual core. The Powers “are good by virtue of their creation to serve the humanizing purposes of God. They are all fallen, without exception, because they put their own interests above the interests of the whole. And they can be redeemed, because what fell in time can be redeemed in time.”

The beauty of Wink’s message lies in his reliance on the power of God as revealed in the teachings of Jesus, who “came not just to reconcile people to God despite the Powers, but to reconcile the Powers themselves to God.” For me this echoes the messages of Eileen Caddy, though here we no longer talk so much about Christ.

Now at Findhorn we face the unraveling of our major institution. Sadly, the financial collapse of the Foundation was not unexpected. Meanwhile many dedicated people here have been working on finding innovative solutions, wrestling with difficult issues from various angles (and with various angels, especially the Angel of Findhorn, which is alive and well, according to the magic of the constellation).

I would like to share what came to me during one of the meditations. The Findhorn Foundation, which had become an institution, is crumbling the same as others. But it is crumbling gracefully into the arms of the community. While we witness fragmentation, fear, and violence elsewhere, here at Findhorn the community has spent decades practicing love in action, communion with nature, and attunement to Spirit. (One beautiful manifestation of this is the Caring Community Circle.) In this difficult transition, there will be suffering, but we are prepared. With the help of Spirit, we will have the strength, the creativity, the resources to birth the new. We will have the will and the patience to work through the inevitable conflicts. Aligned with Spirit, we are guided by love.

Personally, what I saw is that my job is to hold the silence, the stillness from which the new will arise.
This does not mean doing nothing, but to find that quiet place deep inside, even when I am in action. Not an easy task, but one I have been preparing for over many decades with the help of my teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (and his sangha, including our local Northern Lights). He himself witnessed horrific suffering in his homeland and helped thousands of his countrymen by training young people in social service. After his exile from Vietnam he taught millions worldwide to find peace and happiness within. This he did by sharing the practice of mindfulness, which in Christian terms he called the Holy Spirit.

In recent days I wrote a poem called The Power of Prayer, which starts:

All I want to say
now
is a prayer of gratitude.

—Jane Ellen Combelic