I have been asked to say something about a recent Zoom call with Findhorn Foundation Fellows. On 26th July I posted to Fellows Terry Gilbey’s announcement that the Foundation intended to wrap its existence as a charitable trust in late September. Terry also indicated his willingness to do a Q&A session with interested Fellows to further explain the Foundation’s position. This led to a very lively thread of emails over the ensuing week, the highlights of which are as follows:.

All contributing Fellows expressed their abiding care and concern for both the Foundation and community, but there were two relatively clear steps forward suggested, both entailing direct democracy.

1. Angus Marland proposed that the board of the new SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) be elected by the community, rather than self perpetuated as the Foundation has always done. Angus feels this would be a significant step towards healing the long standing gap between the Foundation and its surrounding community, as represented by the NFA.

2. Mary Inglis indicated that another option entails electing the team that will run the new BenCom (Ecovillage Findhorn Benefit Company) that has been set up by Michael Shaw and John Talbott both to take on the ‘community commons’ (roads, gardens, infrastructure, etc) that the Foundation wants to offload and, quite possibly, to buy the land on the Park that’s NOT felt to be essential to the Foundation’s core role of advancing ‘spiritual education’.

About a third of current Fellows (of a total 116) then appeared for a Zoom call on Thursday 17th August for a robust exchange of questions and answers, reflecting the concerns of the group as a whole.

After an early technical glitch, Robin Alfred kindly offered his own Zoom account for the event which I hosted in my role as Fellowship Focaliser. Thankfully, Robin also recorded it. Members of One Incredible Family interested in viewing it may do so by using the link in the private Members Area– we apologise to all other readers that we are not able to make this recording public, as we do not have the relevant permissions in place.

By way of response to the two proposals indicated above, Terry indicated on the Zoom that Foundation Trustees had not yet seriously considered either option but would do so ‘in due course’. In the interim, the resident community is doing its best to find its own way forward and trusts the Foundation will eventually find its new place therein.

In the Spirit of Fellowship and Transparency,
Roger D