As we honour the Past, we meet in the Present and Together we step into the Future

In May 2021, Leona Graham, Liza Hollingshead and Cornelia Featherstone met to tune into ways of contributing to this CommUnity at a time when we were faced with the aftermath of the devastating fires at The Park and the fractures the pandemic had brought to our Community and the world we live in.

We also brought with us the inspiration and strength we feel in the emerging global network as represented by so many new connections being made throughout the pandemic, online meditations, online Taizé and the Findhorn Extended Members Council, to name but a few.

Since then, the team has grown. An inspiring collaboration between the NFA (New Findhorn Association) and the Findhorn Foundation (FF) holds several working groups to deliver the many events and projectsThere are two main strands: Our Year of Celebrations and the Community History Project.

Our Year of Celebrations

There are events throughout the year being held by

– Yasko Takahashi, who was a FF co-worker for 17 years, and she brings her many skills and expertise to the overall coordination

– Laura Pasetti, a passionate theatre director, actress and community artist who is coordinating the different artistic contributions and

– Val Whistler (from the FF Philanthropy team) brings her passion, enthusiasm and creativity to the events organisation.

The Birthday Celebrations, 12-20 Nov 2022, are held by

– Dürten Lau, a community member since 1991, former FF co-worker, NFA Listener/Convener 2012-18, brings her passion for deep connection, both locally and globally.

– Leona Graham, was a community member in the 1970s and returned 5 years ago. She now working as Communications volunteer and brings all her extensive social networks and spiritual connections into weaving relationships.

– Lorraine Rytz-Theriault is the female NFA Listener/Convenor at present and forms the crucial link to the NFA Council. In recent years the NFA organised the Community Birthday, and a tradition of events was established (including a Community Transformation Game, Birthday Sharing and Birthday Meditation) and these elements will find a place in the schedule.

– Wendy Richardson, the FF’s Booking Team focaliser, is an integral part of the team.

Janet Limb was with the team as FF Comms focaliser until last month. She ensured our steady progress with her skilled support, and crucially, contracted Avalon Santos Willmott to create our beautiful logo and design guidelines. Megan Searby, working closely with the FF leadership team, was instrumental in setting up all the initial structures for the group admin. Both have now left the team and we are deeply grateful for all their contributions.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please get in touch! community.birthday@findhorn.cc
The Community History Project
– Liza Hollingshead, a community member since the 1970s, the founder of Ecologia Youth Trust, who wrote Eileen Caddy’s autobiography with her, has always been intrigued by people’s stories. She is especially interested in what drew people to come to Findhorn. She leads the curation team.
– Cornelia Featherstone has been in the community since 1987 and healing in its many different forms has always motivated her engagement, in this team it is creating a platform to hear all the different voices, to acknowledge differences, to create linkages and to celebrate our collective achievements.
– Sylvia Robertson joined the community in 2017 and has extensive experience in charity work. She brings this expertise to the finance, admin and legal aspects of the project.
Shaun Pollak was instrumental in the initial research and concept design for the online platform for the collective story-telling. Caroline MacDougall gave us her invaluable input which shaped the future website experience fundamentally, for instance by adding a Members’ Area.
The Curation Team is slowly forming to bring together the stories submitted to our collective autobiography in a way that will enhance engagement.
– Dell Horler works in the FF Comms Team and co-wrote the Submission Guidelines
– Dorota Owens and Janice Eddy were part of the editorial team for the 50th Birthday Book and have joined our team to help with curating submissions.
The Curating Team will have to attract more curators in the next few months as we are hoping to receive hundreds of submissions. So if this is something you’d like to get involved with, please get in touch. In particular we are seeking someone willing to take on the focus for Video submissions as this is a skill set we are missing in our team at this point.