For this 1986 conference ONE EARTH Gathering – A Call to Action, the following presenters came together: Joanna Macy, Jonathon Porritt, Jose Lutzenberger, Susan Griffin and Peter Russell. The focaliser of the conference was Alan Watson Featherstone, please follow this link to his COIF profile (known at the time as Alan Watson).

In January 2024 Alan recollects the importance of the Gathering in 1986, at a time when the whole world had a greater awareness of environmental destruction due to the Chernobyl disaster. The format of the week was designed to not only offer participants inspiring presentations but to facilitate a personal shift. For the middle of the gathering we scheduled day-long mainly experiential workshops like fire walking, sweat lodge, native Aboriginal Australians’ traditional rituals, despair and empowerment work, healing the male and female divide. Participants had the choice to do one of those. The idea was that it would help them to make a personal shift, and that this shift would enable a personal commitment to positive action in their own lives in the final session.

Listen to Alan’s recollection in January 2024:

Alan expands on this in a longer interview with Manda Scott for the podcast Accidental Gods.

Another feature of the conference was a daily newsletter, a source of networking, sharing ideas, creative expressions etc. Judith Boyce, the editor wrote: Why the “Grapevine”? … grassroots movements … often escape the media’s eye. These movements have their own information networks, evolved in less expensive, more informal, more immediate ways. Hence, the old adage of the ‘grapevine’, not as a source of gossip, but rather the grassroots telegraph to keep each other informed and inspired.

There are many examples of  Conferences at Findhorn playing a formative role in the evolution of the Community over the years. This is particularly true for this conference. As a direct result of the commitment he made at the 1986 ONE EARTH Gathering Alan started practical restoration work in the Highlands in 1989 as part of his work for the Findhorn Foundation. Trees for Life was born. In 1993 it became an independent charity set up with the aim of helping to restore the Caledonian Forest at Glen Affric and its wildlife unique to the Scottish Highlands. It went on to winning numerous awards over the decades.

The charity works in partnership with the Forestry and Land Scotland (formerly known as Forestry Commission), the National Trust for Scotland and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and since 2008 on its own 4000 hectares estate in the Glenmorriston. Alan talks about Trees for Life in several of his posts that are listed in his profile and especially in his TEDx Findhorn Talk.

The Presenters

Joanna Macy Since the early 1980’s Joanna taught group-work and many thousands of people around the world have participated in her workshops and trainings. These methods, incorporated in the Work That Reconnects, have been adopted and adapted yet more widely in classrooms, community centres, and grassroots organisations. In the face of overwhelming social and ecological crises, this work helps people transform despair and apathy into constructive, collaborative action. It brings a new way of seeing the world as our larger living body. This perspective frees us from the assumptions and attitudes that now threaten the continuity of life on Earth. For more information about Joanna and her work please go to her website.

In addition to her talk ‘Being Gaia: Discovering our Deep Ecology‘ she offered an experiential ‘Council of All Beings‘ session on the Wednesday. Joanna’s work is based on the premise that we have become disconnected from nature and by reconnecting, re-identifying with species, places etc and engaging our emotions we can find our power to care for and protect the web of life.

Jonathon Porritt is an eminent writer and campaigner on sustainable development. For the last 30 years, he has provided strategic advice to leading UK and international companies to deepen their understanding of today’s converging environmental and climate crises. He supports them in developing solutions to those challenges.  Jonathon was formerly Co-Chair of the Green Party (1980-83), of which he is still a member and Director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90). In 2017, Jonathon received Ethical Corporation’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Responsible Business Awards. He was awarded a CBE in January 2000 for services to environmental protection.  For more information about Jonathon and his work please go to his website.

At the time of the One Earth Gathering in October 1986, Jonathon was Director of Friends of the Earth. He describes there being something of a surge in public awareness of environmental issues at that time.

In his presentation “A Day in the Life of a Green”, he acted out what a typical day as Director of Friends of the Earth looked like. His engaging style embodied the realities of social activism and brought it to life for the audience. Alan Watson Featherstone remembers ‘This was a real highlight of the week and it set the stage for the final session where we asked people to make personal commitments to action.‘

Jose Lutzenberger (1926-2002) was a Brazilian agronomist and environmentalist. 1988, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for his “contribution to protecting the natural environment in Brazil and worldwide”. He was Brazil’s first internationally known environmental activist, and the fact that in 1990 he was chosen environment minister in Brazil’s first democratically elected government in 30 years was just one indication of the tremendous mark he made in that area.

His talk was entitled ‘Saving the Rainforest: Saving Gaia‘. He was outspoken and blunt in his words about the destruction of the rainforest being supported by governments and corporations and the imperative need for that to change.

Susan Griffin is a radical feminist philosopher and author best known for her 1978 book ‘Women and Nature’ that sold over 100,000 copies. The book traces the consequences of Western culture’s artificial division between spirit and matter and blends a passive-voiced history of scientific investigation with women’s received notions of status and social roles. The book is credited for launching ecofeminism in the US, a theory and movement that ties together exploitation of the natural world with oppression against women, people of colour, children, and the poor.

In her talk entitled ‘Women, Nature and Culture‘ she highlighted the links between the exploitation and domination of nature with the suppression and subjugation of women all around the world. She stressed that in many cultures it is the women that maintain the strongest connection with nature.

Peter Russell studied mathematics and theoretical physics at Cambridge University, UK. He changed to experimental psychology following his interest in the human mind. He travelled to India to study meditation and Eastern philosophy, and on his return took up a research post in the psychology of meditation, the first to be offered in Britain. He also has a post-graduate degree in computer science, and conducted some of the early work on 3-dimensional displays. In the 1970s, he was one of the first people to introduce human potential seminars into the corporate field.  In 1982 he coined the term “global brain” with his 1980s bestseller of the same name in which he predicted the Internet and the impact it would have. Interestingly the title of the book in the UK edition was The Awakening Earth.

At the gathering he spoke about ‘Spirituality and Ecology‘ based on his book and the Gaia hypothesis. Humans are part of a larger being, Gaia, and we have a role to play in her evolution and ongoing development. He highlighted the importance of the integration of the care of the Earth in spirituality which is not the case in all traditions.

The Conference folder

Another feature of many of the conferences at Findhorn is a unique folder given to all participants on arrival. This contains the essential information, including schedules, presenters information, maps, Community rhythms, and a directory of participants. Each one has a distinct tone and flavour, often treasured as a memento.

When Alan Watson Featherstone looked back at the 1986 Gathering he found the folder in his files and we are delighted to be able to share this nugget with you.

1986 ONE EARTH Gathering folder

The Conference Folder also contained an issue of the OneEarth Magazine which had been published a year previously in preparation of the conference.

We thank the Findhorn Foundation for the permission to publish this file.

The Findhorn Foundation 1986/7 brochure and the ONE EARTH A Call to Action announcement:

Janet Shaw

I first visited Findhorn in 1979 and came back regularly before buying my caravan when I retired in 2019. I worked as Director of an NHS Training School running a clinical and doctorate programme.