(Editor’s Note: François Duquesne in conversation with Cornelia Featherstone 2023)
History repeats itself – hopefully in turns higher up on a spiral. In Spring 2023 we are reflecting on a previous turning point in the Community’s history to create a Topic – the buying of the caravan park in 1983. During the research for the Topic, we spoke to François Duquesne who was the Foundation Focaliser at the time. The following audio came about in a conversation, when recollecting those years.
François says: “The early years (1979-1981) of me being the Foundation Focaliser were difficult times as not everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet. It was my role to articulate and share the vision that would create a coherent energy field to which we were all attuned.”
He goes on to describe the two main elements that made it all work:
- Down to basics – elements of putting our house in order.
- The role of the arts to bring us all together.
He ends by saying that from his perspective spiritual communities are successful if they
Pray together
Work together
Eat together
Celebrate together.
It was only after the conversation that we decided that it would be great to use the audio in a story for the website as it gives such a flavour of what was happening at the time. It was a spontaneous recollection and is not comprehensive – François acknowledges:
“There were multiple points of leadership, the list I mention is not complete and I will have left out many other worthy contributors of that period. Some are mentioned in Gordon Cutler’s article Transition in Leadership: Peter to François such as Caroline, Lyle and JT, and the list can go on:
– Gay and Craig who revitalised the pottery
– Loren and Eric singing ’Teenager in love’ and baking pizzas galore
– Thierry and Karin who courageously bought out the Publications Dept and founded the Findhorn Press
– Stan who kept us on our awareness toes through a constant stream of post-it notes on the Reception bulletin board…
And there are still more, you know who you are. Forgive me if I haven’t mentioned you, I do not wish to upset anyone!”
Guest Authors are contributors who are not COIF members (for various reasons).
Inspiring as ever, Francois encapsulates in 7 minutes the challenge and the process of transformation of the 80’s – an incredible achievement.
I’d like to point out that Findhorn Press existed before Karin and Thierry bought it. It was functioning well and profitably, mainly because of Eileen’s books. In my view the Foundation should have held on to it. It has now been sold to a big American publisher I believe.