Newsletter Contribution for Change - Human, Social, Ecological, Creative and June 2014 Spiritual
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The Parallel Community is a Parallel Community linking network and a platform where people can express and develop their positive Newsletter contribution for change - human, social, ecological, creative and June 2014 spiritual. Photo: Ben Grant Editorial I'm delighted to have been invited to edit this edition of It’s good to be home: I feel a strong sense of belonging the Parallel Community Newsletter. I met Hamish Miller in here, as if I’m rooted in Penwith. Over the next few the late 1980s, soon after he moved to Treviscoe. Although months and years I look forward to deepening those roots we lost touch, I thought about him often over the years: he in the local community, and, more widely, within Parallel was certainly an inspiring man. Several years ago I wanted Community. to reconnect with him, and was dismayed to discover that he had died a few months before. A newsletter is only as interesting as its contents, and if this one is going to help PC members to connect with each When I knew Hamish he had yet to make his mark on his other, to share knowledge and understanding, and to grow new home: walking round the garden with Ba last month I as a real community, we need you, our readers to was delighted to see how beautifully they had planted and contribute. landscaped the grounds. It’s a most uplifting place, and Hamish and Ba have been wonderful custodians of this Your photos of PC events, and letters or reviews of events beautiful piece of Penwith. you've participated in would help to give those who weren't able to go a flavour of what they've missed. If you My family are from Cornwall, and I’ve lived in Penwith on have an idea for an article or book review, or a recipe and off over the years. I’ve now been settled here for over you’d like to share, please get in touch: 5 years, running a small business, Magus Technical [email protected]. Services, which provides sound and lighting for events such as concerts, conferences, festivals and theatre, and In addition to the Newsletter and website, PC has a associated audiovisual services. I also keep sheep and Facebook page: poultry on a smallholding. www.facebook.com/groups/parallelcommunity. This is an open group, which means that anyone can join without having to be invited. There are 251 subscribers at the moment: if you’re a Facebook member, please add yourself, and join in the discussions. Nathascha, who moderates the page, wants to keep it focused on Parallel Community, so that it has a clear identity. Please post and chat about our, and also events and conferences organized by groups with a similar ethos to PC. However the page is not intended for the promotion of private events and enterprises. Thank you for respecting this. 1 Forthcoming Events Summer Solstice celebration Chakra Walks Join in the Summer Solstice ceremony at the Seed of Life These are not Parallel Community events, but they’re stone circle, at Treviscoe. Afterwards we gather around the organised and lead by PC member Caro Woods. There are fire of the Hopi circle. two, on the 15th June and the 5th July, each from 11am to 4pm at St Michaels Mount, Cornwall. Please bring finger food and drinks to share. 21st June, 7pm at Treviscoe. Free admission. More information: Nathascha The Chakra Walk is a guided meditation, carried out in Heijen, [email protected] or 01736 317550 silence. Caro will guide the walk from the causeway up to the chapel at the top of the mount, pausing at key points Sharing the Light along the way. th June 28 , 1.30 to 4pm at Marazion Community Centre. In the process you will journey through the seven colours Likeminded souls are invited to gather in friendship and of the rainbow connected to subtle energy centres of the body, focusing on your physical and emotional connections support (light working, meditation and healing practice). to the special topography of St Michaels Mount. The programme includes guided meditation, reflection, supervised and shared healing, guest speakers, sharing & Participants are asked to bring one coloured item which networking, news & events, distant healing and sharing says something about themselves. After a picnic lunch the light for the world. Experience a Drum Healing given by group will have the opportunity to discuss the walk. Mario and Nathascha For details and booking, please contact Caro Wood: [email protected]. There is a charge of £30 in aid of Fee: £5 GBP to cover room hire and refresments, with any surplus being donated to carefully selected projects and Freedom from Torture. charities). Organised by Lindsey Price, [email protected], 01736 711708 Rock On at the Giant’s Quoit! momentous occasion. Bagas Crowd and the Red River Singers will entertain us starting at 4pm. An especially composed Ballad will be performed. Bring a picnic, enjoy good company and watch the final construction phase of this unique Heritage Project. More details to follow. ‘This monument, which collapsed in the 1960s, is the focus of a remarkable and unique project, a community endeavour to rebuild the monument, develop the site and its surrounding landscape as an educational and leisure amenity, and create a sustainable monument for future generations to enjoy. The project, run by Sustrust is a great example of how rebuilding prehistoric monuments today, in the modern landscape, can impact on social well-being. Come and watch the final phase of this gargantuan project The focus has not just been the monument, but also the on Midsummer’s Day, Saturday 21st June at 3pm. ecology of the surrounding landscape. This will be a milestone, or even capstone! The object is to Poetry and music have been composed and performed at complete the restoration of Carwynnen Quoit by raising the monument. Hundreds of people have been involved in the capstone this project in a whole range of different ways, and 'Rock on at the Giant's Quoit'-the placing of the 9.8 tonne crucially the focus has not just been on what happened in capstone will be at approximately 3pm on 21st June. This is the distant past, but also the relevance and role of the a community event - all are welcome to celebrate this dolmen for people today and into the future. 2 Musicians, poets and dancers are welcome to perform around 4pm and the ‘Ballad of Carwynnen’ will be sung around 5pm. Some refreshments will be provided. Bring something to share. Carwinnian Quoit is at grid reference SW6501437213 postcode TR14 9LR. Visitors can park in the field. For more information, call: 01209 831718 Holding the Light Holding the Light, an art installation by Angela Shaw, was slow down, to notice, to reflect; described by the artist as “A collaboration of land, light and reveal hidden processes, both internal and people.” external; defocus - expanding consciousness beyond the immediate; show gratitude and respect towards the light, life, the environment, and our fellow beings on Earth; revitalize ancient connections and traditions through ceremonial ritual; create new stories for the future The artist says: “Thank you to members of Parallel Community who participated in this event, and to others who connected energetically in different ways. Angela Shaw ([email protected])” The aims of this art installation, over a 10-mile radius of 8 sites around Mounts Bay and as far as St Ives was to connect energetic points in the landscape, and recreate a network of light in order to: focus – give time and attention to the light; engage – come together with others and connect to the land; 3 Being Nature – extending civil rights to the natural world By Mumta Ito As the destruction of the biosphere continues, we need to itself? After all, which came first, life or the economy? establish new legal systems to protect what remains. Strengthening the 'nature as property' paradigm and giving Mumta Ito proposes a new beginning for environmental piecemeal legislative protection is clearly not the answer - law based on extending 'civil rights' to the natural world. so what is? With the premise that all life is protected - and then seeks It was not long ago that our law also treated women and to find the balance required to maintain our dynamic children as 'property'. Born out of the civil rights relationship with all life - not the other way round. movement, recognising nature - which includes ecosystems, rivers, mountains, species etc - as having the Despite the proliferation of environmental laws and right to exist, persist, renew and maintain its vital cycles treaties, destruction of the natural world still continues changes the face of environmental law. apace. It starts with the premise that all life is protected - and One of the key reasons that this occurs is because our then seeks to find the balance required to maintain our environmental laws - which see nature as property - dynamic relationship with all life - not the other way legitimise it. round. It starts with the premise that all of life isn't protected, Why 'Rights of Nature'? leaving us with the impossible task of reactively legislating to carve out protections, rather than proactively creating The highest protection our law gives is in the form of the frameworks needed to create the ecologically thriving 'rights'. Law regulates human behaviour, but world that all wish to inhabit. predominantly between 'rights' holders. It recognises broadly two types of 'rights' holder - human beings and The laws that we already have - such as the EC Habitats entities created by human beings such as corporations and and Species Directive, the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act countries.