Why spirituality, relationships and the environment (SRE)?

We love God, infinite Love, Spirit, or whatever you would like to call the Divine. We also respect that there are probably as many ways to honor God and express spiritual qualities such as unselfish love, joy, peace, honesty, strength, wisdom, justice, mercy, and so on, as there are individuals in the world. Therefore we do not exist to promote any one particular “brand” of theology or to initiate religious events on our own, but we do stand ready to support anyone who seeks to foster and improve relationships across differences. 

Spirituality sometimes begins as a purely internal and solitary endeavor. However, spirituality also gains depth, breadth, and strength as it engages with others. So, it's no wonder that the Golden Rule--the instruction that one should love and treat others in the same way that one prefers that others treat them--appears in so many different faith traditions. Many people, including us, believe that this spiritual practice is the basis for solid relationships.

Relationship building takes thoughtfulness and effort, and it's worth it. However, many people and organizations today are so busy with their own focus areas that the essential activity of connecting authentically with others has been diminished. We hope to assist in the restoration and creation of precious opportunities for community.

Who is the other and how might we be in a positive relationship with them? Sometimes the first answer to this question involves one or more people. However, subsequent answers must expand in scope when confronted with the realization that we all have an inextricable relationship with every living thing--great and small--in the world. Our environment and all of the mutually-beneficial relationships within it have been bestowed on us by our one shared and loving Parent.

Many have experienced how caring for neighbors, the environment, and our relationships with them brings us full circle: our understanding of God deepens, our spirituality is fed, we feel more hope and purpose, and our neighbors and the environment end up nurturing us in return. Cherishing the goodness and beauty of everyone and everything causes our hearts to breathe the sacred conviction, "there is a God!"

Thus, simultaneously engaging with spirituality, relationships, and the environment is actually an inevitable and powerful proposition. We're continuously exploring and learning more about what that looks like in practice. Not everyone is at work in all three of our focus areas, so we typically partner with people and organizations who are engaged in at least two out of the three. We look forward to seeing how we can benefit each other!