Gathering

The Gathering started as a weekly group hosted by Jessica Crew with co-host Shirona Gunawardhana that met at the YMCA for over a year in Fort Wayne, Indiana beginning the summer of 2015. It was largely experimental in the beginning which allowed for organic progression. Each week community members met to share their story, their struggles, and their insight. Over time members shared that the group functioned very much like a support group that helped them develop both the awareness and the tools needed for change.

Read on for more Gathering history: We started with morals, values and religion since often the greatest blocks to our awakening center around beliefs about God. We took the 7 deadly sins (made them 8 for fun 😉 ) and stripped them down so we could rethink the concept of “sin” and really understand this term which for most people has perpetuated feelings of guilt and the burning question many spend their lives running from: “Do I measure up?”

Is such guilt necessary? Is it beneficial for real change? Where does real change come from? How can we view our shortcomings and moral failures in a way that is beneficial–in a way that promotes real root-centered transformation? These are some of the questions that the group worked through. We discovered important concepts such as the realization that “sin” is really just about leaving home and walking away from what is life-giving. The natural response was, “Well then, what causes us to leave home and how can we return?” These were the kinds of questions that led the Gathering to some fascinating realizations. Here’s a taste of our first series:

After we cleared some religious noise ( 🙂 ) and thought about what it means to “leave home” we naturally moved on to “finding home”–spotlighting identity at the suggestion of a group member. From there we began to discuss how having a weak identity can create all the personal and social ills we experience today. We discussed what it would take to heal our families, our neighborhoods and our world from the root out. It is fascinating to see how normal every-day people can have such wise insight into the root and solutions of problems we face. It is healing to share your struggles and be heard, to hear others express and to realize that you are not alone.