The ARC way is about:
Forming partnerships
Approaching tasks
as pilgrims, not as missionaries
Asking questions
rather than coming in with answers
Relating our beliefs
to the way we live our lives
Relating our beliefs
to how we invest our money
Taking time, rather than
expecting instant success
Taking time to pray or
however we describe moments of calm reflection
Thinking about
what strengths come from difference
ARC has drawn together Seven
Stages of Pilgrimage from the experiences of all
the major faiths.
Forming partnerships
We need to ask not simply “what can I do?”
but “what can we do?” Religious life is
as much about the community as about the individual,
and at ARC we work only with groups, not with individuals.
Individuals can have wonderful ideas, and tremendous
energy but we find that by working with groups and
teams and partnerships, projects are more likely not
only to be completed but also continued. If you have
an idea then the first thing is to find people who
agree with you and share your “belief”
in that idea. The next thing is to work out how to
make it happen – together.
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Approaching tasks as pilgrims,
not as missionaries
This is one of the most important ideas for ARC,
and is based on how the founders of the major religions
spoke about the spiritual life as being a “journey”
or a “pilgrimage”. Think of the Hajj in
Islam, which every able-bodied Muslim should undertake
at least once in his or her life. By insisting that
everyone dress the same and walk together, the Hajj
emphasizes everyone’s equal standing before
God.
The new missionary movements of the secular world
– including environmental agencies, the United
Nations and the development community – tend
to talk about “going on mission” when
they go overseas for a project. But what if they talked
in the language of pilgrimage instead? What if they
thought of every business meeting and foreign or domestic
trip as something that is special, something potentially
transformational? What a psychological difference
that would make – and it is a psychological
difference that we could all make, whether we rethink
our approach to meetings, project plans or classes,
valuing each of them. Read the Seven
Stages of Pilgrimage.
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Asking questions rather
than coming in with answers
It is easy to think that we have the answers. Yet
many ARC projects have happened because of listening
more than talking. If there is a project that you
wish to engage with, then start by listening to the
people who are close to it, and hear what they say.
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Relating our beliefs to the
way we live our lives
One of the reasons for founding ARC is that many
people want to relate their beliefs – whether
about God or about the environment or anything else
– to their daily life and decision-making. But
sometimes they are not sure how they can achieve that.
Many people are embarrassed to discuss their personal
reasons for being involved in charity work or development
work. However through ARC we encourage people to write
down their beliefs (privately, if they prefer), and
then plan how they can bring these beliefs into their
daily lives. This could involve setting up a project,
becoming more active in your faith community if you
have one, looking at your company’s relationship
with the environment, setting up an environmental
audit, introducing educational initiatives, or simply
talking to your friends about the issues.
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Relating our beliefs to how
we invest our money
Do you know how your money is invested? If it is
in shares, then how have the companies been selected?
Many faiths are now turning to ethical and pro-active
investments for their own money either on their own
or through a new organisation called 3iG.
Think about whether you would like to join them –
and make “good investments” in every sense.
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Taking time, rather than expecting
instant success
Some of the best projects cannot happen immediately.
Cathedrals took many generations to build, and projects
sometimes require patience as much as any other asset.
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Taking time to pray or however
we describe moments of calm reflection
Every great religion has prayer at its heart. Whatever
your own beliefs, take time to pause or pray or meditate
before you start something new.
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Thinking about what strengths
come from difference
Ask yourself what is distinctive about your own faith’s
way of doing things that makes it important for the
environment? For example, Judaism has an annual festival
of trees; Christianity has its harvest festivals;
almost every religion has its own stories and parables
about trees or rivers, and many provide strong links
to a local area with all its traditions and history.
ARC has never wanted to unify religions or suggest
they are “all the same underneath”, or
put together a statement that is common to everyone.
Instead it celebrates the differences; because often
it is in those differences that religions are the
most powerful forces – for good and for change.
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Seven Stages of Pilgrimage
ARC has drawn together seven separate stages of pilgrimage,
from the experiences of all the major faiths. These
are ideas, not rules, and explore how any journey
can become a pilgrimage.
1. Think about being a pilgrim rather than just travelling
from A to B.
2. Recognise that journeys are entities in themselves
and they can—if you allow them—take on
a life of their own. They are not just a means to
an end.
3. Become aware of the people with whom you are travelling
and of why you are together, discovering what each
of you brings as well as being honest about some of
the tensions.
4. Understand the story that has brought you there:
your story.
5. Lose your role as an observer and become part
of the landscape and part of somebody else’s
story.
6. Look at what you are passing through.
7. Recognize that at the end of the journey you should
be different from the person who set out. If every
business meeting, every overseas trip, and every project
were to use these ideas they would be so much more
effective and enjoyable.
These were first published in Sacred
Britain the official guide to the Sacred
Land project.
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