Pioneering living generously project extended
-06/09/05
A community experiment based on the Christian idea of ‘living generously’, is to be extended following its growing success over the last year.
The Year of Living Generously project, an initiative that has emerged from the Greenbelt Arts Festival, saw 100 people over the last year pledge to help each other undertake at least two ethical actions each month.
The idea, based on a shared instinct is to see what a community of people might achieve if they acted together to live more generously in the world.
‘Living generously’ can involve anything from putting a plastic brick in the cistern to reduce water usage, signing up as an organ donor, switching to fair trade products or sharing a meal with someone outside traditional ëcomfort zonesí.
Information is exchanged via a website, www.generous.org.uk. People who take part in the project are mailed with different generous actions and relevant resources intended to inspire them. The volunteers share their tips on ethical living, such as recycling printer cartridges, stopping speeding and buying ethically sourced Christmas presents.
When people within the community have undertaken generous actions they post a comment on the web site, describing how it worked, whether there is was an improvement or related action possible and how participants felt. As different people post comments, others can add their own advice and ideas.
The vision is to act as an intentional community, living more consciously of the environment, of others around the world, of people’s own health, and also of their ‘presence on Godís good earth’.
Giving the success of the last year, organisers now plan to extend the project to 250 volunteers, all pledging to undertake new generous actions each month.
To help inspire new participants, Guardian writer Leo Hickman took part in a question and answer session at the Greenbelt festival. He had undertaken a similar project and published his experiences in two books.
He explained that the biggest challenges came first: changing the way his family bought food and the amount of refuse his household produced.
Speaking to The Baptist Times, he said, “The whole living generously thing has been really interesting. I would have relished having something like the Generously forum.”
While undertaking his year-long project, Mr Hickman received hundreds of letters from Guardian readers who were trying the project with him.
“I got a sense that community was essential,” he added.
Pioneering living generously project extended
-06/09/05
A community experiment based on the Christian idea of ‘living generously’, is to be extended following its growing success over the last year.
The Year of Living Generously project, an initiative that has emerged from the Greenbelt Arts Festival, saw 100 people over the last year pledge to help each other undertake at least two ethical actions each month.
The idea, based on a shared instinct is to see what a community of people might achieve if they acted together to live more generously in the world.
‘Living generously’ can involve anything from putting a plastic brick in the cistern to reduce water usage, signing up as an organ donor, switching to fair trade products or sharing a meal with someone outside traditional ëcomfort zones’.
Information is exchanged via a website, www.generous.org.uk. People who take part in the project are mailed with different generous actions and relevant resources intended to inspire them. The volunteers share their tips on ethical living, such as recycling printer cartridges, stopping speeding and buying ethically sourced Christmas presents.
When people within the community have undertaken generous actions they post a comment on the web site, describing how it worked, whether there is was an improvement or related action possible and how participants felt. As different people post comments, others can add their own advice and ideas.
The vision is to act as an intentional community, living more consciously of the environment, of others around the world, of people’s own health, and also of their ‘presence on God’s good earth’.
Giving the success of the last year, organisers now plan to extend the project to 250 volunteers, all pledging to undertake new generous actions each month.
To help inspire new participants, Guardian writer Leo Hickman took part in a question and answer session at the Greenbelt festival. He had undertaken a similar project and published his experiences in two books.
He explained that the biggest challenges came first: changing the way his family bought food and the amount of refuse his household produced.
Speaking to The Baptist Times, he said, “The whole living generously thing has been really interesting. I would have relished having something like the Generously forum.”
While undertaking his year-long project, Mr Hickman received hundreds of letters from Guardian readers who were trying the project with him.
“I got a sense that community was essential,” he added.