I almost tripped over myself this morning as I listened (via the NPR app) to David Brooks talk about the communitarian tradition in the Republican party, during yesterday’s All Things Considered (see transcript). First of all, I didn’t even know that such a tradition exists in the GOP (that’s how smart I am). And second [...]

Students ‘Make a Difference’ volunteering at nine homes in Saginaw Saginaw News – The three 16-year-old juniors joined about 170 students from 10 high schools who volunteered at nine Saginaw homes Thursday for Make a Difference Day. “It’s more rewarding than sitting in a classroom on a typical day,” said Webber. “Probably the best part [...]

City residents take part in a pilot project to live longer, better lives TwinCities.com – Could Albert Lea be a new Blue Zone? For the past 10 months, the southern Minnesota town has tried to adopt the lifestyle habits of such places as Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; and Icaria, Greece, dubbed ‘Blue Zones’ because residents [...]

Gardens feed neighborhoods and neighborly feelings Episcopal Life Online – Just as gardens increase the diversity of flora and fauna, they can bring together a variety of people from the communities surrounding them, some of whom might not otherwise meet. Adult gardeners join with children and youth in the garden. St. Michael’s garden in Anderson, [...]

United We Serve Brings Catholics and Muslims Together Serve.gov – This year during Ramadan, right before the start of the United We Serve Interfaith Week of Service, the Interfaith Committee at my church, St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Arlington, Virginia, organized an iftar (dinner to break the Ramadan fast) for members of local Muslim [...]

What is it? Crafted by people all over the world and drafted by a multi-fath, multi-national council of thinkers and leaders, the Charter for Compassion asks that we practice the Golden Rule: to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. It reminds the faithful (and the faithless, like me) that founders [...]

Making Community Happen Here Richmond Times Dispatch – David T. Anderson – What if we brought together a disparate group of people who serve wide-ranging needs through a variety of institutions, and the families they serve, and worked together to build community? An expanding group of local people is doing just that, and last Sunday [...]

Excerpts from TED Talk by Karen Armstrong: What I’ve found, across the board, is that religion is about behaving differently. Instead of deciding whether or not you believe in God, first you have to do something. You behave in a committed way, and then you begin to understand the truths of religion. And religious doctrines [...]

The president of the Tallahassee chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, The Rev. Joseph T. Wright, sent four community officials a list of recommendations for how best to prevent and reduce crime in Tallahassee. Wright said he was part of a group of seven people who came up with recommendations as a result of [...]

Americans may be bowling alone, but they talk incessantly about community. Few words seemed more overused and less applicable to American life than this one. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the dilution of the collective underpinnings of Jewish collectiveness and the increasing usage of the word “community.” When soccer moms studying kabbalistic [...]