MISSION:
To be a participatory community of mutual support in which all spiritual paths are respected and encouraged.
VALUES:
Mutual Support
Members develop face-to-face relationships through which they offer and receive support. They express their needs and convictions, listen to each other and strive to act responsibly, considering their good and the good of the other.
Spirituality
Members believe that spiritual growth is the primary work of those in the later stages of life. Members encourage one another in the search for meaning in life and commitment to a spiritual path. Freedom of religion is fundamental.
Service
Support from the Community empowers members to help each other and to contribute service to the wider community according to their abilities, interests, and opportunities.
Simple Lifestyle & Respect for the Earth
Conscious that over-consumption by persons in wealthy countries threatens the earth’s living systems, members seek a simplified lifestyle that reflects a respectful relationship with the environment.
Arts & Recreation
Leisure, recreational activities, and travel contribute uniquely toward refreshing the mind, body, and spirit. The arts form an integral part of the community. Members share and develop their gifts and talents through such activities as music, dance, theater, storytelling, gardening, crafts, weaving, etc
Health
The word “health” comes from the same root as “heal,” whole,” and “holy.” Recognizing this, members pay attention to nutrition, rest, exercise, and social interaction.
Care during illness & dying
The common goal of the cohousing neighborhood is to offer care to one another in the later years. It affirms home care and dying at home. However, when institutional care occurs, a member of the community stays in touch with the person and closely follows her/his condition. Members recognize that the process of living involves one’s desire for tolerable health and a capacity to be generative. Within the community, the process of dying raises one’s awareness that all surrender physical life, not in isolation, but as a sister or brother of the human community.
Mutual Assistance
Sharing of goods and services is the norm in the cohousing neighborhood. When members have needs beyond the individual and family group, they are encouraged to make their needs known. Community meetings and common meals provide opportunities for open discussion, sharing and mutual assistance.
Kindness
Members value kindness as the golden thread uniting all expressions of community: kindness to self, to our neighbors, and to the earth. Kindness includes speaking and listening in love, forgiving self and others, respecting diversity, and encouraging each other to walk one’s own spiritual path.
Revised 6/2018
