In January of this year, the Flor do Sagrado TepuíLight-Community, located in Roraima, Brazil, and affiliated with the Fraternity- International Humanitarian Federation (FIHF), began a cycle of collective initiatives (mutirões) that is scheduled to be repeated once or twice a month.
The days of the collective effort are festive. The arrival of participants takes place very early, at 6 am, and the program is extensive: at 6:15 am, an attunement is done with prayers and mantras, which contributes to inner nourishment. Then at 7:15 am, everybody participates in a breakfast served in the field, and at 7:40 am, the distribution of the tasks is done, which take place between 8 am and 11:30 am.
Lunch is served at 12 noon, and the closing of the meeting occurs in the shade of a large guardian tree in the countryside, where at 2 pm, an Ecumenical Communion takes place.
Since the founding of the Figueira Light-Community, the first Light-Community, collective initiatives have always been practiced, from the pioneer phases, at the beginning of the implementation, up to the more advanced phases of manifestation.
Currently, the Roraima Light-Community is going through its pioneering phase and the tasks done are of basic harmonization on the Lands of the Light-Community and on a neighboring rented land, known as Terras de Apoio (Support Lands). So monks, missionaries, stable members, members of the Light-Network and the rest of the collaborators divide up for different tasks such as tree pruning, cleaning up the river that flows past one end of the lands, preparing for sowing, and removing trash from the ground.
Besides the practical tasks, important for the initial manifestation of the Light-Community, collective initiatives represent a strong impulse of integration and union among the group responsible for supporting the work in Roraima.
“In the group work we have the opportunity of sharing what we learn and our way of life. Providing experiences and tools so that all can relate to one another, stimulating changes and transformation. The practice of the collective initiative supports the harmony of the Light-Community,” comments Moira Seadon, collaborator and coordinator of the house that is the headquarters of the Light-Community.
For Tereza Naira Paracat, member of the Boa Vista Light-Network, “collective initiatives reinforce the ties between the collaborators of the work and expand the experience of being in fraternity.”
