Greetings all, I wanted to post the results of our first Community Earth Council meeting. It was an amazing success. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a community building effort proposed by Eric Utne, founder of Utne Magazine and the Salon movement in the early 90's. The theme is to gather together people of all generations, building community-based groups working towards practical solutions for the environmental challenges our planet faces.

The meeting was everything I hoped it would be, respectful, creative, inspired, many ideas and initiatives came out from members of our community, I invite you to review http://southbaycec.blogspot.com for more information on what this is all about.

To all my Druid colleagues, I highly recommend that we all begin considering more ways to engage in community-building. I am finding that the Druid community is well-positioned to be an effective force for change, for building bridges of understanding between many different groups. We are at a nexus point in a sense. For example, many Druids I know have a Christian background(like me), many Druids are grounded in the Pagan mindset and identity, many Druids are grounded in engineering and technical fields(like me), many Druids are grounded in the Arts, many Druids are grounded in eastern spiritual paths such as Bhuddism(like me), many Druids are grounded in Native American spiritual paths. Between us, the community of Druids has branches reaching into almost every facet of society.

I believe this is a gift of Druidry, partly because Druidry encourages it's practitioners to encompass and understand the unique gifts of every discipline, every spiritual path, by refusing to embrace a dogmatic stance. Druids are peace-makers now as they were in ancient times, and I encourage all Druids to see if they are called to engage in peace-making for our modern time, true community-building, to see if they are called to reach out and build bridges of understanding between as many different peoples of as many different backgrounds as possible.

In my very humble opinion, in the opinion of one who knows less each day and is just a beginner on this path, it is time for Druids to walk this earth in truth. It is time for us to redouble our efforts to build bridges of peace, respect, humility and understanding between different cultural groups, to strengthen the subtle, cunning assault on the forces of dual polarity holding our world hostage. Not with weapons or words of denigration, but with humble, compassionate, respectful words, witness, and action starting with our local communities. Let us pull together, let us reach out with the mighty love of all existences and strive to fulfill the dream of all Druids: peace.

May all beings prosper in the manner right and perfect for each one!

John-Paul Riley, Bard of Croi Na Gleann