The first conscious action is contemplative action- a birth of the imaginal.
About The Perennial Waters Project
During the spring of ‘19, John Hartig approached a few of us at Saint Philip and proposed a project centered on the grounds of the church and preschool.
The project would organize and activate grassroots community social/ecological commitments in “Downriver” neighborhoods south of Detroit, Michigan. The Perennial Waters Project (PWP) was conceived.
An Origin Story
For several years prior to PWP’s inception, a group of Trenton residents organized in response to closure and aftermath of the McLouth Steel plant. The ruins were left vacant for years in deplorably blighted decay along Trenton’s Detroit River shoreline and were purchased by Crown Enterprises, a company with a dubious reputation for management of industrial properties. St. Philip regularly hosted this gathering of local citizens, business leaders, and other regional stake-holders who continue to campaign to prevent Crown from winning a zoning bid for the land to remain fully industrial. Instead the group advocates for more stringent brownfield restoration such that the property will be safely available for multi-use including greenways and other natural areas. As it stands, the group has been instrumental in building support and holding its ground in the zoning fight, but it’s not over yet. There is, to be sure, much work left to be done.
PWP intends two simultaneous forms of action.
This bi-modal intention honors the spirit of The Center for Action and Contemplation. First, we engage contemplative thought, planning, and advocacy. We dream to think well that we may act well. There is no conscious action that is not first beautifully imagined. Second, is activism, but an activism that never strays far from reverently deliberative ground.
We are often asked just what it is we are doing
Community Outreach
The simple answer is that we are a community outreach project, a ministry of St. Philip ELCA church in Trenton, Michigan. Those members to whom we reach out may most often be the landscape itself and the critters who share this beautiful South East Michigan region with us. Perhaps seek to assist human community members also struggling to have their voices heard. Perhaps we gather so that our own voices better carry. It is a diverse membership within our regional ecosystem and our boundaries are porous.
Common-space Gardens
So we’re developing rain gardens and pollinator gardens for the preschool on the campus of St. Philip Church. We hope these may serve as model for the development of other regional common-space gardens. We are also growing as a community education center for germane and enlightening topics. We’ve just hosted our third Distinguished Speaker Series, a forum for topics such as environmental justice, conservation ecology, and the new spirituality of the great lakes. Finally we are inviting interested individuals and “interest group members” to join us in the growing project.
Growing and Planning Together
The more complicated answer is utterly dependent on the interests of a growing membership. PWP resists top down thinking. The specific efforts should be less the design of founders. Rather, as membership grows, our hope is that we may articulate collective aspirations, develop specific agendas as a function of our growth, and become empowered to realize our social-ecological activist ambitions. First, then, we must grow.
Challenges
We wrestle with more complicated challenges in this current historical moment. Perhaps our victories of local conservation have masked broader anxieties. Many of our living regions are cleaner (though still deeply fragile) but the oceans are choking on disposable plastics. Polar ice shelves are disappearing at a breathtaking pace. Climate change precipitated by human/ industrial activity is an irrefutable scientific reality backed by a growing and overwhelmingly convincing data-driven body of trans-disciplinary research. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Contemplative Grounding
How do we locate our response? In our activism we often become resentful and quickly discouraged when hard fought results elude us. And they will often elude us. If we are unable to recognize the Cosmic Mystery which centers each of us, centers our relationships to each other, and centers our reverence within our living landscapes, our efforts will prove emotionally exhaustive. It is this centering – the contemplative grounding – which encourages and sustains Perennial Waters activities.
Join Us
It begins in conversation and is sustained in our collaborative spirit. Join us and bring your creativity and your unique skills to the table.
