Spiritual communities have been active in Occupy Boston since day one, and we have a vibrant Faith and Spirituality Group that maintains a beautiful sacred space tent at our encampment. Here are some of the activities they and others have organized to date:
Local Christian clergy—including Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and Rev. Charles Adams of Harvard Divinity School—have offered words of advice and encouragement, ecumenical prayers, and communion services.
Members of Boston’s Jewish community have offered shabbat and Kol Nidre services, sounded the shoffer at our marches, and built a sukkot in Dewey Square.
Members of local Buddhist sanghas have led occupiers in chanting and meditation, and members of Thich Nhat Hahn’s monastic community gave a talk and led a mindfulness march.
The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard has offered discussion groups and secular meditations for atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, and skeptics.
Local Unitarian-Universalist clergy have held interreligious prayer services, and the Harvard Divinity School Unitarian-Universalist Ministry to Students (HUUMS) have come to Dewey Square offering occupiers warm drinks and a listening ear.
A local Sikh community performed a moving chant concert in Dewey Plaza.
Occupiers and supporters from the Pagan, Muslim, Native American, yoga, New Age, and other traditions have all offered prayers, meditations, ceremonies, and workshops in Dewey Square.
27 Responses to “Faith and Spirituality at Occupy Boston”
Religion has no place in this movement.
Organized religion of faiths is evil.
Houses of worship should pay property taxes.
Religions should be taxed. No different than corporations.
Indoctrination of children in organized religion is child abuse.
The 99% includes religious people and those who are adamantly opposed to religion. We’re a big movement with a big tent and we can include both.
Xtianity and Judaism have no place in this movement. Violent and Hateful. We should include only Muslims an Buddhists and those like me that despise religious people.
Wait…if only “those like you” are included, how will that be the 99%? Why the need to be so hateful? If Christianity and Judaism have no place in this movement, then please tell me who was at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement in the 60s — which some would argue was the last important mass protest movement this country has seen. Who were Martin Luther King and Gandhi, for instance, if not religious people whose faith prompted them to fight for social justice? Think about it.
Good point, no one has ever acted violently and hatefully in the name of Islam.
was this before or after messages of hate were spray painted on buildings and before or after the occupy Boston guy was selling heroine from his tent with his 6 year old present? Van jones? You guys said he wasn’t involved. This is a foolish group of people and everyone is seeing it now. Your numbers are down and dropping fast. Still can’t put down all the radical anti semitism, no matter how many peace candles you light.
I have not read about the heroin bust or talked to people about it. I was not there for those couple of days and it must have been over real fast. I am sure it was Occupy Boston folks who set up the bust to get the child to safety. Actually if the family had not come to Occupy Boston the situation with the parents would have likely continued for quite some time. And antisemitism? You really got to get out more.
If you believe what you say then why are you here? Van jones does not own this. It’s a global phenomenon that is being seriously covered up by the corporate media. Millions of people are involved all over the world and the numbers are growing fast every day. Van jones, nor anyone else is in control of this. Despite what you try to say. No one is listening to you here. Your pathetic tea party got owned by the far right and now you wish that would happen to us. But we have no leaders, no party, no religion, no corporate backing and yet this makes the tea party look like pathetic bigoted hating losers. Is that why your here? Are you trying to do he same here? Drag it into the mud. Choke it before it gets going. Typical right wing. What if it turns out to be important in saving the country. You don’t care. You just want to bitch cos your not happy the tea party is over. You really thought bigotry and hatred had a future then you don’t know people. Have you ever been outside USA?
Check out the tribute song and poem to Occupy Boston from The Big Sauce Radio Show Oct 20th – http://tinyurl.com/3r7wu2a (podcast listening link)
There is no place on the Home page for this. Create a link for “Supporters” and put this kind of stuff there. It just sounds too hypocritical. We want a separation of corporate influence on our politics but we allow religious influence?
AS BEST PRACTICE follow this rule of thumb – anything that is tainted by religion or political affiliation placed on the Supporters, not on the Home page which should all be about ACTIONABLE marches around changing the status quo in our our current politics and economics.
I agree with this Facebook supporter who posted this today:
““Amy Lynn While I think it’s great that all sorts of people are supporting this movement, I hope it does not become tainted by religion or political affiliation. I think the focus needs to stay about financial regulation, holding Wall Street criminals accountable for fraud and corporate funds to stay out of politics all together. (Just to name a few). “
I don’t think we need to worry about religion taking over anything. This is more like preschoolers coming to put on a play.
We also want freedom of speech. Many religious people feel that their faith compels them to fight for a more just and compassionate social order. Do they not deserve a voice in this movement as part of the 99% alongside all of the other voices?
I don’t completely agree that we want freedom of speech.
I don’t want to hear what the banksters have to say and I don’t really want to hear from someone telling me that I can’t tell my girlfriend to get an abortion.
Also, if we want freedom of speech why are these comments moderated?
Comments are moderated to reduce spam, other completely off-topic garbage, illegal material, and potentially other material like vicious personal attacks that have nothing like a logical argument with them.
Freedom of speech doesn’t mean you’re compelled to listen.
Bullshit!
The participants of Occupy Boston need to stop bandying on about Freedom of Speech: you are all just so full of shit. As long as the speech conforms to your ideals you say “Freedom of Speech”. When it doesn’t, you try and drown it out, resort to name calling and then the goon squad (“anarchists”) shows up 8 deep to try and intimidate.
To boot, the great lot of you are a bunch of hypocrites: you buy shit from the corporations you claim to hate knowing full well that those same corporations are exploiting labor and destroying the environment while the executives of said corporation make obscene amounts of money because all you people buy their crap.
That argument about buying corporate goods making us hypocrites is such a tired old bunch of flawed logic and baseless assumptions. We don’t hate corporations. We hate corporations who conduct criminal businesses and aren’t held accountable.
Here’s the thing…many of us who do have religious commitments are not just “supporters”–we are OCCUPIERS and have been from the beginning. From day one, we were here because our convictions (and that includes our religious convictions) moved us to join this movement. We have worked tirelessly to build this movement alongside everyone else, and now you want to boot us and put us into the “supporters” group, somewhere on the margins? Look, spiritual life has been part of this movement from the beginning — the spiritual lives of religious AND non-religious people, by the way. (Plenty of people who don’t affiliate with a religious group use the spiritual space for instance…to meditate, relax, whatever.) This is part of the life of Occupy Boston, not something entering it from outside. We are religious. We are non-religious. We are the 99%. Deal with it.
I find the welcomimng of religious elements into the movement extremely discouraging. The Catholic Church which has done more to damage the drive for gender equality than any organization in the history of mankind is celebrated by OWS? The corrupt oligarchy that moliests and rapes innocent children and virtually immune from prosecution?
Religion serves to divide and conquer us. It has NO PLACE in our just cause. As a practicing atheist I fail to see the benefit. Shame on you!!!!
As a practicing atheist, are you opposed to the chaplains from the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy who came to lead a secular meditation and discussion for atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, and skeptics, and who are pictured in the fifth picture from the bottom? Also, please note that I never once mentioned the Catholic Church, and that none of the pictures show any Catholic clergy (though they are certainly welcomed in Dewey Square, as is anyone else).
The question was not directed to me but I welcome the chaplains from the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy. I think we need to study this issue and realize that what passes for irreligion is actually a secular religion that grew out of the Protestant churches and that these are the people that control the public schools.
As one occupy protester put it, “We are fighting a spiritual evil at the highest levels.”
Whether you agree with that or not, keep the spirituality coming- it is beautiful, and we need all the help we can get.
I also want to spread this video far and wide from someone who understands these “spiritual evils” better than anyone else. It’s called “Essential Knowledge For A Wall Street Protester”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW4J1e2WW68
I looked through the video a bit and he seems to be asserting that global warming theory is false. He seems to think he can hold opinions about complicated matters without the brilliance and study it takes to actually know. I have not studied global warming theory enough to know. But I have studied energy technology enough to conclude the proposed “green” solution is an utter scam. I favor building up the present heavy industry we now have as less risky than de-industrializing. And we need to develop the next generation of nuclear reactors such as the Thorium reactor. And anyway the “green” solution will only lead to a destruction of wealth with the associated CO2 emissions and a future of reliance expensive natural gas with it the expenses being of course the energy consumed it making and transporting it. We need to have a rethinking of what we know and how we know it and how policy functions in a democracy when most people are not able to understand the issues. We probably need a rethinking of religion too. What often strikes me is that religious people often seem to want to be delusional but nobody ever comes right out defends the will to delusion. Nobody ever comes right out and says we should force our mind to hold a false belief. In physical yoga one might stretch their leg into an odd painful position for a while. What about doing this to the mind? I always find great pleasure in interacting with religious folks.
David Icke is a man who thinks we are being controlled by lizard-people.
That’s awesome!
Cheeseboy is open for breakfast now!
I know, right?
on October 28th, 2011 at 10:51 pm #
[…] I spent the afternoon in the Faith and Spirituality tent at the Occupy Boston site. I’ll share more of my writing about this with you in the […]