In this blog on the The Circle Way website I share the story of my involvement in a lockdown initiative for self-organized circles “CoronaCircles” – a weave of circle practice and technology.
https://www.thecircleway.net/articles/2020/12/30/coronacircles
CoronaCircles – A Platform for Self-Organized Circles
A few days after the start of the global lockdown, Gerriet Schwen invited some facilitators to an online brainstorming session, focusing on the question how the power of community and sharing can support people in times of Corona. It seemed helpful to offer online spaces where people speak from the heart, listen to each other, and formulate what is important to them. Michael Hoenninger and myself joined Gerriet to combine the powerful tradition of circle work with the current possibilities of video conferencing.
CoronaCircles is a free, open source platform in English and German, with a simple method and structure that encourage mindful sharing & listening. Someone invites to a Circle; up to four others join. The host can invite people from his or her own network or wait and see who shows up, thus getting the chance to get to meet and listen to people from other regions or countries, with other backgrounds and experiences.
The CoronaCircles team would appreciate it if people who have some expertise concerning hosting step in first, so as to offer others the opportunity to experience mindful sharing and listening, gradually empowering them to host circles themselves. Information about the process is available in text and video format on the website and will also be sent by email after registration.
After this long phase of staying at home and social distancing, it seems to be time to talk about what changed for us and within us, as well as sharing our intention and hopes for the future.
Collective Presencing – Video Material & Book Made Available
“We-Space” refers to collective practices that generate deep conversation. In October 2017 a five-day online We-Space summit was presented and helped making such approaches more visible. More than 150 hours of interviews, panels and practice sessions were made available for free during 5 days. The event was organised by Olen Gunnlaugson, who co-edited with Michael Brabant the book “Cohering the Integral We Space: Engaging Collective Emergence, Wisdom and Healing in Groups”, which was published in 2016.
Lately snippets taken from the summit’s interview with Ria Baeck on the genesis and practice of Collective Presencing were put online on her youtube-channel “Collective Presencing”. Now the whole interview is made available, as well as the Collective Presencing Panel with Ria Baeck, Judy Wallace, Luea Ritter and Griet Hellinckx, gracefully hosted by Ann Maare Paré.
The Collective Presencing practice emerged and took its first form during a period of 6 years (2006 till 2012) within the context of Women Moving the Edge, a project initiated by Judy Wallace and Ria Baeck. The material that can be found on the Collective Presencing website and in the book that describes the story of Collective Presencing as an emerging new human capacity is based on the experiences and learnings during those women gatherings.
Dates for Online Council & Circle
As mentioned in the previous blog „The World is your Small Group“ several tools for sharing and listening in circle have been taken online. The Council website offers a page where dates for online Council or Circle meetings can be found. The facilitators mentioned in the entries can be contacted for more information.