Meet Boston Deep Harbor BCC
We are a diverse group of eight people living in the greater Boston area. Currently and by design we are five BIPOC, three White people, four woman, four men. By agreement, we aim to continue that balance in order that we not re-create dominant culture Circle, and because we wish to do our best to co-create a Beloved Community ourselves. We are also diverse in terms of spiritual practices—Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, and Christian. And our wide world work covers a broad spectrum, which includes the Hindu Chaplain at a University, a professor of sustainability studies at Worchester Polytechnic Institute, the former leader of the Sunrise Movement of young climate activists, a climate policy advocate with the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), the head of a US Department of Transportation national team working on Artificial Intelligence, a Unitarian Universalist Minister, Buddhist practitioner, singer/songwriter, and longtime climate activist, and a Plum Village Dharma Teacher and longtime social justice and climate activist.
We’ve been together for since early 2024, meeting monthly in members’ homes, and rotating who facilitates and hosts. We have intentionally used the first months to get to know each other and build trust. We have co-evolved a kind of template for our gatherings that include a reading, a song we sing together, a time of silence, brief personal check-ins, a heart sharing time responding to a prompt, a time for Circle development tasks (like forming Circle guidelines, agreeing on protocol for adding new members, establishing a meeting schedule), and a closing reading and sharing of the merit.
To date, we have enjoyed each other’s practices—learning a Hindu lovingkindness chant, doing a centering prayer process, using guided meditations, and singing. We are now in the process of discernment about what possible action projects we might engage in. Stay tuned!
To a person, each of the Boston BCC members joined because they were looking for a way to do their social justice work in a spiritual, mindful way, and with a like-minded community. So far, we have been enjoying each other and the BCC has been a refuge and an inspiration for us all.
Contact: John Bell, jbellminder@gmail.com
