Q & R: What about Mesa?
Here’s the Q:
I’m currently reading your book: The Great Spiritual Migration. In chapter 8 you refer to the MESA Document. I found it online to read and then went to the mesa-friends website. As far as I can tell, there have been no updates to the site since the announcement for a gathering that was to be held in April, 2014. Is this movement still going forward under some other name, or has it fizzled? Is your group that met in Thailand still planning on the 5-year reunion (10/2018)?
I’m finding your book helpful in some ways yet discouraging in others. I guess the most helpful sections have been chapters 7&8 where you dissect the components of a “movement”
I get it, that some movements can fizzle, others can wax and wane, and even though they don’t necessarily come to fruition in the ways original organizers imagine, they can still have merit. For example, even though the Occupy Wall Street movement (IMHO) didn’t achieve the original goals . . . we ALL know now that “we are the 99 percent”. Our rhetoric has changed. And with it, a realization of the definition of the “elite”
Thank you for writing this important book. I hope you can take the time to answer my questions.
Here’s the R:
Thanks for your question. Mesa has been on a hiatus, so I’m not sure where things stand regarding a second gathering. What I can tell you is that the language and spirit of the Mesa Document was picked up by Convergence in the US. You’ll find that here. And in the UK, Oasis is carrying on the same spirit in their multifaceted work, as is Spirited in Australia, and as is La Red del Camino in Latin America. Speaking personally, I have felt that our situation in the US is dire enough with the resurgence of white Christian nationalism that my focus has been here. But I am still eager to network with groups around the world that are seeking a better way forward, along the lines of The Great Spiritual Migration.