Summer Gathering 2020/21 - El Rancho, Waikanae Beach, Kāpiti

 

 

 

We are looking forward to Summer Gathering 2020-21, sharing time with new and old Friends in worship and in play. The Summer Gathering will be at El Rancho on the Kāpiti Coast.  For those who have not been there, it is a lovely spot with so much to enjoy … beautiful beaches, wooded walks, water slides and many more activities. There are great facilities for Meeting for Worship and large and small group activities.

 

It is an understatement to say this has been an unusual year! Many mixed feelings from joy to spending more time walking and being with the ones we love in our bubble, to those who were stressed by the isolation they experienced; economic anxiety for many in the country yet the climate change stats improved slightly.  And Zoom became a big part of so many lives. Proud of our country for doing what was mandated for the good of all and then disappointed when we had to go back up Covid Levels. How fortunate we were to have the best weather for long walks! With that said, it will be a regenerative time to be with each other at Summer Gathering, relaxing, learning, crafting, dancing and singing and so much more….together.

 

The theme of Summer Gathering is an exploration of Regenerative Living.  Each morning we will have different speakers that look at this theme from different perspectives from regenerative agriculture to examples of what some Quakers are doing today to contribute to regenerative practice.  There is a little more information about the theme further down this page.

 

There will be a Children’s Program, Craft Room, Young Friends Area, a beach picnic, long walks, lots of outdoor activities, dancing and singing, and Special Interest sessions that people volunteer to share on a wide range of topics. And of course, the traditional concert talent show on our last night together.

 

Our favourite foodie, Marion, is working with the Chef to make the food choices healthy and delicious and meet dietary requirements.

 

The on-line registration form is no longer accepting registrations.  Please email wmmsummergathering@gmail.com to enquire about Summer Gathering or change a booking. 

 

  

The theme “Regenerative living” refers to engaging in activities that do not merely sustain our environment, but actively seek to make our environment better than we found it.  It involves working with the earth in ways that replenish what we take from it for our survival.

 

One facet of regenerative living involves agricultural processes.  Regenerative agriculture produces food using methods that leaves the soil more fertile, increases biodiversity, and generally reverses the damage done by large scale commercial agriculture. A growing number of farmers are adopting these methods. 

 

But large scale commercial agricultural exists because of the economic and social environments that are shaped by the needs of our modern-day culture.  We are a part of economic, social, and environmental systems which all work together to shape our impact on the planet.  Living regeneratively involves considering our contribution to each of those systems, and striving to make choices that lead to sustainability, and ultimately to regeneration.

 

Summer Gathering will be an opportunity to explore how we each can do more to live regeneratively.

 

Sustainability is familiar to most of us and many of us have already made changes to make our lives more sustainable, from diet to reusing, repurposing and recycling practice. The relationship between sustainability and regeneration can be depicted as follows: