[Oe List ...] John Gibson Appreciation

[Richard Alton]

An ICA Tribute to John Gibson

The Ecumenical Institute (EI) and (ICA) Institute of Cultural Affairs exist
today because of dedicated people who decided to live their lives on behalf
of something bigger than themselves. Individuals who decided to operate out
of a different value system than the world was accustomed to, and who
demonstrated with their lives that that which seemed impossible, was in
fact, possible.

Today we celebrate the life of John Gibson who for 37 years was deeply
involved in the life and work of the Institute. In 1966 Joseph Mathews,
Dean of the Ecumenical Institute was the keynote speaker at the Pastor
School in South Dakota. Mathew’s vision of a renewed church as the catalyst
for healing the world, spoke to John, which motivated him to attend a
Pastoral Leadership Colloquy at the Institute’s westside Chicago campus.
Soon after, the Church leaders in Rapid City invited EI to conduct an RS-1
course, and out of that inaugural course the Local Church Experiment in
Rapid City started in 1970.

In 1973 John and Anita participated in the Institute’s Global Odyssey that
circled the earth to study the cultures of the world. Shortly thereafter,
their Bishop, James Armstrong, appointed John to work with EI so Anita and
John joined the EI staff. They were deployed to start a Religious House in
Green Bay, Wisconsin. In the region they worked on The Bicentennial Town
Meeting Campaign, and LENS (Living Effectively in a New Society) designed
to help government agencies and corporations grow cultures of participation.

In 1977 Anita and John and their children, were deployed to Malaysia to
coordinate a social and economic reconstruction project at Sungai Lui, a
small village about 20 miles from the capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Anita
started a pre-school and ran the Well-baby Clinic. John did a gravity-fed
water system and worked in training and collective village planning.

In 1980, the Gibsons came back to Indianapolis, Indiana where Anita helped
start Training, Inc and John coordinated ICA programs in Kentucky, Ohio and
Indiana. John became very involved on neighborhood boards and citywide
boards. After John left the Institute in 1999, he ran as an independent
candidate for Mayor of Indianapolis and became the co- founder of Earth
Charter Indiana serving as an executive Director from 2003 to 2011.

The question the ICA posed to John over 37 years ago, was ‘What will you DO
with your unique and unrepeatable life’, and we can see John’s answer
clearly through his mission and work. And I bet, John would like nothing
more than for us all to ponder, what will we do with our unique and
unrepeatable life, and how are we willing to actively, not passively -make
the change we know the world so desperately needs.

In the face of great loss, no words convey the sadness we feel for those
who loved John Gibson. Yet we dare to say Death is neither a curse nor a
blessing, an end or a beginning, but only that it is a wondrous,
frightening and redemptive reality. It is a step into the Unknown Unknown.
It is sacred, and it is good

-- 
Richard H. T. Alton
One Earth Film Fest ( OEFF)
Green Community Connections
Interfaith Green Network
T: 773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com
**Save the Date! One Earth Film Festival 2021, March *
http:www.oneearthfilmfestival.org

Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
Won't you be my neighbor?
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