[Oe List ...] John Gibson Appreciation

[Richard Alton]

We are losing a lot who represent the foundation of the movement.
Dick

On Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 6:24 AM Herman Greene via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

> Thank you for this Dick. My heart weighs heavy with each passing. John was
> one of the great ones.
>
> Herman
>
> On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 12:18 PM Richard Alton via OE <
> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
>> 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?
>> _______________________________________________
>> OE mailing list
>> OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
>> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
>>
>
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
> Herman F. Greene
> 2516 Winningham Road
> Chapel Hill, NC 27516
> 919-942-4358 (ph & fax)
> hfgreenenc at gmail.com
> _______________________________________________
> OE mailing list
> OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
>


-- 
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?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20200605/aa5f3b43/attachment-0001.html>