Portland Peace Citizen Circles offers individuals to come together locally in order to bind spirituality and activism. We bless the goodness of Portland and find ways to perceive how we can fuse our energy toward healing the collective and individual wounds of Portland. Portland Peace's web site is being designed to be the premiere web site for Portlanders to connect, collect, educate, entertain, use, and have all the tools available for total civic participation.

The Peace Citizen Circle is the "heart and soul" of the Global Renaissance Alliance. Citizen Circles are an informal society of two or more citizens who wish to fully engage the democratic process using spiritual principles in their political actions. Citizen Circle meetings are forums of openness, understanding, and action. We join to create a safe and sacred space that grounds us in love and provides everyone the opportunity to express themselves, and gain informed awareness about today's social and political issues. Political and social transformation from both a personal and national perspective occurs. We desire to fully express ourselves and dramatically impact our current system of democracy. The format of the Circle meeting is intended to be a powerful container and is designed to deliver us to our next level of individual and social expression.

As anyone who has tried a program of weight loss, or battled with an addiction can tell you, there are no quick fixes to the problems we face in life, or in politics.  In whatever circumstances we face, our power is drawn not from what we do once and drop, but from that which we do consistently as we fully engage ourselves in the power of process -- whether that is the process of spiritual growth, physical development, or political  awareness. From our adherence to the principles of process, and our willingness to work with them, we find great strength and expression and ultimately -- we will be shown the path to personal, spiritual and political change.

Peace Citizen Circle Format:
There are three parts to a Peace Citizen Circle: Sacred Silence, Holistic Conversation, and Inspired Action.

First is Sacred Silence: 20 minutes of meditation envisioning what we want (focusing on positive) to see or could be in Portland, Oregon, United States of America, and World and if moved to, to verbalize those images.

Second is Holistic Conversation: allows a topic or article to be discussed. This is also the time where we share our Citizen Story if we haven't done so or there is a new member. The most amazing thing is when we speak from our hearts (due to the meditation time) we respect each other and find comfort in being able to speak freely, knowing while we may not agree, we can attempt to discover a deeper understanding, accept differences, or just pray, because we just don't know what is best or right.

Third is Inspired Action: allows the circle members the opportunity to work on short term or long term projects together, or at least find supportive ears. Writing letters and/or making telephone calls about an issue, and cleaning up a park or neighborhood are three of many short term actions. Three long term examples are writing a piece of legislature for submission (and the whole process till passed or different method introduced), a community project that involves renovating and landscaping a park or garden, and saving its school from being eliminated. People feel good when doing something constructive that has a result. It builds a foundation for people taking more risks of being themselves and standing up for what they believe.

The key to a successful Peace Citizen Circle is that we speak from the heart about subjects that matter. We allow the container - the core of God, Spirit, Creator, Alla, Earth, Sky,.... to guide us to the highest perceptions and solutions that can be.  Come join the adventure!

Global Renaissance Alliance

Seven Principles of Activism

Prior Portland Peace Citizen Circle Events/Topics