Philosopher Josiah Royce first used the term Beloved Community in the early 20th century. He saw Beloved Community as an ideal, experienced as the participants fully dedicate themselves to the cause of loyalty, truth, and reality itself. He believed that loyalty to a cause is an essential quality of community.
Royce believed that individuals remain individuals in a Beloved Community, but they create a second-order life above and beyond their individual lives.
Emissaries of Divine Light is a Beloved Community for those who participate in it. We are devoted to our primal spirituality—the spirituality that we were born with and which is intrinsic to all people and humankind as a whole. This is the cause we are loyal to. This is the truth we know for ourselves and the reality we share with the world as a Beloved Community.
And what is the truth of our primal spirituality? When you strip it all down, past any cultural overlay and complexity, isn’t it this? We are co-creators. In sync with the universe and in harmony with our fellow co-creators, we are made to manifest something beautiful in this world.
Being a co-creator means that we are a physical embodiment of a creative power and intelligence that transcends who we are as a human being. Call it God, El Shaddai, Allah, or the Tao. Or call it the Creator. There is a source of creative power we cannot see. But we can tune into that Source and are empowered to co-create when we do.
A Beloved Community might manifest a physical creation. That’s what’s happening at Sunrise Ranch. And lately, it’s hard to miss all the physical creation going on, especially at the Pavilion—new floors, new paint, and a patio outside our downstairs meeting room.
A Beloved Community has some kind of form—if only our physical bodies. But it is far more than a physical manifestation. It is the manifestation of a collective heart, a field of consciousness, and a Presence in the world.
What gives us the power to manifest? Josiah Royce said it this way—dedicating ourselves fully to the cause of loyalty, truth, and reality. This is how the Beloved Community finds the taproot of its creative power. This is how we, as a community, come to know ourselves as co-creators and embrace our primal spirituality.
Jesus of Nazareth said this to his disciples, which is relevant to a community receiving the power and wisdom that allows them to create.
…tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
Luke 24:49
To enjoy the somewhat archaic language in this translation of Jesus’ words, it is good to know that the word tarry simply means wait. The word endued means endowed.
Older Greek versions of this statement use the word clothed.
…stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
Luke 24:49, New American Standard Bible
Jesus’ instruction had a very practical application in the biblical story. As for any group of people undertaking something creative, the disciples had to come together physically and stay together long enough that they would come together spiritually—until they were fully charged with the power and wisdom that would allow them to sustain and grow as a Beloved Community.
As the story goes, the disciples did stay in Jerusalem for about ten days until the day of Pentecost, a Jewish holiday 50 days after the Passover. They gathered in an upper room with 120 men and women that included Jesus’ mother, Mary. And they had a miraculous experience.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts, 2:1-4
The Pentecostal movement today was inspired by this story, and the event is sometimes marked as the beginning of the Christian church.
It is a fantastic story. And unless we believe it was totally fabricated—and I don’t believe it was—something remarkable happened. People today sometimes attempt to replicate the experience. But is replicating the apparently fantastic elements of the story the point?
The purpose was to be endued with creative power from on high. Is that what actually happened for the disciples, who became the apostles of the newly-forming Christian religion? Did they stay together long enough for that to really happen?
It is hard to know from the story—except that they ended up going off in many different directions across the Roman Empire, being persecuted and jailed. All but one of the apostles were executed by the political powers of the day. In the process, they founded Christianity.
The significant matter for our Beloved Community is our coming together and our being together long enough in spirit—and in person, as needed—to be empowered from on high.
For us to co-create something beautiful in the world, we have to have empowered hearts and empowered minds. Neither is enough by itself. A Beloved Community is not a group of brainiacs figuring out what would be best for the world. True wisdom requires an open and understanding heart. Nor is our Beloved Community composed of emotionally charged people without mental stability and intelligence.
Mind and heart have to come together to become endued with power from on high. And when they do, something else happens which is more than brilliant thoughts or compassionate feelings. Mind and heart fuse to create a field of consciousness that conducts the activating power of Creation emerging from its invisible Source. That power enters the Beloved Community and begins to radiate to the world.
Here is how Jesus described this process:
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.
Acts 1:8
Mystical? Fantastic? Or is this simply a way of describing what has to happen for a group of human beings to be truly creative? We have to function in such a way that the power of Creation is moving through us into our creative field, whatever that might be.
So here is what I invite you to do, dear reader of this message. Come together spiritually and practically with this Beloved Community, whatever that might mean for you, if that is your heart’s desire. And if you are distancing yourself in a way that holds you back from participating in Beloved Community, close the gap.
Tarry in Jerusalem with us—in that place where we open to the wisdom and power on high. Show up with all your heart and all your mind, open and available for Creation. And then welcome the stream of creative empowerment to flow through.
How do we know when we are fully endued with power from on high? I can’t say. But let’s be together in spirit long enough for it to happen. I’m sure we’ll know it when it does.
I do feel the power in self hood where our own intelligence is Christed by developing a defined patience to want to know who we are.
When we know who we are we can come together in unison with others who have also created space to know themselves.
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Aristotle.
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.” Lao Tzu.
“Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God.”Pythagoras
I feel a beloved community truly knows who they are when each individual knows the beloved in themselves and then knows the in beloved in another. The sense is not to try – it comes by knowing the beloved. It becomes unforced and comfortable communing in Beloved space.
Very good David Thank you! So much here that is current in the Current. Just wonderful. And I see that the name David means Beloved, and it reminds us of the Fire at the Core of this Beloved Community.
Shortly after I received this Pulse in my email box, I opened a YouTube selection by a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter named Allison Russell and in her words spoken before singing she said: “We are not alone, we are not what we have lost, we are more than the sum of our scars; we are the dust of the Stars, we’re the Ark of Art, with the love in our hearts we lift each other up, and we are the Beloved Community, every single time we choose to believe; and I believe we are the ones we have been waiting for; and I hope that you’ll lead with empathy, and I hope you’ll lead with love, because they are not weaknesses, they are superpowers.”
Twice in a few hours the term Beloved Community came streaming into my awareness, a term I had never heard before, but naming a way I have been drawn to live and reveal all my life. How fine that you are now bringing this to the fore—this universal Beloved Community now taking form all over the world; certainly taking form physically, and in mind, with heart renewed and radiant. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, marking the beginning of the Easter period. Together we share a consciousness of participating now in the resurrection and the restoration of mankind to the Divine State of Being in the Body of the Beloved, which is the Beloved Community. I am conscious of moving in the slipstream of the Beloved Disciple who held crystal clear in his own heart, and in the heart of mankind, his pure devotion to our Beloved Master, and this Beloved Community emerging out of a Beloved and Living Lineage continuing to manifest. My Beloved comes leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills—high places in the realm of form. And here is the Call: Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away with me into this Beloved Community now enfolding the world and the earth. I am with you in this David—this Beloved Community that is fiery in nature; all consuming. and eternally life-giving. db
“Wait, and see!” This was always the phrase when I was growing up when someone wanted to surprise you with a gift. The wait added to the anticipation, of course. Having something to anticipate is something to look forward to, also. It may still be a month away, like your birthday.
Patience; to wait. This is the period for deep listening to the heart. An important indicator for framing. Don’t rush. Don’t procrastinate. Bide your time. This motivates intelligence when action is needed.
I love this piece.
I too remember that saying – I would trust so much in that person saying it to me that the anticipation of what was to come into being expanded my believing that all sorts of things were coming towards me. Also increased my expectations too…I did develop a deep patience too as you say. The nostalgic elements of developing our selves in all the memories we have is to learn from them all. The worst memories, the best, the most inspiring, the most wonderful and the lovely, the deeply hurtful and the exciting ones too.
Knowing how we use our memories good and bad in our today allows us to make intelligent decisions in life rather on dwelling on the impact they had. Our memories are so important not to be let go of as they define who are and how we respond to life.
I do remember those who often said to me “Wait and see”, those who didn’t deliver the promises I still gave understanding to, those who came with huge presents or surprises I gave my trust to. Those memories are a vital to our learning.
In community the same applies doesn’t it with our sensory memory system? The promise of our understanding and to trust to allow the development to become a natural flow of loving patience for the humanness of us all without any expectations of what must be.
Community can only be built on human experience where the collective has developed the emotional intelligence to be kind and accepting of one others journey all the good, the bad and the ugly.
Lets wait and see together dear Fiona and hope what comes is either a huge presence or a big present to us either way it is exciting, in that wait 💕
How do we know when we are fully endued with power from on high? There is more power in my Presence now. There is more substance being drawn together in my field. Mind and heart coming together. And isn’t that what it takes for Beloved Community to emerge? May I hold my mind and my heart open for more power from on high.
Strongly with you, David, in doing whatever I need to do to be a part of the beloved community and to allow the radiant power of Love to penetrate my world and the larger world of humanity. May that power exponentially increase to meet the challenges of our time.
How beautiful and fulfilling to live and learn in a Community of dedicated people. Blessings All….
Thank you for that message. More and more each day I’m feeling connected to Spirit to the creator. While walking, I appreciate the gifts of sun, wind, animals. Although I’m a loner, I feel the connection with spiritual family all around, peace and love!
What a tremendous message this service provides to the Body, It gives a clear understanding what is required to allow the Power to manifest in a proper and meaningful way. Thank you, David. -Ernie Riedel