Newsletter: Summer, 2001

Globalization of Spirit
— Patricia Mathes Cane, Ph.D. Capaticar Founder/Co-Director

There is a deep hunger and quest for a spirituality to heal and transform the hopelessness of the human family—in East Timor and Papua New Guinea, in Central and South America, at the US/Mexico border, and in many other places where Capacitar works. Instead of economic globalization espoused by world powers and imposed on developing nations, a globalization of spirit is needed to help us remember who we truly are and to empower the resources and wisdom available to us in the human heart.

Ivone Gebara, Brazilian ecofeminist theologian, believes that we really do not know who we are as human beings in our destructive and unjust world. In her book, Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation, Gebara reflects: Through ecofeminism, I have begun to see more clearly how much my body and the body of my neighbors are affected, not just by unemployment and economic hardship, but also by the harmful effects the system of industrial exploitation imposes on them. I have begun to see more clearly how the exclusion of the poor is linked to the destruction of their lands, to racism and to the growing militarization of their countries. Gebara describes the need at this time to seek, reflect on and live out the spirit of a different kind of culture, different forms of relationship, and a different theology. In creating an ecofeminism based on the experience of the marginalized, she states: My ecofemism is pregnant with health: not health as we understood it in the past, but the health of a future that promises deeper communion between human beings and all other living things. My ecofeminism is shot through with the staunch conviction that beauty is important in healing people. It might be the beauty of sounds, of colors, of words, of faces, of food and drink, or of embraces— salvation through beauty.

As Capacitar we are committed to walk in beauty and in solidarity with people who desire to create and live out this different kind of culture, different forms of relationship and different spirituality. The health and wellbeing that Capacitar teaches is not meant to make us more comfortable and adjusted to an increasingly destructive culture, but rather to recognize, challenge and contribute to a globalization of spirit for the well being of our culture, society and planet.

Recent reports on national TV spoke enthusiastically of the globalization of the economy and the positive impact on employment, trade and development at the US/Mexico border, as well as in Central and South America. Participants in Capacitar workshops in El Paso/Ciudad Juarez, in San Diego/Tijuana, in Nicaragua, as well as in East Timor, spoke of a very different reality. In all of these places the economic prosperity of the few is contrasted with the desperate reality of the many, as seen in growing unemployment, illiteracy, homelessness and the increase in numbers of street children.

In the midst of their economic desperation, people talk about their depression, negativity and lack of hope, wanting more for themselves and their society, but doubting their power to change anything. The inability to envision and create a spirit of hope brings a toxic energy to many situations. This was especially evident at our Capacitar workshops in Managua sponsored by CANTERA, CONFER (Conference of Religious) and Centro Ecumenico Antonio Valdivieso. Several hundred Nicaraguans representing all levels of society—intellectuals, poets, theologians, students, business people, religious and grassroots leaders—expressed their spiritual hunger and desire to heal, transform and inspire life for the longer haul as they face incredible national corruption rivaling the days of the Somoza dictatorship.

In the midst of negative and toxic situations which destroy the human spirit, Ivone Gebara recognizes the significance of all efforts that seek to contribute to the restoration of Earth's dignity, of the dignity of women and men alienated from Earth's body and their own bodies and often struggling against both, waging wars of conquest against them, dividing what ought to be united." She sees the task ahead as an "invitation to reflect together about ourselves and about new ways of expressing love, a love that is far broader than the defense of our own little slice of the pie. It is a love that includes us all, because at bottom we are all part of the same pie, the one pie offered as 'food and drink' for ourselves and for all living things. This issue of the newsletter describes some of Capacitar's efforts to empower and renew this spirit.