This month the Society officially launched! I have been heartened by the many wonderful people who have joined in with this new endeavor as advisers, writers, researchers, artists, musicians, and other volunteers. My hope was that this would be a truly diverse and broad collaborative mission and things are definitely headed in the right direction. I am also grateful to all of you who have ‘liked’ our Facebook page and continue to read, share, and discuss spiritual naturalism there, as well as those who follow our Twitter feed. And, since the launch it has been wonderful to see the new members who have decided to be a part of our mission with their generous financial support. Not only do I look forward to many mutually-supportive discourses in our forums with our members, but hope to provide even more materials and resources to serve our Society going forward. Member dues help pay for hosting, outreach, and all of the other costs associated with fulfilling our mission. To those who may be considering becoming a part of the Society, you can learn more here.
I also want to give everyone – members, friends, and the public – a run-down of some of what to expect going forward. Right now our plan is to have helpful public articles going out on a regular basis. These articles are written by our group of volunteer writers and will focus on covering a wide array of teachings, wisdom sources, practical guidance, practices, and inspirational messages related to Spiritual Naturalism. The public articles are an important part of our mission to spread awareness of spiritual naturalism for human happiness. We will be working to be sure they are available to as many people as possible by, first, hosting them on our website, but also trying to get them syndicated in other venues, making them available through subscription, and announcing them in social media and elsewhere. Speaking of which, we’re happy to report that one of the most major sources of religious news and information on the web, Patheos.com, has asked to host our articles in their Spirituality section, which should help us reach even more people. Periodic State of the Society articles (like this one) will also be sent out to keep you informed of what’s happening in the organization.
For our members, a summary of that month’s articles with links will also be a small part of the monthly e-newsletters. Members will also get a summary of what new resources have been added to the member archives in the past month, as well as a summary of recent hot topics on the member forums. This, of course, suggests that other output we’ll be generating will be continual growth of our member archives and more topics in the forums. But while these benefits are for members, there will be free content in addition to the public articles, which will only be available to our Facebook and/or Twitter followers – such as recommended articles from other sources, inspirational posts, and more. We also continue to seek out and build relationships with more partner-organizations and content contributors.
In the future, our plans are to expand even more services for members, including perhaps online courses, webinars, or forums. But these things take the participation of more volunteers and require funding support from more members. I have no doubt that, with your help, we can continue to grow this community and fulfill our mission to an even greater extent, as we all support one another in our own personal paths toward growth and betterment. That’s about all for now – Back to work for me!
Thank you again for visiting us, for sharing with others about us and, for those who have chosen to become members, for your crucial support.
With love,
Daniel Strain
Executive Director
Subscribe to The Spiritual Naturalist Society
Learn about Membership in the Spiritual Naturalist Society
__________
The Spiritual Naturalist Society works to spread awareness of spiritual naturalism as a way of life, develop its thought and practice, and help bring together like-minded practitioners in fellowship.
__________
Photo: (cc) Elf Sternberg.