When to our question: what contribution can a simplified life-style make to a renewed

my brothers throughout the world? Many are working to build a new society that includes a rediscovery of (1) community where life and goods are shared, (2) nonviolence: a positive, creative living in truth that resists attempts to undermine freedom, (3) full'but simple use of goods. From this threefold rediscovery of community, nonviolence and responsible use of goods, can come the insight and perseverence needed to shape government policy and an international order. Dom Helder Camara, who visited Canada‘last-year in connection with the “Ten Days for World Development” program, has often insisted that the best contribution

solution of. the world’s inequalities would be to struggle to put their own house in order. _ Otherwise contradictions will endure on'all ‘ levels. In any program for change one of the essential elements (though not the only one) must be an examination of-the Way we live out our lives. There must be a consistency between what we say and what we do; otherwise our daily experience will warp our vision and

render our action ineffective-

The call for wage and price restraints has brought all kinds of conﬂicting opinions about life-style to the surface. Government leaders wantuconstraint, a simpler life-style, in order to save a critically unstable economic structure. Labour sees that the call for constraint is coming from those who personally are not feeling the pinch. They demand an equalization that at least‘gives a decent income to those

who are already enduring considerable constraint. Government and business leaders

are often unable to comprehend the‘human

in large part from the wall by which their own life-style separates them from the daily

struggles of the exploited. They are rendered blind to the vision which might resolve differences. As long as the decision-makers dine on steak, drive luxury cars and vacation abroad, the call for restraint and voluntary cut-backs will fall on deaf ears. As long as unions ignore a Standard compatible with a global standard of living in their demands for‘increases’, they are digging their own graves.

30, the question of my life-style canbe one Which calls into question goals and strategy for glObal change. It_ can also quite concretely embOdy a realizationof that change underway.

e fact is that North American life-style has to chang8, if not for politicaland social “339%, then “quite simply because, the physical er_1Vironment cannot hear the present patterns. - Ifife‘style will change and is already showing “Ens of change. Our motivations for adapting‘ my be diverse. Certainly some are extremely “31.113631 and limiting. We need to examine those Web provide a larger framework. The real question is now to go forward in a way c°nsistent with the fundamental need for ﬁ°bal change, in a way consistent with the. 0:“ for human community,.and with the call every Christian to gather as a people.

a: new commandment I give you: love one , _ h “Wher- As I have lovedr‘you, soyou must love Other. If you have love for one another, then

and reinvigorated life for myself, my sisters and:

thepeoples of the First World could make to a '

dimensions of economic problems. This derives .

‘ . _ The all will know that youare my disciples.”- C (John l3: 34-35) ‘ N

How do we find a lifestyle consistent with that ‘

creaturliness proclaimed in Genesis and which ’ requires responsible stewardship?

“The Lord God took the man'and put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it.” (Genesis 2: 15)

Lifeis 'to be taken seriously — thoughwith a, humour that can appreciate limitations. Taking 1 life seriously and with humour involves

r preparing a soil in which freedom can grow.

Children, for example, require, at a certain point, an expansion of their horizons beyond .he limits of family. Children who have only 4 the nuclear family experience can find that the bridges to a larger experience do not exist.

\They move from'the tightly intimate family

circle into total anonymity where they are prey to every enticement or inﬂuence. This points

to the need for a larger, though limited, community in which respOnsibility for children is shared..0ne might also question, on the basis V of divorce statistics, the support parents and couples receive in our generally limited family settings. A

As counterpoint to this isolation there is the

phenomenon of the sharing community:

relatively small face-to-face groups in which friendship, experiences and goods are shared beyond family lines. These are communities which exist not merely because it is the ‘in’ thing ,but because it corresponds to a vital need for growth: human growth. -In such communities there is often that creative experimentation with life which opens new paths. Such sharing communities simplifytheir

'diet, recreation, child-care, or housing, not

only because it is healthier, not only because it makes a little more money available for charity or projects, not only because it streamlines the need to fight‘for promotions, but most of all

because it makes the people involved available:

7 available to those‘most immediately ‘

surrounding them, available to listen and respond to the handicapped, the prisoner, the elderly, the alcoholic, the children.'It makes time available for serious reﬂection and for education/action projects. Simple living might . mean sharing a lawnmowei" or clothes; it might mean shopping together. The. arrangements could develop into cooperatives for child-care, for good food, or even housing. However it develops, sharing needs and resources with' others in some kind of community provides that experience of solidarity which frees us to recognise the inroads of the larger structuree-. on free human living and enables us to stand firmly in: their path. It prepares a soil for freedom, provides an atmosphere in which life is celebrated and cared for.

The growth of such communities is a return to an early Christian practice of sharing. '

“Many miracles and wonders were done through the apostles, which caused everyone to

’be filled With awe. All the believers continued

together in close fellowship and shared their - belongings with one another. They would sell their property and possessions and distribute the money among all, according to what each One needed. Every day they continued to meet as a group in the Temple, and they had their mealstogether in their homes, eating the food ’ with glad and humble hearts, praising God, and enjoying the good will of all the people."

(Acts 2: 44-47a)

. Such a life-style places concrete sharing of I

perSons and .possessions squarely at the centre of life in direct contradiction to the greedy materialism of our present world order. It has ' been said the early. Christian experience of community was a failure. If that was failure, show me success!

Cadre, Tuesday February 17, 1976, Page 11

ReesAcl to the ChaHenge of

(the Ten Days

Ten days for world development is a joint project of the Anglican,.Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and United Chur— ches of Canada. Its goals are to increase understanding among Church members and the Canadian population as a whole conc- erning world needs and world development and to encourage apprOpriate action in response. It seeks to achieve these go— als by mobilizong the resources'and com- munications networks of the Churches in the cause of world development, initiat— ing and encouraging mass media events during a particular "ten days" each year and organizing and servicing local inte— rchurch committees and coalitions. Here on campus) the SoCial Action Committee of ACT is undertaking the sponsorship of a number of talks throughout the ten‘ days. '

This year's theme, the New Internati— onal Economic Order, NIEO, is such an important issue that it literally forCed itself upon the organizers. They feel NIEO will be an issue until at least the end of the century.

What NIEO is all about is a set of demands made by the nations of the third world. It asks for a fairer share of the world's resources. The developing coun— tries have 70% of the People:of the wo- rld but only 7% of the resources . They want to raiSe this to 25% by the end of the century.

, What do these demands look like? Here are a few of them:

— a free choice of economic and social sytems;*

— full sovereignty by nations ov— er their own natural resources includ— ing the right of nationalization ex— patriate enterprises according to nat- ional law; _ .

— the right of countries which live(d) under Colonial dependencejor foreign occupation to compensation for

. exploitation of their national resorces;

- support of producer cartels am- ong developing nations; ‘

- the control of multinational corporations;

— the linking of the prices of developing countries commodity export to the prices they pay for essential imp— ' orts in order to maintain the purchasing power of their exports. This is called the Indexing Proposal

EVENTS ON CAMPUS All at-‘l:30 pm.

Tuesday the l7th....."Ten Days in Sept—r ember

‘ Wednesday the 18th..."Guyana", a presen—

rtation by Ron and Lomez, Library Lec- ture Theatre

Thursday the 19th...."Kattatura", a film of South Africa, N—3

Friday the 20th......"A Path to a Nation

I Duffy Amphitheatre

Saturday the 21$t...."Nigeria", a pres- entation by Joseph Anakwe, Bernadine Dav Students Lounge '

vSunday the 22nd...:..Summation of the Ten Days Program