When new members join our community, we invite them to:
“Affirm the principle of least dogma, uniting around a minimal but essential set of shared convictions that safeguard belonging and ethical collaboration, while welcoming the widest range of sincere seekers into one faith community.”
This affirmation captures something at the heart of our community: simplicity in belief, openness in spirit, and unity in practice. It invites us to hold tightly to a few guiding values while leaving space for diversity of thought, background, and experience.
Why “Least Dogma”?
Dogma can give people clarity, but it can also create walls. When belief systems become crowded with rigid rules and doctrines, they often exclude those who don’t fit every detail. The principle of least dogma offers another way.
By holding to only a minimal set of shared convictions, we create room for sincere seekers of many paths to come together. Instead of focusing on what divides us, we focus on what connects us—values like compassion, reverence for life, care for the Earth, and the pursuit of spiritual growth. These shared commitments become our common ground, while differences in perspective enrich rather than weaken the community.
Belonging Rooted in Essentials
At the center of this affirmation is belonging. We believe everyone should have a place to explore their spiritual life without fear of exclusion for not holding the “right” views on every detail. What safeguards belonging is not a checklist of beliefs, but a small circle of shared principles.
These essentials provide enough structure to guide us and enough freedom to welcome many voices. They ensure that collaboration and community life are rooted in ethics, mutual respect, and care for one another. Beyond that, there is space—space for questioning, for growth, for different traditions and practices to sit side by side.
Welcoming the Widest Circle of Seekers
The principle of least dogma makes welcome possible. It means that people who arrive with different backgrounds, cultures, or previous faith experiences can still feel at home. It honors the idea that each person is on a unique journey, and that sincerity matters more than uniformity.
This openness is not the absence of conviction—it is conviction in a different form. Our conviction is that the sacred is not limited to one expression, and that a wide range of seekers can walk together in respect, collaboration, and faith. By choosing minimal dogma, we make room for maximum inclusion.
Unity Without Uniformity
Some worry that openness leads to chaos, but the principle of least dogma actually strengthens unity. When we know the essentials we share, we can trust one another even amid differences. Unity doesn’t mean sameness—it means harmony. Just as a choir sings many notes to create one song, our community gathers many voices into a shared spiritual life.
This unity allows us to collaborate in service, to support one another in healing, and to care for the Earth together. Our diversity enriches our worship and our work, while our shared convictions keep us anchored.
Closing Reflection
Affirming the principle of least dogma is an act of trust—trust in the essentials we share, and trust in the sincerity of those who walk beside us. It is a way of saying that our community is not built on rigid doctrine but on living values that guide us toward compassion, reverence, and ethical collaboration.
In this spirit, we open the door wide to seekers of many paths. Belonging is created not by narrowing the circle, but by widening it. In that openness, we find the Divine revealed most clearly—not in uniformity, but in the vibrant diversity of a community of faith that mirrors the greater world and the fullness of creation.
