Genesis Farm website

July/August, 2024

The purpose of this letter is to let you know, that we are still alive and regrouping after an extended period of chaos. Some of you have been part of the Friends of Genesis Farm from our beginnings in 1980. Our founding was the result of a bequest from Ruprecht Von Boecklin to the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell. NJ. Their history has been dedicated to the service of truth, especially through their educational endeavors. Genesis Farm became one of them.

Some of you have been friends even longer, because Genesis Farm was affiliated with Patricia and Gerald Mische, founders of Global Education Associates (GEA) since 1973. Their work has deep ties to the direction our own vision explored; especially to the work of cultural historian, Thomas Berry. Some of you are more recent friends, particularly through our memorial program.

The Friends of the Farm is based on the memory of thousands of people over many decades who supported this small ecological learning center in Blairstown, NJ.

We also want you to know that we are experiencing unexpected new possibilities. Although small and modest, they are coming from local people and events which continually surface here. In spite of the darkness of our times these possibilities continue to push us to persist.

Hopefully by the beginning of August we will offer a series of workshops exploring the 'fundamental elements of a New Cosmology'. They are being designed as an introduction, or a refresher, on the basics of Earth Literacy. As originally developed here, the basics of Earth Literacy were rooted in the works of Thomas Berry, mathematical cosmologist, Brian Swimme, and the scientific evolutionary story of the Universe.

At the present moment Genesis Farm is persisting in our original mission to change the cosmology (cosmos-universe, ology-story) underpinning the last 5 to10,000 years of human history. This period is often referred to as the classical period of human evolution. It was preceded by the entire 15 billion years of the Universe itself, and that larger story is a most beautiful story . It has been only recently glimpsed by our young human species. However, it is the unbroken umbilical cord which connects us to the memory of the entire mystery of existence.

The retrieval of memory, embodied in the Universe itself, is integral to our mission. Memory is in danger of being erased and replaced by robots and artificial intelligence at a scale hardly imagined when Genesis Farm first came into existence in 1980.

If new possibilities can be realized, we will be in need of many, many more kinds of support than we presently have, especially volunteers.

We are a tiny core of committed people and volunteers who are working toward the restoration of the lands, infrastructure, archives, history and especially the vision of Genesis Farm. We will share our stories, and many of your stories, and the generous support you have provided over these many years.

For Earth,

Miriam MacGillis
Founder and Interim Coordinator