2016/04/02

Mondragon Corporation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mondragon Corporation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mondragon Corporation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mondragon Corporation
Worker cooperative federation
Founded1956
FounderJosé María Arizmendiarrieta
HeadquartersMondragónBasque Country,Spain
Area served
International
Key people
Javier Sotil (president of the General Council)
Revenue€ 11,875 million (2014)[1]
Total assets€ 24,725 million (2014)[1]
Number of employees
74,117 (2014)[2]
DivisionsFinance, Industry, Retail, Knowledge
Websitemondragon-corporation.com
The Mondragon Corporation is acorporation andfederation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. It was founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956 by graduates of a local technical college. Its first product was paraffin heaters. It is the tenth-largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2014, it employed 74,117 people in 257 companies and organizations in four areas of activity: finance, industry, retail and knowledge.[2]
Mondragon cooperatives operate in accordance with Statement on the Co-operative Identity maintained by the International Co-operative Alliance.

History[edit]


José María Arizmendiarrieta on a bicycle
The determining factor in the creation of the Mondragón system was the arrival in 1941 of a young Catholic priest, José María Arizmendiarrieta, in Mondragón, a town with a population of 7,000 that had not yet recovered from the Spanish Civil War: poverty, hunger, exile, and tension.[3] In 1943, Arizmendiarrieta established a technical college that became a training ground for generations of managers, engineers, and skilled labour for local companies, and primarily for the co-operatives.[4]
Before creating the first co-operative, Arizmendiarrieta spent a number of years educating young people about a form of humanism based on solidarity and participation, in harmony with Catholic social teaching, and the importance of acquiring the necessary technical knowledge. In 1955, he selected five of these young people to set up the first company of the co-operative and industrial beginning of the Mondragon Corporation.[5] The people were Usatorre, Larrañaga, Gorroñogoitia, Ormaechea, and Ortubay, and the company was called Talleres Ulgor, an acronym derived from their surnames, known today as Fagor Electrodomésticos.
In the first 15 years many co-operatives were established, thanks to the autarky of the market and the awakening of the Spanish economy. During those years, also with the encouragement of Don José María, two bodies were set up that were to play a key role in the development of Mondragon: Caja Laboral (1959) and the Social Welfare Body Lagun Aro (1966). The first local group was created, Ularco, the embryo of the industrial co-operative associativism which has been so important in the corporation’s history. In 1969, Eroski was set up by a merger of ten small local consumer co-operatives.[6]
During the next 20 years, from 1970 to 1990, the dynamism continued, with a strong increase in turnover, the launch of new co-operatives promoted by Caja Laboral’s Business Division, the promotion of co-operative associativism with the forming of local groups, and the setting up of the Ikerlan Research Centre in 1974.[7]
With big changes on the horizon like Spain's joining the European Economic Community, scheduled for 1986, it was decided to take an important step in the organisational area by setting up the Mondragon Co-operative Group in 1984, the forerunner to the current corporation. In-service training for managers was also strengthened with the creation of Otalora, which was to dedicate itself to training and co-operative dissemination. The Group had 23,130 workers at the end of 1990.[8]
On the international stage, the aim was to respond to the growingglobalisation process, strongly promoting expansion abroad by setting up production plants in a number of countries. The first, the Copreci plant in Mexico in 1990 was followed by many others taking the total to 73 by the end of 2008 and 122 at the end of 2013. This was part of a strategy aimed at: increasing competitiveness and market share, bringing component supply closer to important customers’ plants, especially in the automotive and domestic appliance sectors; and strengthening employment in the Basque Country, by promoting the export of products manufactured by the co-operatives by means of the new platforms.[9]
In October 2009, the United Steelworkers announced an agreement with Mondragon to create worker cooperatives in the United States.[10]On March 26, 2012, the USW, Mondragon, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) announced its detailed union co-op model.[11]
In 2012 its industry component ended the year with international sales that set a new record of €4 billion, beating sales figures from before the crisis. Mondragon consolidated its presence abroad by opening 11 new production subsidiaries. Its international sales that year accounted for 69% (with a 26% increase from 2009 to 2012) and it employed 14,000 people abroad. The increase in Mondragon’s share in the BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) was also particularly significant, around 20% up compared to the previous year.[12] In 2013, international sales grew by 6.7% and accounted for 71.1% of total sales.[13]
On 16 October 2013, Fagor filed for bankruptcy under Spanish law in order to renegotiate €1,1 billion of debt, after suffering heavy losses during the eurocrisis and as a consequence of poor financial management, putting 5,600 employees at risk of losing their jobs.[14]This was followed by the bankruptcy of the whole Fagor group on 6 November 2013.[15] On July 2013, Fagor was bought by Catalan company Cata for €42.5 million. Cata pledged to create 705 direct jobs in the Basque Country as well as ensuring the continuity of the brand names Fagor, Edesa, Aspes, and Splendid. [16]

Business culture[edit]


Javier Sotil, president of the General Council of Mondragon Corporation
Mondragon co-operatives are united by a humanist concept of business, a philosophy of participation and solidarity, and a shared business culture. The culture is rooted in a shared mission and a number of principles, corporate values and business policies.[17]
Over the years, these links have been embodied in a series of operating rules approved on a majority basis by the Co-operative Congresses, which regulate the activity of the Governing Bodies of the Corporation (Standing Committee, General Council), the Grassroots Co-operatives and the Divisions they belong to, from the organisational, institutional and economic points of view as well as in terms of assets.[18]
This framework of business culture has been structured based on a common culture derived from the 10 Basic Co-operative Principles, in which Mondragon is rooted: Open Admission, Democratic Organisation, the Sovereignty of Labour, Instrumental and Subordinate Nature of Capital, Participatory Management, Payment Solidarity, Inter-cooperation, Social Transformation, Universality and Education.[19]
This philosophy is complemented by four corporate values: Co-operation, acting as owners and protagonists; Participation, which takes shape as a commitment to management; Social Responsibility, by means of the distribution of wealth based on solidarity; and Innovation, focusing on constant renewal in all areas.[20]
This business culture translates into compliance with a number of Basic Objectives (Customer Focus, Development, Innovation, Profitability, People in Co-operation and Involvement in the Community) and General Policies approved by the Co-operative Congress, which are taken on board at all the corporation’s organisational levels and incorporated into the four-year strategic plans and the annual business plans of the individual co-operatives, divisions, and the corporation as a whole.[21]

Wage regulation[edit]

At Mondragon, there are agreed-upon wage ratios between executive work and field or factory work which earns a minimum wage. These ratios range from 3:1 to 9:1 in different cooperatives and average 5:1. That is, the general manager of an average Mondragon cooperative earns no more than 5 times as much as the theoretical minimum wage paid in his/her cooperative. In reality, this ratio is smaller because there are few Mondragon worker-owners that earn minimum wages, because most jobs are somewhat specialized and are classified at higher wage levels. The wage ratio of a cooperative is decided periodically by its worker-owners through a democratic vote.[22]
Compared to similar jobs at local industries, Mondragon managers' wages are considerably lower (as some companies pay their best paid managers hundreds of times more than the lowest-paid employee of the company)[23] and equivalent for middle management, technical and professional levels. Lower wage levels are on average 13% higher than similar jobs at local businesses. Spain's progressive tax rate further reduces any disparity in pay.[22]

Areas of activity[edit]

The corporation’s companies operate in four areas: finance, industry, retail, and knowledge, with the latter distinguishing Mondragon from other business groups. In 2013, the corporation posted a total revenue of over €12 billion (roughly $16 billion USD), and employed 74,061 workers,[2] making it Spain's fourth-largest industrial and tenth-largest financial group.[24]

Finance[edit]

This area includes the banking business of Laboral Kutxa, the insurance company Seguros Lagun Aro, and the Voluntary Social Welfare Body Lagun Aro, which had an asset fund totalling €5.566 million at the end of 2014. The yield obtained from this fund is used to cover long-term retirement, widowhood, and invalidity benefits, complementary to those offered by the Spanish social security system.
Laboral Kutxa, for its part, ended 2014 with €109.2 million in revenue in a year in which it granted loans worth €14.4 billion, mainly to households and small and medium-sized enterprises. Its extensive experience with the Corporation’s Co-operatives enables it to offer SMEs services typical of large companies.[25]

Industry[edit]

The corporation’s companies manufacture consumer goods, capital goods, industrial components, products and systems for construction, and services to business. In the leisure and sports area, it manufactures Orbea bicycles, exercise equipment and items for camping, the garden and the beach.[26]
In capital goods, Mondragon posted a turnover of €976 million in 2009, and is the leading Spanish manufacturer of chip-removing (Danobat Group) and sheet metal forming (Fagor Arrasate Group) machine tools. These machines are complemented by automation and control products for machine tools, packaging machinery, machinery for automating assembly processes and processing wood, forklift trucks, electric transformers, integrated equipment for the catering industry, cold stores, and refrigeration equipment. Specifically focusing on the automotive sector, the corporation also manufactures a wide variety of dies, molds and tooling for casting iron and aluminium, and occupies a leading position in machinery for the casting sector.[27]
In Industrial Components, Mondragon posted a turnover of €1.5 billion in 2009, a sector in which it operates as an integrated supplier for the leading car manufacturers, offering from the design and development of a part to the industrialisation and supply of components and assemblies. It has different business units such as brakes, axles, suspension, transmission, engines, aluminium wheel rims, fluid conduction, and other internal and external vehicle components. It also produces components for the main domestic appliance manufacturers in three business areas: white goods, home comfort, and electronics. And it manufactures flanges and pipe accessories for processing oil-gas, petrochemical plants and power generation, copper and aluminium electrical conductors, and components for conveyors.[28]
In construction, sales totalled €974 million in 2009. Mondragon has constructed buildings and important infrastructure projects. It designs and builds large metallic (URSSA), laminated wood and prefabricated concrete structures; supplies prefabricated parts in polymer concrete; offers solutions for formwork and structures (ULMA Group) as well as public works machinery and the industrialisation of the construction process, including engineering and assembly services. It also produces elevators (ORONA Group).
In services to business, sales totalled €248 million in 2008, includingbusiness consultancy servicesarchitecture and engineering, property consulting, design and innovation (LKS Group), systems engineering for electromechanical installations, and integrated logistics engineering. It also offers a modern language service, manufactures educational equipment, and provides graphic arts services (MccGraphics).
In 2013, 71.1% of turnover came from international sales. Sales resulting from the export of products abroad and production generated in the 122 subsidiaries located in several different countries: China (15), France (17), Poland (8), Czech Republic (7), Mexico (8), Brazil (5), Germany (4), Italy (4), United Kingdom (3), Romania (3), United States (4), Turkey (2), Portugal (2), Slovakia (2), India (2), Thailand (1) and Morocco (1). Overall, in 2013 these 122 plants provided work for more than 11,000 people. The corporate industrial park in Kunshan, close to Shanghai houses seven subsidiaries.[29] In 2012, it opened 11 new subsidiaries abroad, employing around 14,000 people. Its international sales that year marked a record number of 69% of its total sales (€5.8bn, with a 2% fall compared to the previous year). Mondragon also participated in 91 international R&D projects.[30]
In 2014, cooperatives in industrial sector created 1.000 jobs in and the internationalisation continued with 125 production subsidiaries abroad -3 more than the year before-.[31]

Retail[edit]

Led by Eroski, Mondragon runs one of the leading retail groups in Spain, posting a turnover of €6.6 billion in 2013. It operates all over Spain and in the southern France, and maintains close contacts with the French group Les Mousquetaires and the leading German retailer Edeka, with whom it set up the Alidis international partnership in 2002. The worker-owners and consumer-members are involved in the management of Eroski, with both groups participating in the co-operative’s decision-making bodies.
At the end of 2013, Eroski was operating an extensive chain of 2.069 stores made up of 90 Eroski hypermarkets, 1,211 Eroski/center,Caprabo, Eroski/city, Aliprox, Familia, Onda and Cash & Carry supermarkets, 155 branches of the Eroski/viajes travel agency, 63 petrol stations, 39 Forum Sport stores and 221 IF perfume stores.[32]Moreover, in the south of France it has 4 hypermarkets, 16 supermarkets and 17 petrol stations, and it has 4 perfume stores in Andorra.[33]
At an assembly held in 2008, its worker-members approved by a majority vote the process to expand the transformation into co-operatively run businesses to the group as a whole. So work started on turning the group’s subsidiaries into co-operatives, and on making their salaried workers worker-members. This process was to be carried out over the next few years.
The retail area is also home to the food group Erkop, which operates in the catering, cleaning, stock-breeding, and horticulture sectors and has as its leading name Auzo Lagun, a co-operative engaged in group catering and the cleaning of buildings and premises, and also offers an integrated service in the health sector.[34]

Knowledge[edit]

This area has a dual focus: education-training and innovation, which have both been key elements in the development of the Corporation. Training-education is mainly linked to the dynamism of Mondragon University, the significant role that Politeknika Ikastegia Txorierri, Arizmendi Ikastola and Lea Artibai Ikastetxea play in their respective areas and the activity of the Management and Co-operative Development Centre Otalora.
Mondragon University is a co-operative university, which combines the development of knowledge, skills, and values, and maintains close relations with business, especially Mondragon co-operatives. Technological innovation is generated through the co-operatives’ own R&D departments, the Corporate Science and Technology Plan, the corporation’s 12 technology centres and the Garaia Innovation Park.[35]
The 15 technology centres play a fundamental role in the development of the sectors of focus. In 2009 they employed 742 people and had a budget of €53.7 million.[36] In 2013 its network of technology centres and R&D units provided employment for 1,700 people and the commitment to R&D&I matters amounted to 136 million Euros, 8.5% of added value.[13] Mondragon has 479 families of Patents for Inventions, which accounts for 25% patents in the Basque Country, participating in more than 30 R&D cooperation projects at the European level.[37]

Reactions[edit]

Scholars such as Richard D. Wolff, American professor of economics, have hailed the Mondragon set of enterprises, including the good wages it provides for employees, the empowerment of ordinary workers in decision making, and the measure of equality for female workers, as a major success and have cited it as a working model of an alternative to the capitalist mode of production.[38]
Noam Chomsky has said that while Mondragon offers an alternative to capitalism, it is still embedded in a capitalist system which limits Mondragon's decisions:[39]
Vincent Navarro wrote that from a business perspective, Mondragon is successful in matching efficiency with solidarity and democracy. However, he writes that the number of employees who are not owners have increased more rapidly than worker-owners, to a point that in some companies, for example in the supermarket chains owned by Mondragon, the first are a much larger group than the second. In Navarro's view, this establishes a two-tier system - for example, in terms of whom to save in the case the company collapses. In the collapse of Fagor, the relocation of employees to other companies belonging to Mondragon favored those who were worker-owners, which, in Navarro's view, creates a two-tier system that may affect labor relations:[23]
The Mondragon system is one of four case studies analyzed in Capital and the Debt Trap, which summarized evidence claiming thatcooperatives tend to last longer and are less susceptible to perverse incentives and other problems of organizational governance than more traditionally managed organizations.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up to:a b "Annual Report 2014" (PDF). Mondragon Corporation. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  2. Jump up to:a b c Mondragon Corporation. "Annual Report 2012".
  3. Jump up^ The Mondragón Experiment - Corporate Cooperativism (1980) FULL
  4. Jump up^ Molina, Fernando (2005). José María ArizmendiarretaCaja Laboral.ISBN 84-920246-2-3.
  5. Jump up^ Foote, William (1991). Making Mondragón. IRL Press. ISBN 0-87546-182-4.
  6. Jump up^ http://www.eroski.es/es/conoce-eroski/una-empresa-diferente/historia
  7. Jump up^ http://www.euskomedia.org/aunamendi/76338
  8. Jump up^ "Year-on-year Development, MONDRAGON Corporation".www.mondragon-corporation.com. Archived from the original on 2011-12-31.
  9. Jump up^ Ormaetxe, Jose Maria (2003). Medio siglo de la experiencia cooperativa de Mondragon. Azatza. SS-1433/2003.
  10. Jump up^ Wilson, Amanda. Bendable Business: Cooperatives less likely to break in economic crises. The Dominion. 4 December 2009.
  11. Jump up^ http://assets.usw.org/our-union/coops/The-Union-Co-op-Model-March-26-2012.pdf
  12. Jump up^ http://www.tulankide.com/en/internationalisation-consolidates-mondragon2019s-industrial-business-with-sales-abroad-in-excess-of-20ac4bn-3
  13. Jump up to:a b http://www.mondragon-corporation.com/eng/internationalisation-and-innovation-keys-to-the-evolution-of-mondragon-cooperatives-in-2013/
  14. Jump up^ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/16/spain-fagor-idUSL6N0I61WA20131016
  15. Jump up^ http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2013/11/06/fagorbrandt-en-cessation-de-paiement-2-000-emplois-menaces_3509174_3234.html
  16. Jump up^ http://www.catalannewsagency.com/business/item/catalan-company-cata-buys-bankrupt-domestic-appliance-business-fagor
  17. Jump up^ Larrañaga, Jesus (1998). El cooperativismo en Mondragon. Azatza.ISBN 84-88125-12-7.
  18. Jump up^ Mondragon Corporation
  19. Jump up^ Mondragon Corporation. Co-operative Culture
  20. Jump up^ Foote, William (1991). Making Mondragon. ILR. ISBN 0-87546-182-4.
  21. Jump up^ Mondragon Corporation. Co-operatives bodies and terminology
  22. Jump up to:a b Herrera, David (2004). "Mondragon: a for-profit organization that embodies Catholic social thought." (PDF)Review of Business (The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, St. John's University) 25 (1): 56–68. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  23. Jump up to:a b Vincent Navarro, What About Cooperatives as a Solution? The Case of MondragonCounterPunch, 2014.04.30
  24. Jump up^ Jeffrey Hollender (June 27, 2011). "The Rise Of Shared Ownership And The Fall Of Business As Usual". Fast Company. Retrieved2011-06-28.
  25. Jump up^ [1]
  26. Jump up^ / Organisational Estructure in Mondragon, consumer goods
  27. Jump up^ / Organisational estructure in Mondragon, capital goods
  28. Jump up^ / Organisational Estructure in Mondragon, industrial components
  29. Jump up^ / Corporative Profile 2010
  30. Jump up^ Tu Lankide, 17 June 2013, "Internationalisation consolidates Mondragon’s industrial business with sales abroad in excess of €4bn",http://www.tulankide.com/en/internationalisation-consolidates-mondragon2019s-industrial-business-with-sales-abroad-in-excess-of-20ac4bn-3
  31. Jump up^ http://www.tulankide.com/en/mondragon-cooperatives-in-industrial-sector-create-1-000-jobs-in-2014
  32. Jump up^ [2]
  33. Jump up^ / Magnitudes económicas de Eroski
  34. Jump up^ "Erkop".
  35. Jump up^ Mondragon Annual Corporate Profile for 2010
  36. Jump up^ / Mondragon Yearly Report 2010
  37. Jump up^http://article.wn.com/view/2015/07/15/MONDRAGON_cooperatives_in_industrial_sector_create_1000_jobs/
  38. Jump up^ Wolff, Richard (24 June 2012). Yes, there is an alternative to capitalism: Mondragon shows the wayThe Guardian.
  39. Jump up^ Talking With Chomsky, Laura Flanders, CounterPunch.

Further reading[edit]

External links

This is why Finland has the best schools

This is why Finland has the best schools



The Harvard education professor Howard Gardner once advised Americans, "Learn from Finland, which has the most effective schools and which does just about the opposite of what we are doing in the United States."
Following his recommendation, I enrolled my seven-year-old son in a primary school in Joensuu. Finland, which is about as far east as you can go in the European Union before you hit the guard towers of the Russian border.
OK, I wasn't just blindly following Gardner - I had a position as a lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland for a semester. But the point is that, for five months, my wife, my son and I experienced a stunningly stress-free, and stunningly good, school system. Finland has a history of producing the highest global test scores in the Western world, as well as a trophy case full of other recent No. 1 global rankings, including most literate nation.
In Finland, children don't receive formal academic training until the age of seven. Until then, many are in day care and learn through play, songs, games and conversation. Most children walk or bike to school, even the youngest. School hours are short and homework is generally light.

Unlike in the United States, where many schools are slashing recess, schoolchildren in Finland have a mandatory 15-minute outdoor free-play break every hour of every day. Fresh air, nature and regular physical activity breaks are considered engines of learning. According to one Finnish maxim, "There is no bad weather. Only inadequate clothing."
One evening, I asked my son what he did for gym that day. "They sent us into the woods with a map and compass and we had to find our way out," he said.
Finland doesn't waste time or money on low-quality mass standardised testing. Instead, children are assessed every day, through direct observation, check-ins and quizzes by the highest-quality "personalised learning device" ever created - flesh-and-blood teachers.
In class, children are allowed to have fun, giggle and daydream from time to time. Finns put into practice the cultural mantras I heard over and over: "Let children be children," "The work of a child is to play," and "Children learn best through play."
The emotional climate of the typical classroom is warm, safe, respectful and highly supportive. There are no scripted lessons and no quasi-martial requirements to walk in straight lines or sit up straight. As one Chinese student-teacher studying in Finland marvelled to me, "In Chinese schools, you feel like you're in the military. Here, you feel like you're part of a really nice family." She is trying to figure out how she can stay in Finland permanently.
In Finland teachers are the most trusted and admired professionals next to doctors, in part because they are required to have a master's degree in education with specialisation in research and classroom practice.
"Our mission as adults is to protect our children from politicians," one Finnish childhood education professor told me. "We also have an ethical and moral responsibility to tell businesspeople to stay out of our building." In fact, any Finnish citizen is free to visit any school whenever they like, but her message was clear: Educators are the ultimate authorities on education, not bureaucrats, and not technology vendors.
Finland delivers on a national public scale highly qualified, highly respected and highly professionalised teachers who conduct personalised one-on-one instruction; manageable class sizes; a rich, developmentally correct curriculum; regular physical activity; little or no low-quality standardised tests and the toxic stress and wasted time and energy that accompanies them; daily assessments by teachers; and a classroom atmosphere of safety, collaboration, warmth and respect for children as cherished individuals.
One day last November, when the first snow came to my part of Finland, I heard a commotion outside my university faculty office window, which is close to the teacher training school's outdoor play area. I walked over to investigate.
The field was filled with children savouring the first taste of winter amid the pine trees.
"Do you hear that?" asked the recess monitor, a special education teacher wearing a yellow safety smock.
"That," she said proudly, "is the voice of happiness."
William Doyle is a 2015-2016 Fulbright scholar and a lecturer on media and education at the University of Eastern Finland.
Los Angeles Times


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/this-is-why-finland-has-the-best-schools-20160324-gnqv9l.html#ixzz44cR9nx7p
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

Unitarian Universalist Views of Prayer | UUA.org

Unitarian Universalist Views of Prayer | UUA.org

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST VIEWS OF PRAYER
A pamphlet edited by Catherine Bowers (purchase).
In this pamphlet, eight Unitarian Universalists (UUs) respond to the questions "How do you pray?" "Why do you pray?" and "What role does prayer play in your life?" These questions, of course, assume an affirmative response to the previous question, "Do you pray?" Some Unitarian Universalists would simply respond, "No."
The responses in this pamphlet reflect the wide variety of approaches to prayer among Unitarian Universalists. We have within our congregations a rich diversity of opinion and belief about prayer and many other religious matters. We invite you to join with us and bring your own perspective to our ongoing dialogue.
—Catherine Bowers, Editor

Roger Cowan

In a desperate moment, I cried out for help, and I was answered. Some years later I am still a humanist—I believe that religion is about this world, about bringing justice and mercy and the power of love into life here and now. Yet I am a humanist who prays, who begins each morning with devotional readings and a time of silence and prayer. Why do I do this?
I need a quiet time.
I need to express my gratitude.
I need humility.
I pray because—alone—I am not enough and also I am too much.
I express gratitude for the gift of aliveness.
I assert my oneness with you and all humankind and all creation.
When I pray, I acknowledge that God is not me.

Lynn Ungar

During the moment of silence in our Sunday service I close my eyes and sing, silently, inside my head, "Guide my feet while I run this race for I don't want to run this race in vain." As I sing in silence, I imagine myself and the congregation enfolded in arms of love.
At a hospital bedside I hold the hand of a dying woman. The words form in my mind—or perhaps in my heart—"Goddess, be with her, give her strength and courage and comfort for this journey."
The full autumn moon rises, huge and orange and glowing, and I feel my spirit lifting along with it. "Thank you," I say. "Thank you." In the moment of beauty it doesn't matter whom I am thanking or even whether I am heard. It is enough to be grateful and to be a witness to wonder.

Daniel Budd

The best advice on prayer I have yet found was given long ago by Jesus of Nazareth. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he said that prayer was nothing to flaunt about or show off. It is a personal matter, an intimate aspect of our living, and not the public proof of our righteousness. Prayer begins in the heart, that secret place within us all.
Other living traditions have taught me that prayer is an honest expression of how we are in the very depths and doubts of our souls. Prayer is the admission that we are fragile, fallible, and finite. Prayer is giving up, a way of creating a place within ourselves for this Mystery to dwell. Prayer is a covenant we make to be of service. Prayer is a way of living with the very questions that perplex us.
Prayer is an opening of the human heart. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he said, "Pray like this," simply, from the heart.

Lucy Virginia Hitchcock

One morning many years ago, in those trance-like moments between sleeping and waking, a dream image came to me which has affected my subsequent life. A mist was streaming down into my body from above. It flowed through my limbs, but when it reached my hands, it was stopped by the blunt ends of my fingers. I woke up and held my hands before my face. I knew that, if I did not move my hands and feet and voice, the holy spirit would be trapped in my body and unable to do my share of its work in the world.
Prayer for me is taking time to be present for that gracious spirit and aware of the gifts that come to and through me simply because I am alive. One word for this time of presence is gratitude. Another word is meditation, in which, by observing my breathing, I become ever more aware of creation in process. In addition, prayer is theological reflection and social strategy, alone and in groups. This leads to a return of gifts bestowed, as in the wonderful Universalist affirmation which I love to recite in our communal worship, "Love is our doctrine, the quest for truth is our sacrament and service is our prayer. . . ."
Service, especially the prophetic, artistic, dogged work of systematic change for economic justice, is my prayerful response to all I have been given. When I act for justice, when I act with compassion, the spirit in me is no longer trapped at my fingertips. It can move and shake and shape and sing.

James Ishmael Ford

I've found through ordinary attention I can know enough to find authentic peace and joy.
We can know ourselves and our place in the play of the cosmos through sustained attention to what is going on. I've found the beauty and mystery and grace of our existence are revealed in prayerful attention. Through attention we can come to know the connections.
In my thirty years delving into the Zen practices of bare attention, this has been my experience. At the moments within our complete nakedness to what is we find our foolishness and glory are all revealed. Here our hearts and minds open. And, here, we come to an experience that is worthy of those wonderful words "meaning" and "purpose." Within this prayer, within this attention, we can find our connections as a deep intimacy. And out of this knowledge we find a moral perspective, a call to justice, and a peace that passes all understanding.

Nick Page

I composed a piece of music called "Healing Prayer," to be sung by combined choirs and congregations. I wrote it because a dear friend had been diagnosed with leukemia. He asked that his friends neither visit him nor call him, but rather that we simply pray for him. And people prayed—even many who had never before given prayer a thought. My friend is now well on his way to recovery. I am far too scientific to say that our prayer healed him, but I know that those of us who prayed found a deeper connection to him, to each other, and to the world we live in—and I know that my friend also found that connection between self and all things. I also know that this connection was more than mere thoughts—it was tangible—as tangible as the medical treatment he also received.
Growing up in the Unitarian Universalist faith has been a wonderful evolution for me. The words from Psalm 42 have become very meaningful: "As the deer longs for the stream, so my soul longs for Thee, O God." My longing is for the elation of compassionate connectedness—that incredible feeling of being a part of all actions—God or Creation as a verb—a self-organized interdependent event. I composed the "Healing Prayer," not because I believe in a higher power, but because I believe in a living universe with energies both powerful and subtle—all mysterious. At the end of "Healing Prayer," members of the congregation may offer the names of those in need of healing. It is a powerful moment—an emotional moment—a spiritual moment. We touch that which we long for—the living spirit of Creation.

Dan Harper

I don't pray. As a Unitarian Universalist child, I learned how to pray. But when I got old enough to take charge of my own spiritual life, I gradually stopped. Every once in a while I try prayer again, just to be sure. The last time was a couple of years ago. My mother spent a long, frightening month in the hospital, so I tried praying once again but it didn't help. I have found my spiritual disciplines—walks in nature, deep conversations, reading ancient and modern scripture, love—or they have found me. Prayer doesn't happen to be one of them.

Anita Farber-Robertson

When I was in my thirties, still early in my ministry, I was stricken with a mysterious illness. My world turned upside down. I was hospitalized while the doctors ran tests, and my body did its own thing, separate from what I wanted of it. I was frightened, too frightened to pray. For the first time in my life, I understood intercessory prayer. I needed the connection, and I was not strong enough or grounded enough to establish it for myself. I needed someone to keep the lines open and clear, to maintain them and make sure they were secure in the turbulence that was ahead. I couldn't do that. It was all I could do to get through one day at a time, not knowing what was happening to me, a prisoner of a body that was becoming my enemy, rather than my connection to the sacred.
I asked my friend to pray for me. He did. I was astonished at its power. I felt the tears, the release, the comfort, and the assurance that the world and all that was sacred would wait for me, would hold a place for me, when I could not do the work of holding it for myself.
In that moment I could feel that the spirit of the universe held me, as it held every living creature. My friend's prayer had touched that spirit as surely as it had mine, and it had done so in my behalf.
I pray for people now. Every day. It is one of the most important parts of my prayer life. When all the rest of it falls away out of busyness or distraction, I can still, each morning, lift up those I love and those in pain, through prayer. And fortunately, there are those I know who pray for me.

For Further Reading

Some of these resources are available from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Bookstore, (800) 215-9076, or from your local bookstore or library.
  • Blessing the Bread: Meditations by Lynn Ungar. Skinner House Books: 1996
     
  • Evening Tide by Elizabeth Tarbox. Skinner House Books: 1998
     
  • Everyday Spiritual Practice: Simple Pathways for Enriching Your Life edited by Scott Alexander. Skinner House Books: 1999
     
  • In the Holy Quiet of This Hour: A Meditation Manual by Richard S. Gilbert. Skinner House Books: 1995
     
  • Life Prayers from Around the World: 365 Prayers, Blessings and Affirmations to Celebrate the Human Journey edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon. Harper San Francisco: 1996
     
  • Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman. Beacon Press: 1999
     
  • Morning Watch: Meditations by Barbara Pescan. Skinner House Books: 1999
     
  • The Power of Prayer edited by Dale Salwak. New World Library: 1998
     
  • Rejoice Together: Prayers for Family, Individual and Small Group Worship edited by Helen Pickett. Skinner House Books: 1995
     
  • Taking Pictures of God: Meditations by Bruce Marshall. Skinner House Books: 1996
     
  • A Temporary State of Grace by David S. Blanchard. Skinner House Books: 1997
     
  • This Very Moment: Introduction to Zen Buddhism for Unitarian Universalists by James Ishmael Ford. Skinner House Books: 1996