A Week with the Twelve Tribes: 12 Lessons from the 12 Tribes (Part 2 of 2)

Garrett and Lauren Smith have been traveling around Australia for the last four months working on organic farms through the WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) program. A recent farm visit in the Sydney area brought them to a community of the Twelve Tribes (www.twelvetribes.com), a Messianic religious movement of people living communally in various countries, including the U.S. and Australia. Although milking goats had been the attraction of the farm stay, Garrett and Lauren were confronted with a very different, sometimes bewildering, view of life and religious doctrine. Last week, they shared an article in which they introduced the Twelve Tribes religious movement and reflected upon their experiences from living a week with a community in the Tribe of Asher. This second article identifies the positive aspects of the community life they observed, which they intend to apply to improve their own life of religion. -Editor

Last week, we gave a little expose of what life was like in the Twelve Tribes. We tried to keep the account as unbiased as possible. Doubtless, the reader noted some large divergences in doctrine. There were, and this week we’d like to emphasize some of the contrasts. However, instead of a lengthy discourse on the legitimacy of their dogma vs. ours, we’d like to focus instead on the good qualities that we observed within the community. Amidst all the dissension, we found some valuable lessons to apply to our own lives in the New Church. Here are the twelve positive points we learned from a week with the Twelve Tribes (an unintended coincidence of number, I assure you) that we invite you to consider as well.

1.Members of the Twelve Tribes actively and officially acknowledge the Lord and their need of His presence in their lives two times a day, every day of the week.

Every morning and evening at 7:00, the community members lay aside whatever they may be doing (or thinking about) and gather together to acknowledge the Lord. They sing and dance, read the Bible and have doctrinal lessons, and close each session with a group prayer.

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A Week with the Twelve Tribes: Are we really living what we believe? (Part 1 of 2)

Garrett and Lauren Smith have been traveling around Australia for the last four months working on organic farms through the WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) program. A recent farm visit in the Sydney area brought them to a community of the Twelve Tribes (www.twelvetribes.com), a Messianic religious movement of people living communally in various countries, including the U.S. and Australia. Although milking goats had been the attraction of the farm stay, Garrett and Lauren were confronted with a very different, sometimes bewildering, view of life and religious doctrine. In a two-part article series, they reflect upon their experiences from living a week with a community in the Tribe of Asher and the lessons they learned to apply to their own life of religion. -Editor

A Brief Introduction to the Twelve Tribes

Picton, NSW, is a pleasant little farming town south of Sydney with the typical Aussie mix of crops, sheep, and cattle. One of the last stops on Sydney's CityRail train line, we arrived one afternoon shortly after Easter to do a farm stay at an agriculture-based, sustainable living community in the area. Expecting Scott at the train station, whom we had been in contact with via e-mail, we were instead met by a man named Yelid who had a big beard and hair pulled back into a pony tail. When we arrived at the site of the bakery/cafe and old-style hotel owned by the community, currently being used as residence for some of the members, we realized that ALL the men sported full beards and ponytails. We were introduced to some of the Twelve Tribe members over a big lump of rising sourdough bread... Yocef, Ehriz, Naaman, Qeshab. We were served a delicious lunch in the cafe by a woman wearing harem (or parachute) pants straight off of Disney's Princess Jasmine (minus the exposed midriff, of course). When we were delivered to the farm that evening, we realized that ALL the women wore harem pants. The women also had mind-twisting names to try to remember: Seetsza, Anava, Shalem, Rivka; all Hebrew, all with specific meanings, all given by the community to reflect each members' character.

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Lessons from Milankovitch, Swedenborg, and Cold, Obnoxious Winters

After months of dull and overcast weather, Lauren is driven to perform an interpretive dance representing the orbit of the earth around the sun. She compares the seasons to the changes of state we undergo in relation to our center of love and wisdom (the Lord). We could even weary of ecstasy if it were allowed to linger too long. -Editor.

Scenario: What do you do in a small restaurant with adults in your party engrossed in deep conversation and an energetic three-year-old who wants to move? Solution: The Milankovitch Dance. What is the Milankovitch Dance? It is an ingenious way to keep that spritely 3-year old content in a rather confined area, provided that your back is good and your memory of the Milankovitch Cycles better. For those of you unfamiliar with the latter, please rejoice in the knowledge that you are about to receive.

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Tent Talk: Unexpected Treasures

If you ever find yourself in the wilds of Alaska, stuck in a tent with an obnoxious teenager, you will wish you had read this article by Lauren Anderson. In it she recounts her experience of a surprising opportunity to talk about the big questions of life. Are humans more than animals? Did the universe come from nothing? -Editor

During the month of July, I embarked on an outdoor adventure that would test my tolerance for adverse weather, steep boulder-clad slopes, and adolescent men with drug and attitude problems. My sea-kayaking and backpacking trip through south-central Alaska, indeed, was more of a social challenge than a physical challenge. The challenge was that the average age of my eleven-member student group was seventeen. The culture shock of interacting (for the first time ever in my life) with teens from affluent families and worldly backgrounds of blatant abuse of drugs, alcohol, and sex, was quite shocking and rather dismaying. One lad, in particular, let’s call him Peter, was a huge test of my patience due to his meticulous ability to shirk most work with procrastination and poor excuses, his disrespect of others made apparent by his colorful and repugnant vocabulary, and his disrespect of the environment, which was unfortunately exacerbated by his laziness. It pains me to speak ill of so ill of one, however, which is why I am quite pleased to relay my best (as in, most pleasant and somehow profound) interaction with Peter, and the coincidental – or, more accurately, providential – lessons I learned from it.

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The Swedenborgian Asterisk: A Drag-in's Tale

Lauren Dale Anderson uses an author's note to explain the motivation for her project (below). Lauren offers the reader a window into her experience of coming into contact with members of the organized New Church. With humor and insight she illustrates some of the gaps in understanding, language and culture between New Church Christians and non-New Church Christians. Lauren warmly encourages reader feedback in her ongoing effort to gather perspectives on the New Church. -Editor

Author's Note

This is the introduction to a book that is yet to be birthed from the folds of my mind and reading notes. I got the idea for it a few months ago on one of my many plane trips around the country and wrote the introduction and a brief purpose/outline, both of which I share with you below.

I had meant to keep this under wraps, afraid of what the response to it might be, until I had developed more of the text.

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