Building Alternatives

A Campaign for Gathering Ground

At Gathering Ground, we connect with ourselves, one another, and the natural world. Many people today feel isolated — cut off from our communities and the more-than-human world we are a part of. As local and global communities, we are facing deep challenges and uncertainty. By coming together to explore meaning-making, we forge connections and explore and transform ourselves and the world around us. Gathering Ground is:

  • A community to “do stuff, reflect, and connect”, including people of many beliefs and none

  • Earth-centered, hands-on practices, shared in a horizontally structured community

  • Justice-seeking, queer- and neurodivergent-celebrating

  • Engages 145 people each year

Here is what some of our members have to say:

“There isn’t anything like it in the rest of my life. I don’t think I’d ever had conversations before about things like being in your body. Delving into things that are important for all of us. I really bring it back to my day to day life. Something might come up, rather than flying off the handle in reaction, I pause, I notice what I am feeling.”

“We’re the innovators, doing things a little different because we are a little different. It’s a space to be different together and celebrate that about each other.”

“We’re doing the work of exploring and transforming ourselves to explore and transform our world. Becoming the humans we want to be and helping create the world we want to live in.”

This past year, Gathering Ground expanded from monthly to twice-monthly gatherings, one in nature and one online, to strengthen our relationships with one another and provide more regular support. We explored themes of disability justice, neurodiversity, indigenous and settlers ways of relating to land, and mindful embodiment practices. We welcomed our new Convener, Kiran Frank (they/them), and other new young adult leadership.

In 2025 we hope to expand our outreach to young adults, queer and neurodivergent folks, folks who are “a little different”, and anyone searching for connection and meaning in turbulent times. We plan on deepening our exploration of earth, disability, and racial justice, and nurturing personal and communal spiritual and embodiment practices.

Sacred Design Lab has spent the past decade studying the future of spirituality, and in their 2024 report on Spiritual Innovation, they highlight emerging global themes at the forefront of what is emerging in spiritual community today: embodiment and ecospirituality, working outside of traditional religious structures, reclamation of spiritual practices, and resistance to oppression. That’s us!

To meet the era ahead of us, we plan to come together to learn and nurture new ways of being – ways that ground us in our deepest values and strengthen and nurture our ecosystems, our communities, and our selves. A gift of any size would make a real difference for Gathering Ground's continued vitality. There are options for monthly or quarterly giving if that makes it easier for you. Monthly giving in particular helps make our funding more predictable. Or you could make a pledge for 2025 now to fulfill later.

It is a blessing to have each of you walking alongside our scrappy community as we bushwhack new ways of community and meaning-making. Thank you!

Your support will underwrite our modest annual cost of $17,000. You may make a tax-deductible gift of any size now, or make a pledge to fulfill during 2025 in several ways.

  • at www.GatherinGround.org/donation or the donation/pledge buttons below

  • through the website of our fiscal sponsor, University Congregational UCC (be sure to note your gift is for Gathering Ground in the dropdown of options)

  • mail a check payable to University Congregational UCC with “Gathering Ground” in the memo line: University Congregational UCC 4515 16th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105

Questions? Kiran Frank, Convener
at GatherinGround.Seattle@gmail.com