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The [SolSeed Services](/SolSeed_Services) are regular gatherings designed to be spiritual but not [religious](/SolSeed_and_Religion), creating a space for the appreciation of [Life](/Life), of each other, and of the sacred. The goal is to create and nurture a sort of "spiritual [community](/SolSeedCommunity)."
The first four services, beginning in February 2010, were sizeable in-person gatherings in Portland, Oregon. Each of these had a "seed" topic that guides discussion as well as choices of music, poetry, and other [creative](/Creativity) aspects.
Then we decided to reduce the frequency of such gatherings to four times a year, at the Solstices and Equinoxes, and create weekly videoconference-based services for the core [membership](/membership). The first of these short weekly services was on October 17, 2010.
### [Weekly Service Calls](/Weekly_Service_Calls)
[Service Call December 03, 2010](/Service_Call_December_03,_2010)
### List of services
[Service September 22, 2010](/EquinoxCelebration) (Fall Equinox) - seed: [Equanimity](/Equanimity)
[Service June 5, 2010](/Service_June_5,_2010) - seed: [Meditation](/Meditation)
[Service March 20, 2010](/Service_March_20,_2010) (Spring Equinox) - seed: [Balance](/Balance)
[Service February 6, 2010](/Service_February_6,_2010) - seed: [Empathy](/Empathy)
### Discussion at the [Longest Night Festival](/Longest_Night_Festival)
#### Participants
- [Ben Sibelman](/Ben_Sibelman) ... convener
- [Brandon CS Sanders](/Brandon_CS_Sanders)
- [Art Brock](http://artbrock.com)
- [Mickki Langston](/Mickki)
- [Shelley Schoepflin Sanders](/Shelley_Schoepflin_Sanders)
- [Keith Lofstrom](http://keithl.com)
- Judy Sibelman
- Steve Sibelman
#### Discussion
- Keith: We could have karaoke set to space and growing/life imagery
- Art: Organizations/structures to shape the social architecture to give room for every voice to be heard
- [Brandon](/Brandon): Learn from ToastMasters
- [Mickki](/Mickki): Quaker meetings
- Knowledge that there is a sacredness to speaking
- Speak intentionally (is this knowledge really meant for the group?)
- Steve: L. Ron Hubbard treated religion as a business model
- Keith: Figure out how more women can get their concerns into the story
- Generative ideas rather than just starships
- [Ben](/Ben): Tell a story about a wonderful community that lives on a starship?
- Judy: My story about singing in a choir and helping this corner of the world
- Via audience donations that all go to a chosen beneficiary
- Yearly "iSing with Cake" event is a cake auction to support the choir itself
- [Brandon](/Brandon): I like this model
- Art: What is the context/purpose for the services
- Aesthetically pleasing services
- Bring community together
- Judy: The best services I've been to were ones where I could feel like potentially part of a community of the people in the room
- Art: Sense of belonging
- Ground you in the now
- Give meaning
- Steve: But what does that mean?
- [Mickki](/Mickki): Give a space or a vessel to be filled
- Steve: Opposite of other religious leaders who created some meaning first in order to pull people in
- [Ben](/Ben): Can provide a general framework at least
- [Brandon](/Brandon): [Bringing life](/Bringing_life) and the mythos of [TheDestiny](/TheDestiny) make a good filter for who would be interested
- Keith: Individual productive work during a service while singing (or talking) would attract me
- Art: Different from a work bee session, where the work replaces the discourse
- [Brandon](/Brandon): I like Keith's image of a woman holding a baby while working on building a starship (or sitting in the captain's chair on its bridge)
- [Mickki](/Mickki): What is the content or inquiry for the community at the service?
- Incorporating co-creation into the structure of a service
- Judy: Have a "seed" for each service to which everyone contributes (wisdom, a story, music, etc)
- Steve: Continuity/reliability of structure (Art: and schedule) from one meeting to the next
- Rituals to begin and end service
- Announcement time for what will be happening in the community
- Some part of structure that is aesthetically focused (ex. singing)
- Space within structure for interchange
- People talking about what matters to them
- Art: Making meaning together
- Art: Informal social space just afterward, particularly related to food
- Models to look at
- [Mickki](/Mickki): look at Jehovah's Witnesses' Theocratic Ministry School meetings
- Anyone can be assigned to deliver a specific piece of content
- Very rigid, but still some room to be creative
- Opportunity for feedback (because speakers are trainee ministers)
- Steve: We could have readings without an actual scripture
- [Mickki](/Mickki): Readings could range from transcendent to utterly practical
- Art: Christian Science
- Ministry serves terms in different positions, usually with elections
- Testimony meeting: space for anybody to share stories about what's working
- As opposed to "trauma sharing," i.e. complaining together
- Art: Twice a month is a bare minimum in terms of community continuity