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Montague Farm Zen House

  • General Description
  • Current Activities
  • Mission & Goals
  • 1-Year Vision
  • 5-Year Vision
karenKaren Kisui Werner

In April, 2009, the Zen Peacemakers’ Board of Directors decided to open a signature Zen House at our Montague location, to be directed by Karen Kisui Werner. The Montague Farm Zen House (MFZH) uses facilities on the Montague campus, including residence space in the farmhouse, the meditation hall and the House of One People.

The MFZH is creating social service projects in the Pioneer Valley and serving as a model for other Zen Houses

Campus
Montague Campus

Daily life in the MFZH includes Zen practice and service in the projects sponsored by the house.

Services are delivered from a holistic, dignity-based perspective. MFZH will offer training that provides the skills and tools necessary to empower people to hold market-wage jobs and move toward economic self-sufficiency. MFZH also networks with existing service agencies.

MFZH serves three goals: to train residential and community based Buddhist practitioners and interns in the theory and skills essential to practice socially engaged Buddhism; to provide new and varied models for this practice; and to help alleviate suffering in the world by developing and running social service projects in areas of need. MFZH is community based and does not seek to proselytize or convert, but to serve beleaguered people of any race, religion, orientation and gender where they live, work and struggle daily.

  • Community Meals
  • Social Enterprise
  • Community Organizing
  • Interfaith Offerings

Community meals are at the heart of the Montague Farm Zen House –at our meals, we provide nutritional homemade dishes and build a sense of community, feeding body and spirit. We currently have two meal sites:

Site 1: The Montague Farm Zen House at the Zen Peacemakers campus in Montague, where we are launching a family-oriented hot meal with wellness and artistic offerings, free health services and festive and supportive atmosphere for all ages. Our first meal coincides with a celebration of Buddha’s birthday on April 10, 2010, starting at 11am. We will have transportation available for families and individuals in Montague, Turners Falls, and Greenfield and are doing outreach with the family shelter in Greenfield and the local Department of Transitional Assistance to make this meal a truly inclusive event.

This will be a regular offering –initially every 4 weeks, then increasing to weekly.

For more information or to sign up to be a volunteer in this meal, please go to our easy-to-use wiki page:

We have 5 distinct tasks to make it easy for people to be involved in a way that works for them. The tasks are:
     1. Donating money and/or farm-garden harvest (also helping to coordinate donations from bizes.)
     2. Preparing food (main dishes, side dishes, bread, dessert, drink)
     3. Serving the meal/ cleaning up
     4. Wellness/ creative offerings for adults and for kids
     5. Providing transportation for families to the meal/ from the meal

We know wikis are not for everyone, so you can also get more info or let us know how you’d like to be involved by contacting Karen@zenpeacemakers.com or calling 413-367-5275.

dinner_lineDinner Line in Orange

Site 2: We provide monthly meals in Orange, MA, as part of the Franklin County Meal program. The meal is served at Bethany Lutheran Church, 62 Cheney St in Orange, and about 60-75 people attend each meal. We have also started to include an optional meditation circle, including meditation instruction, before the meal –this has been very moving to be part of.

For the Orange meal, we have a similar list of distinct tasks, so that people can participate in a way that works for them.

If you would like to be involved in helping with the Orange meal (our meals are the third Thursday of the month), please visit our Orange Wiki and sign up for a specific task or tasks.

If you are not able to access the wiki, you can get more info about the Orange meal and let us know how you’d like to be involved by contacting Karen@zenpeacemakers.com or calling 413-367-5275.

We are in the research and development phase of our business and will post more on this soon.

dinner_lineAlisa Teaching

We had a wonderful weekend training in community organizing with Alisa Glassman, Lead Organizer for Action in Montgomery (AIM), on Dec 12-13, 2009. The 12 attendees are planning to meet again in late January, 2010, to continue honing our community organizing skills and to see about developing an alliance for Montague and/or Franklin County organizing.

Our approach to community organizing is grounded in the IAF-Alinsky model and embodies the spirit of not knowing that is at the heart of Zen Peacemakers work. Our first step in community organizing is listening: holding one-on-one meetings with people and hearing what they feel deeply about and what they want to change in their communities. Our intention is to help build the collective power needed to actualize community-defined goals.

The MFZH is also attending the monthly meetings of the Franklin County Interfaith Council

Anyone interested in learning more about the community organizing work of MFZH can contact Karen@zenpeacemakers.com or call 413-367-5275.

In addition to zen practice, kirtan, and zikr offerings at the Montague Farm campus, as of January 2010, we are adding a weekly meditation/ counsel circle in Turners Falls, MA, location still to be determined.

Due to interest, we have also started a meditation circle before the monthly meal in Orange.

We also currently organize a weekly Wednesday Meditation Circle at the Hampshire County Outreach and Drop-in in Northampton.

A report from Geoff Bogai Taylor, member of the MFZH and Montague Farm Sangha, who organizes the Northampton meditation circle:

Every Wednesday afternoon at the Hampshire County Outreach and Drop-in a meditation circle is being offered to all. Claudia Yakushin Phillips, a member of the Montague Farm Zendo, is nurse practitioner at the Drop-in. Visitors at the Drop-in asked Claudia about instruction in meditation — which people increasingly see as a part of a healthy lifestyle. Claudia suggested that the Montague Farm Zen House, as part of its community service practice, could respond to this request.

So now every Wednesday at 3:00 pm since late October, 2009, we have been gathering at the Northampton Drop-in, for one hour of talking about (and doing) meditation. The Drop-in closes temporarily at 3:00 (except for meditators) so we have the main space to ourselves for the hour. So far, it has been a small group, where we have taken time to hear from each participant why they are interested in meditation. Usually we take fifteen or twenty minutes of meditation, followed by a Council - where we can briefly share our experience.

The circle is convened by Geoff Bogai Taylor and friends on behalf of Montague Farm Zen House. Anyone is welcome, but it's smart to arrive 15 minutes early if you've never been to the Drop-in. The idea is make a space for all kinds of people to explore meditation, and to support anyone who wants to develop, maintain, or improve their meditation practice.

The location is central: 43 Center Street - near the Iron Horse and the Police station. Please join us on a Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 for a meditation boost.

If you’d like to be involved in these meditation/ counsel offerings, please contact Karen@zenpeacemakers.com or 413-367-2858 or Geoff Taylor: 1bogai@gmail.com.

dinner_lineDinner Line in Orange

Mission

The Montague Farm Zen House aims to alleviate suffering in Franklin County through service and by increasing community wealth and power.

We also serve as a training site for people who want to work in or create zen houses internationally.

Goals in Support of Our Mission

-Create a business and job training/ support to employ people who have been left out of the mainstream market economy;

-Collaborate with community members, local organizations, and interfaith groups on community organizing -building the collective power needed to actualize community-defined goals;

-Provide regular homemade community meals for people who experience food insecurity;

-Make interfaith offerings (particularly meditation/counsel practices as well as kirtan and zikr) available to the community at the Montague Farm campus and various other sites in Franklin County;

-Have clearly defined volunteer and training opportunities in support of these goals.

-We will research and develop business plan, do feasibility studies, seek out target workforce and assess how to help them thrive in this workplace, identify and connect with possible funders and investors.

-We will start a community organizing process: get trained with other community members and organizations and continue to grow an alliance of individuals, local organizations and interfaith groups committed to organizing; do 5 relational meetings a month and analyze data. Articulate a clear 2-3 year process for growing this community organizing coalition, with guidance from Alisa Glassman and local IAF affiliates.

-We will organize monthly meals at Orange, part of Franklin County Meals Program and expand to include meditation. All of this will be supported by a wide volunteer network.

-We will provide weekly meditation/ counsel in the Northampton cot shelter, at the Orange meal site, and in Turners Falls, location to be determined.

-We will establish multiple funding sources.

-We will establish a clear web presence as well as a clear international and external communication and governance process within MFZH.

Campus
Montague Campus

-We will oversee a business on site that employs 15-30 people in FT/PT capacities in dignified work, with a focus on employing people who have been previously left out of the mainstream market economy. Provide supports, including transportation, necessary training, and other assistance, to help the workforce thrive.

-We will be part of community organizing and supporting specific campaigns, intended to build a powerful coalition of people in Montague and Franklin County working on clearly defined issues determined by the community. The community organizing will be done in partnership with other local non-profit and religious organizations and community leaders.

-The MFZH will include a lively cross-class community of farmhouse residents (seminary, interns, and others), local volunteer-collaborators, maintaining a healthy, democratic live-in community.

-The MFZH will have a clear system for integrating seminarians, interns, volunteer collaborators and partner organizations to achieve MFZH stated goals

-The MFZH and ZP seminary program will be connected to a degree granting institution so that people can work towards BA or MA degrees while living in the MFZH.

-We will have a working farm on the Montague Farm property, generating produce for community meals and other MFZH events and to bring community members to the land for CSA pick-up, weaving our site into the heart of our neighboring towns. The CSA will help subsidize the produce grown for community meals –and CSA members will be informed of MFZH food outreach activities, inspired by Food bank Farm model.

-We will have a well-organized process for serving community meals on site and elsewhere in Franklin County, feeding those experiencing hunger/food insecurity and building cross-class community.

-We will have weekly meditation/counsel offerings, intended to make these practices accessible to people experiencing stresses of poverty. Through these efforts, we will grow a cross-class community of practitioners.

-We will have spokespeople sharing this model of socially engaged Buddhism and social ministry in relevant contexts

-The MFZH will have a clear system of governance that is transparent and as democratic as possible.

-The MFZH will have secure funding sources for all operations and staff.

-The MFZH will have a monthly column in the Montague Reporter (also shared on MFZH webpage with international readership), reflecting on the various projects of MFZH and clarifying ways for people to be involved.