FaithFutures Foundation

www.faithfutures.org • members@faithfutures.org

Cooperation Circle
Application for Membership

We welcome your interest in the work of FaithFutures Foundation.

Full membership is available to groups and organizations who subscribe to the Preamble, Purpose and Principles of the Foundation and wish to register as Cooperation Circles.

Individuals, groups or organizations who support the Foundation’s work but do not wish to undertake the rights and responsibilities of full membership are encouraged to become Affiliates of FFF. A separate application form is available at http://www.faithfutures.org/Admin/AA.pdf

Cooperation Circle members accept the rights and responsibilities of membership. They share the ownership and leadership of the Foundation. They initiate action and research at their own level of organization, and participate in regular communication within the Foundation. They offer and receive mutual support, select Trustees to the Global Council and, in their own way advance the process of imagining and implementing the forms that religion will take as it integrates traditional knowledge and new information from scholarship.

Each Cooperation Circle is asked to make a financial gift or to offer some other contribution that expresses its desire to engage in the work of the Foundation.

Financial gifts underwrite operating costs and help to build an endowment fund to provide support to the Foundation research and publication activities. 

We also welcome gifts by way of service contributions when financial gifts are not appropriate.

I look forward to your company in the quest for religious practices that are invigorated by their open engagement with the best of human insight.

Gregory C. Jenks

Executive Trustee
FaithFutures Foundation, Inc.

FaithFutures Foundation

The sections that follow are intended to provide your Circle members with a convenient statement of the Foundation’s Preamble, Purpose and Principles along with a summary of the rights and responsibilities of members. You may wish to make copies of this material for each members of your Circle.

The final four pages should be completed and returned to the Foundation offices.

Preamble

As people of diverse religions and spiritual traditions …

We affirm the value of religion as a traditional means to develop and sustain cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.
We respect the uniqueness of each tradition, and differences of practice or belief.
We acknowledge that religion has been used to inflict suffering and injustice upon others.
We acknowledge that religion has been implicated in our failure to care for the Earth.
We affirm the significance of human knowledge for the interpretation and practice of religion.
We affirm that no religious questions are exempt from examination.
We affirm the historical role of religion in the arts, letters and sciences.
We regret the estrangement of religion and scholarship in recent western culture.
We value scholars of all fields whose best efforts are dedicated to expanding human knowledge.
We affirm the right of communities and individuals to access and appropriate the processes and results of historical and scientific inquiry.
We acknowledge the importance of local collaborative effort in testing the significance of both traditional knowledge and new information for the future of religious communities.
We undertake responsible cooperative action to bring the wisdom and values of our religious traditions into dialogue with the expanding body of human knowledge for the sake of re-envisioning the future of religion and its relevance to the economic, environmental, political and social challenges facing our Earth community.
We are committed to sharing our insights and our experience with one another.
We provide a global opportunity for participation, especially by those whose voices are not often heard in the churches and other religious institutions.

Purpose

FaithFutures Foundation exists to facilitate the interaction of scholarship and religion for the sake of re-envisioning the forms and roles of religion.

Principles

In pursuit of the Purpose stated above, we shall act in accordance with the following Principles:

1.	We are not a religion but a network of organizations and individuals developing and sharing information on the implications of historical and scientific knowledge for the future of religion.
2.	We respect the sacred wisdom of each religious tradition, and honor their differences.
3.	We value the contribution that scholarship in various fields of knowledge can make to our understanding of religion, to contemporary religious practice and to future developments.
4.	Without privileging any tradition or source of knowledge above others, we encourage the pursuit of historical and scientific knowledge and the testing of its significance for the practice of religion by faith communities and the individuals that comprise them.
5.	We seek and offer cooperation with other Individuals, Organizations and Associations with an interest in scholarship relevant to religion, interfaith relations or the future of religion.
6.	We welcome as members all Individuals, Organizations and Associations who subscribe to the Preamble, Purpose and Principles.
7.	We have the authority to make decisions at the most local level that also includes all the relevant and affected parties.
8.	We have the right to organize in any manner, at any scale, in any area, and around any issue or activity that is relevant to and consistent with the Preamble, Purpose and Principles.
9.	Our deliberations and decisions shall be made at every level by bodies and methods that fairly represent the diversity of affected interests and are not dominated by any.
10.	Each membership circle or individual member shall relinquish only such autonomy and resources as are essential to the pursuit of the Preamble, Purpose and Principles.
11.	We have the responsibility to develop financial and other resources to meet the needs of our membership circle, and to share financial and other resources to help meet the needs of other circles.
12.	We maintain the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct, prudent use of resources, and fair and accurate disclosure of information.
13.	We are committed to organizational learning and adaptation.
14.	We practice equitable representation of women and men.
15.	We recognize the power of affect or emotions in human affairs and practice healing and reconciliation to resolve conflict.
16.	Members shall not be coerced to participate in any ritual or be proselytized.

Rights of Members

As a FFF Cooperation Circle, we receive the right:
1.	to organize in any manner and around any issue or activity which is relevant to and consistent with the Preamble, Purpose and Principles;
2.	to determine processes of governance and decision-making which are in accordance with the Preamble, Purpose and Principles;
3.	to combine with or join any other FFF Circles;
4.	to participate in the selection of Trustees to serve on the Global Council; 
5.	to use the name “FaithFutures Foundation” and its related names, abbreviations, logos, and images so long as they are used in furtherance of and in accordance with the Preamble, Purpose and Principles of the Foundation; and
6.	to review and accept on behalf of FFF applications for membership from individuals, organizations or associations seeking to join in pursuit of the Purpose.

Responsibilities of Members

As a Cooperation Circle we accept the responsibility:
1.	to act in accordance with the Preamble, Purpose and Principles;
2.	to determine a process of governance and decision-making which is in accordance with the Preamble, Purpose and Principles;
3.	to take all actions necessary to encourage and ensure that our own members act in accordance with the Preamble, Purpose and Principles;
4.	to actively use our best efforts to achieve the Purpose in accordance with the Principles;
5.	to adhere to the Articles, Bylaws and operating procedures as they evolve during the life of FFF;
6.	to communicate best practices, stories and highlights of activities with other parts of FFF;
7.	to develop financial resources to meet our own needs; 
8.	to share financial and other resources to help meet the needs of other Circles;
9.	to pay any dues or offer such appropriate contributions as the Global Council may establish; and
10.	to keep accurate and current records of our members, financial transactions and activities.
11.	to indemnify and hold the Trustees, FFF, Inc., its employees, agents and representatives harmless from any liabilities arising out of or in any way caused by a FFF Circle’s breach of any provision of the Articles, Bylaws or operating procedures.

Membership Declaration

WE, the undersigned, wishing to become a Member of FaithFutures Foundation and to join in the pursuit of the Purpose, embrace and affirm the Foundation’s Preamble, Purpose and Principles and we accept the rights and responsibilities of membership of FFF.

The name of our Cooperation Circle is:

											

Signed by:				Name and affiliation (if relevant)

											

											

											

											

											

											

											

Please add more signatures on additional sheets if required.

Cooperation Circle Information

Please provide the following information so that we can get a better idea of your interests and needs.

The name of our Cooperation Circle is:

Our purpose is:

Our interest in integrating scholarship and religion is especially focused on:

We meet the eligibility requirement of at least five (5) members.	Yes	No

Our governance or decision-making process is:

The highlights of our history so far have been:

(Please enclose any stories or photographs that can be shared with other FFF Circles.)

We attach a list of our members (including where appropriate names, religious or other affiliations, mailing address, phone/fax numbers and email address).

Our financial gift to the FFF (in US dollars) is:
50	100	250	50	$_______ (insert amount)

AND/OR our contribution of service is:

Signature:							Date:				

Payment by Check or Money Order

Membership contributions and other gifts to FFF may be made by check or money order and sent to one of the addresses below. Please make the payments in either US dollars or Australian dollars, as appropriate.

United States & Canada	All Other Countries
Robert J. McElwain, FFF Treasurer	FaithFutures Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 6728	P.O. Box 822, 
Shawnee Mission, KS 66206	Kenmore, Qld 4069, Australia

Fax: 913 381-8402	Fax: +61 7 3855-8655

Statement Regarding Name Use

We, the undersigned Cooperation Circle, recognize and acknowledge to the Global Council of FaithFutures Foundation that:

The goodwill, trust and reputation of FFF as a whole and the ability of the Foundation and each one of its members to flourish and achieve its purpose rests upon the acts, words and deeds associated with the name and related images of FFF throughout the world;

As a member of FFF we have the right to use and associate ourselves with the name and related images of FaithFutures Foundation.

Therefore, we shall:

As long as we are members of FFF hold the name and related images of the Foundation as a trust for all its members;

Only use the name and related images of FFF in connection with our work as members of the Foundation and in furtherance of the Preamble, Purpose and Principles;

Only use the name and related images of FFF in conformity with the operating procedures and standards for use and quality set forth from time to time by the Global Council;

Stop using the name and related images of FFF upon the termination of our membership in the Foundation.

Agreed and acknowledged:

									
(name of the Cooperation Circle)

by: 					
(authorized signature)

Name: 								

Date:				

Please return the completed membership application to:

United States & Canada	All Other Countries
Robert J. McElwain, FFF Treasurer	FaithFutures Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 6728	P.O. Box 822, 
Shawnee Mission, KS 66206	Kenmore, Qld 4069, Australia

Fax: 913 381-8402	Fax: +61 7 3855-8655