The community guidelines
How We Gather
This is an open table. Anyone who wishes to help gather the Word into its plain, pure form is welcome here — from any tradition, in any tongue, at any point on the road home. To keep the table safe and the work joyful, we ask only a few things of one another. They all come from the same place.
The ground we stand on
Everything here rests on the two great commandments: to love God, and to love one another as ourselves. That is the filter we read the text through — and it is just as much how we treat each other. If love of God and neighbor is the measure of a true rendering, it is the measure of a true contributor, too.
How we gather
Hold every offering gently. Each rendering, principle, arrangement, and note is someone’s sincere attempt to see more clearly. Receive it the way you would want yours received.
Gather, don't compete. We are not here to win an argument or to rank one another. We lay our pieces down side by side and let the Word grow clearer than any of us could make it alone.
Assume good faith. When something lands wrong, assume the best first. Ask before you accuse. We each carry a different culture, language, and set of wounds, and much is lost in the space between us.
Disagree in love. You are free — encouraged — to question, to correct, to refine. Do it kindly, and about the text, never against the person.
Hold your own view gently. Nothing here is final. Come willing to be changed; that is how the gathering works.
The few firm lines
These are few, and we hold them firmly, because they keep the table safe for everyone.
The enemy is never a people. We never aim the text — or each other — at any person, people, race, religion, or nation. The accuser this book unmasks is fear itself, never a group of God’s children. Anything that dehumanizes, targets, or excludes a people has no place here.
No harassment. No attacking, demeaning, exposing, or pursuing another person. The notes and reflections are for the work, never for wounding.
Protect the children. Anything that sexualizes or endangers a child is forbidden, will be removed at once, and will be reported where the law requires.
Nothing that promotes harm — violence, self-harm, exploitation, or hatred — belongs here.
Everything else, we work out together, in love.
How the work is tended
Stewards are gardeners, not gatekeepers. They are members who tend the gathering — helping to gather what the community is converging on, and keeping the table safe. They serve the work; they do not own it.
If something breaks the table's peace, you can flag it, and a steward will look with care.
We hold rather than punish. Most things here are held gently — set aside, revisited, refined — not deleted in anger. The firm lines above are the exception: those we enforce, so that everyone stays safe.
Nothing true is thrown away for being unfamiliar. Wisdom from every culture and tongue belongs at this table. Difference is not a violation; it is part of what we gather.
What we gather, we give away
Everything offered here is shared freely, so that the Word stays free for the whole family. Bring what is yours to bring, knowing it becomes a gift to everyone who comes after.
If your heart turns toward this work, you are already one of us. Come and add your light — and help us keep the table a place where love and truth can come through.
Nothing is final. The gathering is the work.