Vision
The vision of The Grace Foundation is the realization of Terra Nova – a culture beyond fear, war and cruelty characterized by the recognition that all life is inter-connected and all life is sacred. A state we call love.
What is Grace?
by Sabine Lichtenfels, Co-Founder of the Grace Foundation
Grace is compassion, dignity, beauty and elegance. Grace is patience that sees a new dawn at the horizon of history; Grace is the umbilical cord that connects us to this vision and guides us. Grace is also the strength to ride the bumps of life with humor and lightness.
Those who walk in the name of Grace do not come to accuse. They do not come to impart a new ideology on a land and its people; they come in the service of openness, of perception and of support. Grace listens deeply for what is most needed.
Grace is like a consciously chosen naivety that helps us to find our way through the welter of world views so that we recognize and protect the elementary and simple truth behind all things. When we stand in fierce grace we become a channel for the outcry of suppressed life.
We use the name Grace for our work because it reminds us to do everything that we do in the name of reconciliation, of the repairing of our relationship with the source of life and with the family of humanity.
In Grace we acknowledge that our resources are best used for the flourishing of all. To give ourselves fully is to meet in Grace. Grace is gratitude for the opportunity to serve life.
Mission
In response to the current global crisis The Grace Foundation raises funds and engages people with resources (money, knowledge, influence) to invest in a system change. We call for a sacred alliance of planetary change agents to take responsibility for the humane direction of human evolution now at this crucial time. We further the creation of Terra Nova by supporting a network of comprehensive cultural models which we call healing biotopes. These centers aim to be self-sufficient thus laying the base for an alternative economy, decentralized and free from the conventional mechanisms of interest, debt and exploitation. This alternative economy is key to humanizing money. We support the implementation of this network by funding education and knowledge-sharing.
The Grace Foundation promotes …
- Ecological and economic sustainability through regional self-sufficiency in water, food and energy,
- Social sustainability through community-building based on truth, mutual support and responsible participation, and
- Spiritual sustainability through realizing human potential in co-operation with the Divine, in gratitude for the miracle of life.
Background
The Grace Foundation was established in 2007 by Sabine Lichtenfels and Rainer Ehrenpreis. The original inspiration to create a conduit for diverting money into large-scale peace work came to Sabine Lichtenfels and Benjamin von Mendelssohn during a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. The strategy of building models for bringing about system change is based upon a political theory developed by Dr. Dieter Duhm and brought to life in the community of Tamera in Southern Portugal which we recognize as the first model ‘healing biotope’.
Website of The Grace Foundation: http://www.the-grace-foundation.org/