Articles of Belief
A bit about who we are and what we believe…
We believe in the power people have to find connection, common ground, and love for and toward one another when we let our shared humanity take precedence over siloed ideology. To do this, we will work toward fostering a radical inclusivity through creating an environment that promotes safety of expression, openness to growth, and a trust in the goodness we believe to be inherent within each other.
We are curious about spirit; the reality we believe to be within all living beings and woven into place and landscape. The way we seek to interact with this is through mindfulness practice focused on the present, a relationship of reciprocity with the earth and its varied species, and a bent toward gratitude that seeks to find confluence with the many pieces -- or as we tend to say, tributaries -- that make up the reality of the varied spirit within our midst.
We are committed to our place. Both as it pertains to our landscape and context within the Spokane River Watershed and also our place with one another in community. We seek to promote a culture of equanimity, rhythm, connection, and dependability as well as creating a community aware of and caring for the place on earth that we reside.
It is our belief that all of this can occur through an orientation toward hopeful possibility that is both seeking out and sharing our experiences with a Divine reality that we believe to be inherent within all things.
We consider ourselves to be an eco-spiritual, river-centric, tributarian community. A spirituality born from the land we reside, informed by our place within the Spokane River Watershed, and on the look out for how each unique tributary may be able to find confluence.
Some ATB lingo you might hear us say and what it means…
I’m the pastor and so are you.
Meaning:
We are all story catchers. We are all witnesses to the world and meaning makers and people capable of care. This is the idea of a pastor. Weaving story into meaning and caring for the other. No one ideology has a monopoly on the Divine, let alone one person. So, in that sense, we are all pastors. We like to try and incorporate multiple voices in our gatherings.
Humanity>ideology
Meaning:
Different tiers of consciousness prioritize different ideology, same with religion, same with politics, etc. What we mean here is that the human in front of us should always take precedent over the ideology we adhere to. Flesh and breath rather than theory and idea. Everyone has seen a baby and smiled, spotted a frog and paused… we are human and in so being we are holy. Let’s not let ideology blind us from that truth about all things with thingness.
Ritual is to time what a room is to space.
Meaning:
This is a quote from a Byung-Chul Han, a South Korean philosopher. Time and space are expanding and doing all sorts of weird and wondrous stuff. The Divine is the lace intertwining both. Just as a room can contextualize space, ritual can contextualize time. Our second and fourth Sunday “ritual” takes both (time and space) and works to create context for an awareness to how the Divine is contained within all times and all spaces.
ATB
Meaning:
An abbreviation for All These Branches. This community has been around for a bit! And through each iteration, it has evolved itself. Some people know us as Branches, some as We Are Branches, and now we call ourselves All These Branches — ATB for short! It is all us, but ATB represents who we are today, as this iteration of ourselves. Learning from our past while transcending (and including pieces of) where we have been.
All These Branches
Meaning:
The current iteration of our name is born from the Spokane river watershed. As a community, we are physically located within it. When you observe the watershed on a map, you see how every single little stream, creek, river, etc empties into the collective of the watershed. Which spills into the Columbia, which spills into the Pacific. All flowing water finds confluence. We think this is right in step with how we perceive the Divine... in every piece, uniting every piece.
Any old donkey can tear down a barn, but it takes a special donkey to build one.
Meaning:
There are a lot of naysayers. A lot of cynics. There are times we need to call out the bullshit, 100%. But also we believe that beauty comes from creating a path forward that is in step with hopeful possibility. Trying to construct a reality built on what is possible not just cynically pointing fingers at what doesn’t work. Sometimes you need to burn the thing down, but what are you building that continues that spirit of freedom forward?
You don’t have to be here.
Meaning:
We hope that any gathering we have is not attended because of some feeling of obligation to religious habit. So much organized spiritual practice is born from shame or obligation. Blah, gross. We are thrilled if you chose to participate in what we are doing but we never want you to feel obligated by it. The spiritual, whatever that might be and however that might look (expansive, tie-dye-esque… probably), should liberate and set free, not bind and restrict.
Branches, at its best, is kinda like a Grateful Dead concert.
Meaning:
The Dead were gifted at creating space for each member to thrive. There was a looseness to the way of their jamming that incorporated distinct characteristic and personality, but also made sense as a whole. That was reflected in the way their shows were a welcoming and vibrant place for a wide swath of people. We’re not trying to be a club for a few, but a jammy, safe, meaningful, levity-conscious place of hopeful possibility for whoever.