The Community Center provides an open space in which to hold events that arise from the vision and resources of the Sacred Center community - DJ dances, concerts, poetry readings, ceremonies, avant-garde performances, talks, art installations, workshops, experimental groups, meditations, etc. These events can be ongoing, seasonal, sporadic, or one time only, depending on a variety of factors. For example, our DJ dance event is an ongoing bi-weekly gathering hosted by a rotating line-up of DJs, musicians, and visual artists. Our ceremonies honoring solstices, equinoxes, full moons, and other sacred times have more of a seasonal rhythm. When teachers or artists visit from out of town, then the scheduling of their talks, workshops, performances, ceremonies, etc., is tied to their availability. Or, someone may be called to create a unique one-off event that takes place only once.

It all depends on what it is that members of the Sacred Center community want to see and make happen. A visual artist and a musician may want to collaborate to create a multi-media performance. A Zen practitioner and a poet may want to dialog about the type of consciousness each cultivates in their practice. A group of ravers may want to experiment with combining ceremonial practices from spiritual traditions with trance dancing to electronic music.

Political and social events may inspire someone to put together a group prayer and meditation gather-ing. Theater improvisation aficio-nados might create a monthly event or yoga practi-tioners might set up a daily practice. In all of these endeavors, the Community Center provides a safe and sacred container in which our diverse consti-tuency can meet and interact, engage in activities that foster spiritual community, and undertake cutting edge explorations.

The Community Center is located in the Berkeley/Oakland area and is easily accessible from throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area (including San Francisco, the East Bay, the North Bay, the South Bay, and beyond). The space itself includes a large main room with a wooden dance floor, a stage for performance, seating for several hundred people, state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems to accommodate a wide range of technical requirements, and a smaller room for more intimate gatherings. Although at the present time, we are renting our facilities from like-minded groups, in the long run, we hope to create a permanent facility, with both an urban East Bay location and a more remote nature-based retreat location.