Christian Spirituality Research Articles

Kajian Analisis Deskriptif Prinsip Spiritualitas Zakharia Sebagai Upaya Pembaharuan Formasi Rohani Kristen Masa Kini

This paper is a phenomenological descriptive analysis of the living conditions of Christians today. The author found several problems in the life of Christian spirituality today, namely: the failure of Christians to reflect on their spirituality by their religious positions, the emergence of an apathetic attitude to show a good spiritual life due to an experience of failure, a lack of practical implementation of the values ​​of spirituality that are understood, the life of spirituality. without obedience and the presence of a center of non-biblical spirituality in the Christian life. The writer observes this problem as a problem in building the spiritual formation of Christianity today. This problem the writer observed was also experienced by Zacharias, but the Bible provides the fact that Zacharias was able to overcome these problems. Thus this paper refers to the principle of Zacharias spirituality in answering this problem. Hopefully this article adds insight and provides answers to the lives of Christians today.

한국 교회 안에서 행해지는 목회상담의 한계와 지향점

This research explores the identity of pastoral counseling. The main concern of pastoral counseling has been related with counselors who have psychological backgrounds and have trained as specialists although many of them are pastors. This study asks a question of how pastoral counseling goes along in church. It points out that pastoral counseling seriously has to concern church and pastors.<BR> This article divides into four sections. Firstly, it deals with the identity of pastoral counseling. Scholars discern pastoral counseling from pastoral care. It is said that pastoral counseling is a more professional area while pastoral care is regarded as the ordinary caring of pastors. Whatever the classification is, pastoral counseling should differ from ordinary counseling and recover its identity. Furthermore, it argues that pastoral counseling should develop theories and skills for ordinary pastors.<BR> In the second section, it points out the limitation of theological education and pastoral counseling in contemporary Korean church. Contemporary pastoral counseling and ordinary counseling are alike. The counseling of pastors in church has not developed theoretical backgrounds and skills. Pastoral counseling includes religious elements and spiritual areas.<BR> In the next part, it claims that pastoral counseling includes Christian spirituality. Pastoral counseling should include the recovery of spiritual aspects, which is different from the purpose of the ordinary counseling. It also compares pastoral counseling with spiritual direction. In a sense, pastoral counseling must partly be the spiritual direction in that pastors should take care of the spiritual life of lay christians.<BR> Lastly, it will delineate the religious resources of church and the necessity of manual, which can be used for pastoral counseling. Pastoral counseling can use religious resources such as the Bible, prayer, church community, pastoral visiting and so on. It argues that pastoral counseling needs to make manuals for pastors in church. This research contributes to showing the developmental possibility of pastoral counseling that can be used in church.

Understanding Holiness in Exodus 3 from the Lens of Biblical Spirituality

Holiness is studied from the lens of Biblical Spirituality. Situated in the Divine-Huma relational process, the movement from being un-holy to holy; from being unclean to Divine Purity is given close attention. God as the רק קדוש, draws his people into Himself through purification and in intimacy with Him. The human reality responds with respect and reverence not only to God but to his people as well. However, God has a special preference for the poor and helpless for the clothes them with Himself like a soldier wears his armor. Through a spiritual reading of Exodus 3 and other related Scriptural narratives, these understanding of holiness is surfaced specifically, in the lived experience of Holiness, its nearness in day-to-day life.&#x0D; References&#x0D; &#x0D; Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica, Prima Pars.&#x0D; __________. Summa Contra Gentiles.&#x0D; Carmody, Denise and John Carmody. Mysticism, Holiness East and West. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.&#x0D; Ciorra, Anthony. Everyday Mysticism. Cherishing the Holy. Spring Valley: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1995.&#x0D; Christian Spirituality. Five Views of Sanctification. ed. Donald Alexander. Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1988.&#x0D; Sheldrake, Philip. Images of Holiness, Exploration in Contemporary Spirituality. US: Ave Maria Press, 1988. Sproul, R. C. The Holiness of God. Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1998.&#x0D; The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version. UK: Bible Society Resources Ltd., 2011.&#x0D; Waaijman, Kees. Spirituality: Forms, Foundations, Methods. Leuven: Peeters, 2002.&#x0D; __________. Holiness in Spirituality, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 72:4 (2016), a3463. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v7214.3463&#x0D; Welzen Huub. Contours of Biblical Spirituality as a Discipline, Acta Theologica, 15 (2011), 37-60.

How Far Can We Learn Anything of Practical Value from Our Pioneers? Reconsidering Wu Yifang’s Legacy of Higher Education

The dilemma confronting modern university development presents a challenge to the management ability of university presidents, hence a need to review how successful presidents of the past managed. Wu Yifang, the first Chinese woman president with remarkable achievements in education, has thus come to our attention. As President of Ginling College (GC), she was confronted with a preponderance of contradictions, including the conflicts between the ideas of Western universities and Chinese traditional culture, between Christian spirit and social responsibility, between educational logic and the political environment, between traditional inheritance and innovation, and between universal university governance experience and the unique needs of GC. She eventually succeeded in balancing these contradictions with her superb management wisdom, with the management ideas in China’s classical text, the Mean playing an important role in facilitating GC’s development. Wu Yifang’s management style demonstrated a remarkable balance in prioritizing both the pursuit of talent cultivation and social services, based on carefully catering to core principles pertaining to the development of universities and students. Wu Yifang’s management practices and philosophy can thus provide important inspiration for university presidents.

Sonja Luehrmann, Praying with the Senses: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice

Sonja Luehrmann, <i>Praying with the Senses: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice</i>

올리버 R. 에비슨 박사의 선교활동과 기독교 정신, 그리고 연세학풍

올리버 R. 에비슨 박사의 선교활동과 기독교 정신, 그리고 연세학풍

Divorce in the Side of a Marriage Counselling Values

At the annual conference of The American Psychiatric Association (APA) in Miami, there was a workshop entitled "Family Crisis". The results of a study said that in the last 30 years, 60% of families in the United States ended in divorce, and 70% of their children did not develop well, behave deviant or antisocial. For example seen juvenile delinquency, abuse of NAZA (Narcotics, Alcohol, and other Addictive Substances), promiscuity, deviant sexual behavior and so on. It was also stated that divorce rates are increasing, marriages are decreasing because many people choose to live together without marriage or single life and free sex. Disloyalty (abuse) among families in the US turned out not to be the monopoly of husbands alone, but 40% of the wives there were also involved in affair with third parties. Of the five marriages in the first five years, three divorces occurred. The author gives the purpose of writing to discuss the crisis in the household, rebuild the household and give Christian values ​​in counteracting divorce. The author uses descriptive literature research method data and provides research results: How a harmonious family can be established dynamically if we base our family building on the basis of strong Christian spirituality values ​​accompanied by a fabric of good communication between us and our children. Surprisingly few studies have explored the implications of divorce happened because family can not be established, especially in young adulthood. This study addresses several theoretical arguments linking divorce in the side of spiritual value with reduced religious involvement in young adulthood and tests relevant hypotheses using data from a unique sample. Results show that divorce in the side of spiritual value is associated with substantially lower communicate religious involvement among young adults in their families house.

COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa: Addiction, Christian spirituality and mental health

In attempting to manage and cope with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, varying health strategies were implemented by governments worldwide. The South African government passed legislation implementing a lockdown in the country which included a prohibition of the sale and transportation of alcohol and cigarettes. In this contribution, the impact of this legislation on the mental health of those in addiction and those in recovery was explored. Against the backdrop of the global political climate of COVID-19, factors influencing the concepts of health and healing were questioned. National online recovery groups were identified as interventions aimed at promoting a sense of community in the face of social isolation and social distancing. The integration of shared ideas between Christian theology and positive psychology relating to the concept of self-control was explored. Building forth on, ‘The interface of religion, spirituality and mental health in a South African context: Naming the unnamed conflict’ attitudes of collaboration between the two worlds of psychology and pastoral ministry included, amongst others, humility, integrity, honesty and teachableness. These attitudes were linked to underlying spiritual pillars of recovery evident in the Christian-based online recovery groups of Project Exodus. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: These online recovery groups provided an example of an interdisciplinary approach to healing where psychology and Christian spirituality, as represented by mental health professionals, pastors and others in community, collaborated and encouraged the taking of personal responsibility, and supported the collective love, compassion and care towards those struggling with addiction, and those in recovery during the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa.

The role of spirituality in facilitating personal development according to the Pauline corpus

The concept of personal growth and development has been an ever-growing discipline in the last couple of decades, especially encapsulated by self-help constructs. The market for self-improvement literature, also known as self-help literature, is one of the fastest-growing fields over the last two decades. Spirituality has also become a prominent element in these popular self-help literatures. Interest in spirituality as a scholarly discipline, guided by academic disciplines, has grown in the last few decades, but so too has the interest in spirituality as a prominent component in popular texts such as self-help literature. Bible citations and concepts are frequently included in the theories on spirituality in these popular literature, but are not always interpreted within Christian constructs. The tendency to use Bible citations and concepts created the impression that spirituality in these self-help theories is a Christian precept. Spirituality, as a key factor in self-help literature, was examined in view of Christian Spirituality and biblical concepts. Transformation, experience, the body and the mind are central aspects of the spirituality advocated by these self-help literature. These central aspects were evaluated from a Pauline perspective and in view of Christian Spirituality with specific reference to Romans 8:1–30 and Romans 12:1–2. The specific reference to the Pauline corpus was motivated by the hypothesis that Christianity can historically claim intellectual property to the word spirituality , as the origins of the word can be attributed to Paul. Spirituality, in the quest for personal growth and development, implies the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer as a result of the Christ event. Christian Spirituality underlines the personal experience of the Spirit as evinced in the Pauline corpus. While spirituality is a scholarly discipline guided by academic disciplines, spirituality is also a key construct in popular self-help literature. The spirituality suggested in these self-help literature does not necessarily accord with biblical constructs. In Christian Spirituality, transformation is the consequence of the presence of the Spirit and not only by the mere implementation of so-called self-help methodologies or undefined spirituality. Contribution: This article will assist the Christian believer who, in the quest for personal growth and development, engages spirituality with a biblical construct from a Pauline perspective and understanding of the role and work of the Spirit. While being aware of the fact that spirituality cannot be defined in restrictive terms, this article will nevertheless present some understanding of Christian Spirituality and the necessity of the Spirit as it relates to personal growth and development.

Kontinuität und Diskontinuität pentekostaler Spiritualität

The pentecostal movement is a fairly young phenomenon in the history of christian spirituality. On the one hand the spiritual approach is picking up older conceptions of instantaneous God experiences, on the other hand Pentecostalism is educing new forms and expressions. The main focus is rooting in a strong missionary tendency and is convinced that god is willing to revelate himself to men in visible signs.

Catherine of Siena’s spirituality of political engagement

Well known as a mystic, Catherine of Siena has been credited with pope Gregory XI’s return to Rome from Avignon, with convincing him to pursue a crusade and with playing a major role in making peace between the Papal League and Italian City states. This narrative ascribes these accomplishments to Catherine’s extraordinary gifts, a fruit of her mystical experience. Contemporary historical research, however, shows that Catherine was chosen by ecclesiastical authorities to advocate for papal policies. She was guided to causes and policies she should pursue, which were already determined by the pope and his advisors. In light of this historical research and from the perspective of Christian spirituality studies, I examined Catherine’s letters to pope Gregory XI to analyse and interpret her spirituality of political engagement. Her multiple authoritative exhortations to Gregory XI telling him how her wisdom applied to the choices before him can be read as a spirituality of papal governance and as ‘formation’ for his critical leadership of the church. By means of this article I have shown that Catherine’s advice was intended for the salvation and transformation of others and for the good of the church so that it might best mediate salvation. This goal was her interpretation of the mission entrusted to her through her spiritual advisor. Her own spirituality in daring to forcefully ‘form’ the pope and in espousing papal causes by preaching her creative integration of Gospel wisdom was witness to an unselfconscious courage and utter trust in God acting through her; a fruit of her own profound journey of transformation. Contribution: This article offers a new interpretation of Catherine of Siena’s engagement in papal politics and related spirituality. Catherine was chosen for this task by ecclesiastical authorities, then construed this mission as a call to ‘form’ the pope; thus, her letters to Gregory XI are interpreted as a spirituality of papal governance.

Christian Faith and Resilience: Implications for Social Work Practice

This scoping review was undertaken to understand the current intersection of resilience, Christian faith, and social work practice in the professional literature. Five prominent themes emerged that included characteristics of resilience, cultural and communal resilience, spiritual practices, positive and negative spiritual/religious coping, and social work practice principles.&#x0D; Implications for practice and research are discussed with an emphasis on building the knowledge and literature on Christian spirituality and resilience within the social work field beyond a conceptual understanding.

The African Church’s application of anointing oil: An expression of Christian spirituality or a display of fetish ancestral religion?

The content of Christian spirituality that made waves since the inception of the early church soon took on different contours as the faith got adapted to different gentile contexts. The expression of this faith, along with its liturgical symbolism and sacramental observances, is still gaining momentum in African Christianity. The emerging practice of the use of ‘anointing oil’ in its religious expression is receiving more attention than the Christ of the Gospel. In this article, we argue that against its primitive intent, the use of the ‘anointing oil’ by the African Church is a mere display of fetish ancestral religion that expresses its unique African traditional religious root rather than a true expression of Christian spirituality. Our thesis is framed on the basis that the manner in which some African churches apply the purported ‘anointing oil’ is discriminatory vis-à-vis its ancient understanding and purpose. In our attempt to address this damaging practice to true Christian spirituality, also standing as a huge challenge for pastoral theology, we undertook a careful historical–theological analysis of the extant biblical data and its contextual interpretation vis-à-vis its distortion today. We concluded that what pastoral theologians have to deal with within the Christian community in Africa is offering the right biblical perspective against the distorted mode of the application of the contemporary purported ‘anointing oil’ that is falsely projecting the Christian faith and belief in a bad light. Contribution: The application of the anointing oil in contemporary Christian religion in Africa is, to say the least, not an inherent textually prescribed requisite criterion for Christian spirituality, but merely an outburst of fetish ancestral religious worldview that stands contra the hermeneutics of the biblical text and its ancient tradition. That no Old Testament prophet, not even Jesus nor Paul, mentioned the subject, makes its contemporary application textually and theologically suspect, and therefore, heretically infectious for the spiritual health of the community of faith. These insights sit quite well with the textual hermeneutics within the mainline transdisciplinary religious and multidisplinary theological perspective of this journal.

MODALITĂȚI DE GESTIONARE A TULBURĂRILOR DE COMPORTAMENT ALE ELEVILOR

The human mind is the subject of research for various fields of activity. Socio-human research fields investigate the brain's relationship with the mind, its circumstantial and relational functionality, the biological support and the complex processes of the soul, the principles of its formation and the relationship with consciousness, as well as its mode of action at the level of the human communities. Besides these perspectives, there is a special domain of mind research: that of Christian patristic spirituality. But what are the research objectives of Christian spirituality with regard to the human mind? And why did the uman mind come to the attention of the holy Fathers of the Church? From the texts of Christian anthropology and spirituality it follows that the mind has become a subject of research because the most intimate union between man and God is at its level. This study is centered on the analysis of St. Maximus the Confessor's observations about the human mind and its spiritual possibilities

Living Between: Exploring a Framework of Spirituality for Teachers and Students in Catholic Schools

Abstract This paper proposes a focus on human experience as the locus of identity construction and meaning making and presents a dialogical framework of Christian spirituality as a heuristic for teacher professional learning in religious education in Australian Catholic schools. Firstly the paper explores spirituality as a growing area of interest for young people today and its relation to identity formation for teachers and students in Australian Catholic schools. Secondly it presents a relatable theological framework of spirituality as an opening to transformative dialogue and self-reflection. Finally it describes the four paradigms of spirituality of the framework and the curriculum possibilities they raise.

To the Nations for the Earth: A Missional Spirituality

In the last two or three decades, we have witnessed a renewed interest in spirituality in Christian academic circles. More recently, we have also seen a growing number of publi­cations on the mission and missional church—both on popular and academic levels. While one can easily find many quality works on Christian spirituality and some decent books on mission/missional church, one would only find a few works that combine both themes in a single volume. In this work, Charles Fen­sham, professor of theology at Knox College, Toronto, attempts to do just that—as one may discern from the book’s subtitle: A Missional Spirituality. As such, this book ad­dress­es those who have interest in spirituality and/or in mission but particularly to those who would like to see how biblical missional impetus shapes a particular understanding of Christian spirituality.

Attending to the Multidimensional Nature of Spirituality and Faith: Integrating Spiritual Development and Moral Foundations Theory

The psychological study of spiritual development continues to grow in popularity, but definitions, theories, and frameworks related to this field often focus on a narrow range of qualities associated with spirituality. In the present article, the importance of integrating intuitive cognition—particularly moral intuitions—into models of spiritual development is considered, the implications of such cognition for spiritual development and Christian education are examined, and various limitations are noted.

Black Lives Matter: A Spiritual Response

Black Lives Matter:A Spiritual Response Michael Battle (bio) A soul of a child that is born and is unchristianed, because of original sin has no likeness of God; he is nought but an image of the fiend and a brand of hell. But as soon as it is christened, it is reformed to the image of God, and through virtue of faith of Holy Kirk suddenly is turned from the likeness of the fiend and made like an angel of heaven. Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, II.6.1 The Black Lives Movement (BLM) paradoxically sheds "light" on negative racial construction in Christian spirituality. Blackness sheds light. This is indeed a paradox and yet throughout Christian spirituality even the benign element of the via negativa could not prevent the onslaught of racism that infected Western Christian spirituality. This onslaught is important to be conscious of since the association of light and whiteness came to be synonymous with white people. Even in my own Anglican tradition, this is so in both the confusion of evangelizing the British Isles (already containing Christian faith) in the 6th century and mistaking Angles for angels (Non Angli, sed Angeli), a play on words attributed to Pope Gregory I for his affinity for fair-haired Anglian, slave children being auctioned in the Roman marketplace. For Pope Gregory, those children may have been born "unchristian," but they seemed innately closer to the kingdom of heaven because they resembled angels in their whiteness. In case the reader may have missed an important fact in my paragraph above, I need to reiterate it here. Anglian children were being sold as slaves in the Roman marketplace. For the 21st century reader this may come as some surprise but in the 6th century world this was commonplace in Greco-Roman occupational rule. What is most surprising, however, is that there was no legal justification to enslave these children on the basis of physiognomical difference as became the case in subsequent centuries to justify the North Atlantic slave trade. It took the epiphany of a pope in power to recognize the contradiction in this phenomenon of an Anglian slave that looked like an angel. I dare say it took a much longer time in the North Atlantic slave trade for a pope to see the contradiction of an African slave. My intention here is not simply to blame [End Page 20] individuals of the past for being racists, but to explore the confusing world-view of Christians in power when it came to the blindness of recognizing the likeness of God in black bodies. In particular in this essay, I look at how the BLM sheds light on how Western Christian spirituality can learn from the particular focus of how indeed black lives matter to God's likeness. I do this by looking at two well-known saints in Christian spirituality, St. Antony of Egypt and Hildegard of Bingen. Both of these saints are instructive in how they point to complex themes of light and darkness in Christian spirituality without being seduced into the evil associations of black people somehow being the image of the fiend and the brand of hell. I write this not because this allusion back to Walter Hilton makes him somehow a racist but to expose the confusing worldview in much of Western Christian spirituality that the Holy Kirk (Church) has often lacked virtue in seeing the likeness of God in black people and have instead structured such likeness primarily for those of European descent. ST. ANTONY OF EGYPT (251–356) In the past I engaged such contradictions between God's likeness and black bodies through the paradox of St. Antony's contest against the devil in the guise of a black boy.2 In holy passion, Antony boldly rebukes the devil's form of a black boy. When hearing this rebuke, the devil immediately flees, cowering at the words of Antony. Thus, from the very beginning of this seminal piece of hagiographical literature, Athanasius depicts Antony with a character so powerful that even demons fear to confront him. It is anachronistic however, to conclude that Antony was a racist because as I...

Breathed into Wholeness: Catholicity and Life in the Spirit by Mary Frohlich

Reviewed by: Breathed into Wholeness: Catholicity and Life in the Spirit by Mary Frohlich John J. Markey O.P. (bio) Breathed into Wholeness: Catholicity and Life in the Spirit. By Mary Frohlich. Foreword by Ilia Delio. A volume in Catholicity in An Evolving Universe. Series Editor, Ilia Delio. Mary Knoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2019. 242 pp. $28.00. In this impressive work Frohlich desires to develop an enhanced interpretation of the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit within the broader context of the term catholicity in its renewed meaning advocated by the series of which this book is a part. To accomplish this end, the author has set for herself a threefold task. First, she explains the internal relationship between doctrine of the Spirit and that of catholicity as implicit in the doctrinal tradition and in the extended treatment the term catholicity in the series. Second, she attempts, successfully in my opinion, to trace and articulate the "trajectory" of the inter-relationship of the theology of the Spirit of God and the human spirit as it has been understood in the Christian tradition. Finally, she seeks to re-imagine this relationship through an exploration of these themes in the context of Christian spirituality by which she means that field which primarily describes the experiential dimension of the relationship between traditional pneumatology and theological anthropology. Frohlich begins with an extended investigation into the concept of catholicity that discovers it initially signifies that the Church embraces and fulfills everything that is fundamentally human. Catholicity then implies that God's grace, through Christ and the Church, extends to all aspects of human experience and beyond human experience into all of creation to varying degrees. This understanding of the extensiveness and inclusivity of grace in turn expands traditional notions of the role of the Holy Spirit in human history and creation. Drawing on biblical and patristic sources, Frohlich chooses to highlight the interpretation of the terms ruah and pneuma as "breath," and so the Holy Spirit is the "Divine Breath" that flows within human beings and the world as a whole. The Divine Breath animates and enlivens all things metaphorically through as process of breathing "in and out." Frohlich extends this metaphor throughout the rest of the book as a way of re-imagining the traditional mission of the Spirit as well as reconceiving the implications of a robust pneumatology for both Christian spirituality and moral/ethical action. Frohlich, therefore, sees the Spirit as a "total environment that exerts influence" in unique way throughout the whole of creation (21). This also allows Frohlich to define the term "panentheism," one of the most important theological themes of the last century, in terms of pneumatology. From this starting point, Frohlich proceeds to analyze the traditional issues of Christian anthropology and spirituality. The Spirit as Breath is at the very heart of even seemingly "natural" human experiences as the "inner-dynamism that urges toward the maximum awareness of being inter-connected, whole or in harmony" with oneself and the wider social and created reality of which each person is a part (42). Chapter Three explores the contemporary crisis of what Frohlich calls the "Anthropocene." The Anthropocene is defined as the era of earth's history when human beings determine the primary structures of the earth's ecosystem. The potential and constantly looming destruction of earth's existing ecosystem by human beings creates the context in which all contemporary interpretations of Catholic person-hood must be done. In the following three chapters of her book, Frohlich examines [End Page 330] the various theoretical and methodological challenges to developing an integrative concept of catholic personhood. In these chapters Frohlich discerns that an authentic notion of catholic personhood must be rooted in a vision of an "apophatic" self that possesses real agency that enables it co-creates itself in cooperation with the Divine Spirit that universally works to bring each person and the whole of creation into a broader and deeply inclusive reality that offers a way through the present crisis of our time. The third part of this book, Chapters Seven through Nine, examines and describes the various practices–both traditional spiritual practices and contemporary modes of expressing the...

USING BUSINESS LEADERSHIP MODELS TO ANALYSE THE LEADERSHIP APPROACH IN A DEVELOPMENTAL ORGANIZATION WORKING IN THE CAPE FLATS

This practical theological multidisciplinary research investigates the leadership stances in a Christian developmental organisation operating in gangster-ridden communities in the Cape Flats within the Cape Town conurbation. In this article “stance” is used as a technical term referring to certain well-defined aspects of a leader’s outlook and approach. The organisation is evaluated using a Christian transcendental leadership stance developed by integrating the transactional, transformational and transcendental business leadership stances with Christian spirituality. The analysis reveals that, within the overall transcendental leadership stance of the researched organisation, the primary purpose and motivational incentivisation is transformational. It is suggested that the research may provide leaders of other and African Christian developmental organisations with useful and productive insights into their own organisations.