THE DECLARATION OF "INTER-DEPENDENCE"

John Winthrop’s sermon on the ship named “Arabella”   in 1630. Winthrop eventually became Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but on his way to the ‘newe world’, he said this to his fellow passengers:

Wee must be knit together in this worke as one man, we must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of other’s necessities… We must delight in eachother, make other’s conditions our own….always having before our eyes our community as members of the same body.

This sermon was delivered 150 years BEFORE our nation was formally founded.  Winthrop defined a culture of generosity that has shaped America every since.  Without a commitment to ‘the greater good,’ the colonists could not hope to survive and prosper in the ‘newe land.’ Want to read the whole sermon?  history.hanover.edu/texts/winthmod.html.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE