How is continuity achieved in the Gülen Movement?
In the Gülen Movement there is continuity between individual and collective identity, and between leisure and commitment. This continuity arises out of the nature of people’s participation, commitment and personal fulfillment. Participants belong to many, varying and overlapping networks of relations. In these network relations, individual needs and collective goals, and individual and collective interests, are constantly negotiated and served. Individuality and collectivity are therefore not mutually exclusive. While the individual and diverse contributions enrich community, ultimately individuals also benefit from what is done for and to the wider community. Also, people commit themselves to service-projects both within leisure time and working time. The continuity between leisure and commitment presupposes a close connection between self-fulfillment and participation, and enhances a great deal of feeling and meaning.
The joint effort of the Gülen Movement as a collective actor with the other groups or organizations in wider society, and the combination of service or vocation with professionalism are also factors that give continuity to the Movement. Thus there is continuity of relationship between individual and community, between the Movement and society, between the past and the present, between the Movement’s goals and universal values, between the particular, local goals and issues the Movement deals with and the global concerns of the people of the world. This continuity is strengthened by the Movement’s observing the legal and normal boundaries wherever it works, and affirming its citizenship in the System: its respect for legal boundaries secures for the Gülen Movement attitudinal support for its values and goals.
- Created on .