Kripamoya Dasa

I wanted to offer my sincere thanks for all the efforts made in producing the ISKCON Communications Journal. Considerable trouble has obviously been taken to listen carefully to devotees and to discover the very real challenges which they face. ISKCON is growing in many new and often surprising ways. We all have to be prepared and trained to recognise these new developments and to properly respond to them. If I could give you just two examples of how the ICJ has personally helped me recently.

Firstly, I was very grateful to have something practically sound and honest to share with others on ISKCON's turbulent history of 1977-87. Ravindra Svarupa's essay was brilliantly straightforward and resulted in many congregational members becoming intellectually and politically satisfied.

Secondly, working with almost thirty congregational groups here in the UK, I have often had to act as 'troubleshooter' when, after the first few months, personality clashes and philosophical disagreements begin to manifest. To date, although I've tried to do my best, the results have usually been a little messy. I was therefore immensely relieved to read Sefton Davies' article on 'Group Dynamics and Leadership'. His comments on the four stages of group development were of particular help; there are two congregational groups which have been spared considerable misery after analysing their members' interactions in the light of Sefton's systematically arranged sections.

I would therefore urge your readers to return to these articles, reread them, photocopy them and pin them up in a prominent place.

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