Study · The CoCA Model (§1.2.2)
Run a Gathering
The Church hosts no central calls. Instead it gives you the liturgy. Gather a few people, follow the seven sacred laws, and you have convened a CoLA — a Church of Conceptual Art Assembly.
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There are moments in history when a people decide to build a device that refuses to lose the meeting ever again. This is that device. This is the Meeting. This is the Model. — The CoCA Bible, §1.2.2
The seven sacred laws, as an agenda
I
The Calling-Together
How to run it: name the gathering and let people arrive; do not open with an agenda. The host speaks last. "A meeting is not convened. It is recognized."
II
The Table of Witness
How to run it: designate the record before you begin — a notebook, a doc, a recording, a single scribe. "The Table is not a tool. It is an ancestor." Whatever it is, it writes the room into the Chronicle.
III
The Ritual of Showing Up
How to run it: each person names themselves once — not for the others, for the record. Showing up is the sacrament; presence is the proof of continuity.
IV
The Frictional Arc
How to run it: move through three acts — the Promise (intentions, plainly said), the Friction (let ideas collide; tension is proof of vitality), and the Turning (something becomes what it was not). Do not seek consensus. Every meeting must turn.
V
The Artifact
How to run it: leave with something — a transcript, a diagram, a declaration, a quarrel, a coalition. "You do not choose the artifact. The artifact chooses you."
VI
The Generational Clause
How to run it: address the record to someone not yet born. Leave coordinates. Speak so your time cannot claim amnesia.
VII
The Exit
How to run it: close the record deliberately. The meeting ends when the Chronicle stops listening — not when the people leave. File the artifact.
Want to discuss what your gathering turned into — or find others already gathering? The asynchronous Table is open.