About us
What Is TAP?
The Agapic Project (TAP) is an international charitable association which seeks to put agape ethics into practice by loving everyone and actively trying to improve the world.
We aim to accomplish this through actions such as collaborating with other charities, think tanks or activist groups, raising awareness, researching topics from an agapic stance, and producing content such as children books, articles and podcasts to spread the message of agape, or convey solutions to particular issues. From a broad agape aim, the specific actions of TAP are shaped by the skills and passions of its members. We strive to practice agape through these five focuses:
Agape is unconditional and universal love, benevolence, or altruism. More precisely, it is an active care for the wellbeing of all, regardless of who they are or how they act. That is to say, regardless of any conditions, such as their identity or their actions. Agape ethics focuses on putting this principle into practice in our lives (for more details, see our agape introductory blog post and some of our essays on agape).
In TAP, we try to foster and act through this love, to live with an active care for the wellbeing of all. Of course, we have so much more to learn. But we hope many others can start this journey together with us.
We are always open to new ideas and suggestions about how best to fight for a better world💚
Read more about it in our document ‘TAP aims’, or feel free to contact us for any questions!
How Was TAP Founded?
In the summer of 2020, Zach and Callum thought about how hard it is to change our world alone, and how much more we could do together, so they started to imagine what a group of people focused on practicing agape could look like. After talking to lots of people and gradually defining its goals, they launched The Agapic Project charity on 18 December 2020.
18th December is also the anniversary of the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment that prohibited slavery throughout the USA. In the tense context of our early twenty-first century, this is a reminder that not so long ago, some humans in the United States were legally treated as property. Aware that this continues in too many places still today, and aware of the horrendous conditions in which so many non-human beings also live, TAP hopes to make a humble yet bold contribution to the fight for a fairer and more caring world.
Since launch, we have held meetings on what agape and TAP are about, invited non-members to share their thoughts, held socials for our community of members and supporters to get to know each other, and developed groups working on several projects tackling different issues. We’ve grown to some twenty members (and numerous supporters), have three projects currently running, and are working on a children's book and guides for more loving communication.
What Do We Do?
Our members can choose to get involved in certain tasks or projects, including:
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Researching a topic to find, beyond biased information, what is a or the right/loving way of acting. This process of philosophical and ethical inquiry is not to moralize and judge other people, but to allow those who wish to be as loving as possible to benefit from research dedicated to this end and make progress;
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Getting involved in projects on certain specific issues, such as homelessness, animal welfare, education for people with disabilities or special needs, climate change, etc., including through action on the ground, for example through local charities;
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Creating content to promote agape as ethics and way of life, or to make available and visible the products of our research, through YouTube, podcast platforms, published works, conferences, etc;
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Working together as a community to support each other and encourage each other’s efforts toward growth so that we may more effectively love all beings;
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…and more!
Depending on the skills and passions our members have, we can attempt to influence policy, as do think tanks, to be more loving, run a mental health service, provide support to the homeless, take part in humanitarian aid, or contribute to the fight against climate change, etc. When possible and effective, this should be done through involvement in existing organizations such as charities.
In The Agapic Project, you can do just about anything as long as it is contributing to loving all beings and making the world a better place.
Who Are We?
We are a community of people working together to move more effectively towards practicing agape in all areas of our lives and improving the wellbeing, autonomy, and relationships of all. We do this through discussions about various issues and dilemmas to come up with more loving solutions, as well as pushing for societal change.
A few members share their experiences in TAP:
Catherine
Delegate role: Social Media
"I joined TAP in 2021 as a student at Lancaster University, keen to understand more about applying Agape Ethics in my own life and get involved in its various projects. Since supporting our Homelessness Project, I’m now the group’s Social Media Delegate. It’s been great to see how TAP has grown in the last year or so. Through our project work we’ve built such a supportive community. My perspective is being challenged all the time and I only hope it continues!"
Gabrielle
Delegate roles: Community and Records
"I chose to join TAP because I thought it would be a good way to put in practice my faith, by loving my neighbor as myself. And it has been indeed! Through TAP, I have worked on various welfare projects, mainly for the environment and animal well-being, and will hopefully do for many other valuable causes in the future. TAP also helps positively influence mindsets, through posts about striving for a loving (agape) life, for example. Finally, TAP gives me an awesome circle of people supporting me if I struggle, giving me well-thought advice in cases of dilemmas, and with whom I can share joyful and meaningful events, such as during the socials I organize."
Jess
On the admissions committee
"Hi, my name is Jess! When I was first introduced to the term ‘agape’, everything that I already valued such as empathetic understanding of others, forgiveness, and acceptance, began to make sense under one cohesive philosophy. The Agapic Project felt like the perfect opportunity for me to get involved with a community of people with the same goals as me: to raise awareness about a variety of important issues and to make tangible differences in other people’s lives."
Lucas
Delegate roles: Community, Recruiting and Training
"Hello, my name is Lucas. When I heard about agape through Zach, I found it an inspiring philosophy that could help me and those around me live a happy and fulfilling life. While I was already living with some of the same core values, TAP introduced me to more like-minded people which helped me deepen my values further. Through my studies and work in Cognitive Hypnotherapy, I am also very interested in wellness which is why I am currently a community delegate. I host regular “Circletimes” where we discuss certain topics that can be negatively impacting people."
Zach
Delegate roles: Overview, Recruiting and Training, Agape Ethics/Research, Public Accountability
"Having been passionate about agape and trying to implement it as best as possible in my life for several years before founding The Agapic Project, I founded it on 18th December 2020 with the help of my friend Callum. It has been wonderful to see our community grow beyond the uncertain prospects we had at the start. I can't wait to continue to meet more agapists, inspire people towards agape, and together continue to work on having a concrete positive impact on our world and the wellbeing of all! Meanwhile, the last few years have seen scary political developments worldwide: this accentuates the need for agape, and for all of us to build communities, communicate compassionately with one another, and be as active as possible in fighting for everyone’s rights."
How Do We Function?
The delegate system TAP uses differentiates itself from the typical representative organization structures.
It replaces the "exec." system of president, vice-president, general secretary, treasurer, social secretary, etc., usually elected once a year, for a system whereby anyone who wishes to get involved in helping the organization fulfill its core functions may volunteer, and is then delegated the role(s) or responsibility(ies) in question, by consent from the membership.
A delegate has a specific mandate and cannot make decisions beyond this mandate without checking with members for consent.
Finally, to maintain equality between members and empower all of them to be autonomous, delegates are recallable. This means that if members are dissatisfied with a delegate and/or no longer consent to this person being a delegate, they may revoke and replace the delegate.
For example, let’s imagine TAP’s overview delegate no longer does any work to organize the monthly delegate meetings and coordinate TAP activities, or that they’ve made racist or sexist remarks and have not apologized and educated themselves about it when called out. If one or more members wishes, they may call for the removal of this person from their overview delegate role. If there is no clear agreement from other members, a discussion is held to seek a solution gathering consent from as many members as possible, ideally from everyone, and this may be: naming a new delegate, restricting the mandate of the old delegate, subjecting their keeping their role to undergoing some training, etc.
This system ensures direct democracy, minimizing hierarchy and the risks of domination: power remains in the membership.
Join us!
There are plenty of ways you can get involved 😊
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Follow our social media to stay updated:
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Join our Discord server as a supporter and attend a few sessions or meetings to see what we do and how we work!
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Help us by offering up particular skills, such as illustrating for our children’s book!
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Become a member and help with a project or two! For that, we recommend you look at our document Is TAP For Me? and get in touch 💚