The name change is something that's going to be going on throughout the FWBO entities, but the hope is that it's going to all go down on Wesak Day, though obviously each entity could not change. There is no central authority, per se. The College of Precepts decides who and when people get into the order. Of course since Sangharakshita founded the order, people tend to listen to him. He has said he's just another order member, perhaps modestly. He's also relinquished his formal roles. The history of the name change is a convoluted one, but basically since the Western Buddhist Order is not just in the west, it's also in the east, they wanted a more neutral name. Similar problems happened in India, where a name would mean something for one group, but not another. They began to discuss this around 1995. It's hard to create a consensus, though many thought the name should change. A name was agreed on, and then it turned out that there were 2 other sanghas with the same name. So recently some India order member have asked for the change. And now it's trying to be implemented. And the FWBO/TBMSG News has reported on it.
Please note I'm outside the heart of things, and I'm not an order member, so you it's the view of a a mitra being expressed here.
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The Centre Chairs seem to be charging into the leadership vacuum (Lokabandhu is now employed by them to write the FWBO news amongst other things). They are organising the change, and trying to make it sound like it was their idea. Sigh.
So what is that sigh? Do you want more centralized authority? Or you're just tired of all the talk talk talk about it?
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