23 March 2003
I found an answer to my questions when I returned to Victoria and met people who were yearning for the same experience of radical community. Some of them were from church backgrounds, some not, but we began meeting to talk about starting an intentional, possibly Christian, community house in Victoria.
Sarah initiated the project after a [ World Council of Churches ] conference in Cuba, at which 40 young adults from (often conflicting) churches around the world developed ideas for social change projects that would be ecumenical, that is, bringing together divided churches. Inspired by the vision of a Catholic Worker community she had visited in Toronto, Sarah soon found that many young people felt the need for spiritual community.
Few of us had heard of the Catholic Worker, a movement started by American anarchist Dorothy Day in 1933. But we were excited by her commitment to living an alternative to violence and injustice, and doing it prayerfully and generously. She, too, struggled with the contradictions of being both anarchist and Catholic.
There are now six of us living in our community house‹with backgrounds in the United and Anglican Churches, Buddhism, and Goddess spirituality. What we have in common is a commitment to living nonviolence (some of us call it Gospel nonviolence, to distinguish it from simply being peaceful), challenging oppression, and inspiring ourselves and others to build a just and compassionate society. We're still envisioning how we're going to do that, with the support of our Circle of Mentors, a network of adults who have inspired us in our lives.
That circle has Quakers, Catholics, Anglicans and United Church members, all of them committed to peace, social justice and radical compassion. Radical compassion is the power of love as a political force. When Jesus spoke of loving our enemies, not just our friends, he was speaking of radical compassion‹all the while resisting oppression. (And he certainly didn't preach complacency or acceptance of injustice... One day he rampaged through the temple kicking over the tables of the money-changers who were trying to turn a holy place into a shopping mall).
This community is what nurtures me in my life now. I still struggle with my faith and with my questioning of organized religion. But, like sharing the dark and derelict building with Victoria's homeless and watching shadows flicker on the dim candlelit walls, this is what makes me feel safe and whole. Like many pilgrimages, my journey into Christian spirituality has led me to a place of worship.
This is holy space.
THE END
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LINKS: [ Restoration Ministries ]
[ Corrymeela Centre ]
[ Community House home ]
[ World Council of Churches ]
[ Catholic Worker ]
NOTE: Sarah's name changed from original [back to story ]