10 September 2003
COMMUNITY HOUSE
PROJECT REPORT
2002-3
LIVING ROOM
ecumenism & community life
A place where we gather together as a group to eat, talk and share with one another. A place where we strengthen our relationships to one another and the wider community. A place where we gather to reflect around the symbols of our faith.
Who was included in our community? How did we spend time together? Where did we go for help? Who gave us guidance? How did faith and spirituality factor into our home? What contributed to the success of the project?
The success of the project grew out of the network of people excited and supportive of the house.
Whenever the seven of us felt frustrated, inefficient, discouraged, convinced we weren’t doing enough, in the back of my mind I was encouraged to know that we were not alone.
If we as individuals failed to live up to all our ambitions at the very least we have stirred up the dust, indulging ecumenical conversations about community. In little ways we have planted seeds and demonstrated a way of living that will have an impact.
I believe having a Circle of Mentors and a contingency of people concerned about how we were doing fuelled us through the experience, reminding us of the macroscopic vision of what we wanted to do and be.
The Struggle for Ecumenism
It is difficult to measure the extent to which we embodied ecumenism [inter-church work] in the house project. Those of us living in the house brought our own unique backgrounds.
Incidentally a few of us are very involved in the United Church of Canada. Others have experiences from other denominations, other religions or very little religious experience at all.
We all valued spirituality but struggled with how to express this through the life of the house. Could we have a collective faith-based identity? We shared liturgies together on a few occasions.
Each person brought his or her own contribution to such a reflection. The liturgies were heavily Christian but people also brought reflections from traditions they felt strongly connected to.
Christianity and spirituality were huge community issues. Not everyone was Christian or comfortable with Christianity or the institutional church.
If we identified as a Christian-based community, who would that alienate or exclude from the wider community? How can we honour each other’s beliefs? How can we celebrate our faiths or spirituality together? Are faith and spirituality important to our work and activism? From where do we draw our strength? Will how we identify affect how we are perceived by churches, other faith communities or our ability to access funding?
During the preliminary meetings, I was emphatic about my passion to start a house richly faith-based.
This was always the most volatile issue leading up to creating the house. Most people were cautious of Christianity and we struggled to find ways that faith and spirituality could be accessible, open and welcoming rather than dogmatic and restricting.
I have been really inspired by the Catholic Worker model of Christian life and praxis of social justice. I strongly desired a faith-based house for my own nourishment and to develop the project with integrity to the WSCF/WCC ecumenical process.
Once the six of us first got to the house I eased off the issue of faith to allow the house to grow into what it needed to become. I wanted people to feel comfortable and passionate about the house. There is always a balance between how much you can mold and shape a vision and how much you must let it grow on its own.
Faith and activism have always been a dichotomy in my own life. Sometimes I feel stifled in church settings. Many Christians I meet or know aren’t concerned with radical social justice issues (not to say that there is only one way to seek peace and justice).
On the other hand, many activists I cross paths with don’t talk about faith or God and are very skeptical of Christianity (though often for very valid reasons). In my context, society is rather secular and integrating faith into everyday life can be challenging.
[It is important to mention however that Christianity is privileged in North America through popular culture, recognition of holidays and its influential role in the history of colonization. Technically our societal institutions are secular but Christianity is still the hegemonic religion.]
I can’t say for sure how people in the house were affected spiritually.
Did we challenge and stimulate our spiritual growth? Did the house provide a space for people to explore their faith? Can we adopt the term ecumenical to signify inter-denominational as well as inter-faith?
What I know for sure is that we talked about all these issues quite a bit and I am deepened in my own faith because of it. Perhaps, as one mentor noted these conversations about faith and religion should always be a struggle: "I would be more worried if you weren’t struggling with questions of faith or how you identify as a community."
Our Circle of Mentors is an ecumenical group of people from across western Canada. Many of the Mentors come from United Church backgrounds but also others are involved with other Christian denominations and other faith traditions.
NEXT > outreach & hospitality
CONTENTS | Introduction
front entrance | how we got started
bathroom | owning the project
bedrooms | individuals within the whole
living room | ecumenism & community life
kitchen | outreach & hospitality
closets | challenges along the way
balcony | methods & details
dock | looking ahead
