Last Sunday we celebrated Tom’s 71st birthday with a delicious meal prepared by Christine. We enjoyed a feast of pork roast, roasted vegetables, roasted onions, bread and wine. I better not forget the birthday cake made by Ricci and Catie, with carrots from our garden.
Later on in the evening after our usual Madura tea, we spent some time praying for Tom.
Getting the feast ready
Gathering around the table
Happy birthday Tom!
Tom finally sent out to the publisher the manuscript to his new book. After 2 years of work, we celebrated with a wonderful dinner and a cake.
There is no report tonight. Not because there is nothing to say, but because there is too much to say. And because I am very tired.
I will continue this tomorrow. But one thing I want to let you know, I’m going home with a great sense of Hope. Because now not only have the book of Acts to refer as how the early radical disciples of the early church lived, I also can point out to a community, formed by 30+ people living in 4 houses in Mission District in San Francisco called Church of the Sojourners.
I’m continuing with my report from the School for Conversion at the Church of the Sojourners.
In our house we began our day with what was suppose to be a simple breakfast but turned out to be quite an abundant feast. We had endless servings of bacon (there must have been at least 5 pigs represented in our table this morning) hash browns, all sorts of bread for toast, cereal, milk, orange juice, fruit and good coffee. Jonathan and Leah (from NC) Andrew (from Montana) Edith, Jenny and Tim with their 2 kids John Paul (2 1/2 yrs old) and Alexina (4 yrs old) shared the bountiful meal.
After breakfast and as the rest of the participants were coming from their houses we started our school day with morning prayer. We sang, read Psalms and prayed.
Our morning sessions started with Tim Lockie, who is a covenant member of Church of Sojourners and work with InnerChange. His presentation was titled “together with the Saints.” Some old members of the community told me that this group is formed mostly by introverts and that there is only one extrovert among them, it doesn’t take long to realize that it is Tim whom they were talking about.
His talked struck me as a mix between a typical youth pastor talk, with lots of funny anecdotes, some simple comparisons and a conversational style, with a very mature reflection on the matter of unity as a body of Christ. Not that typical youth pastor cannot be serious and reflective, but you do not meet them that often. The talk and discussion went on as the church as the physical extension of the physical body of Christ. As it, then it is the reflection of God’s fullness. We move on to discuss the individualization and privatization of our spiritual journeys compare with how the early church and early monastic had an spirituality of togetherness. Many of us move from church to church, from small group to small group without a real commitment to be together with the saints in all that entails. The members of this community submit themselves to what some would call radical submission to the group. The decisions are made as a group, from where you would live to how many hours and how far you work. It is all done in prayerful group discernment.
The next session was lead by Jonathan from Rutba House in Durham North Carolina. The first part of the discussion was about the power and principalities. I was very glad with the way Jonathan started his talk. He made a disclaimer making very clear that God is doing amazing things is other parts of the world that are much more exciting than north american new monasticism. He went on to mention how much we can learn from the african american church about Gospel living. He suggested that we looked at the theologies and social movements that had come and are coming out of the Gospel experience in Latin America. And finally how the kingdom of God is been preached and lived in Africa.
We discuss about our own struggles with our demons and the structure of imperial evil as systemic. There had been lots of parallels between Israel leaving Egypt and been formed by God and the Church as a community of exiles among this culture and the need to reclaim it identity as the people of God. One of the things that give me a great sense of hope is the respect and desire to be part of the global and catholic (universal) church. I’ve heard how people that are practicing new monasticism talked about “we are not inventing the wheel” or “this is nothing new, and it better not be.” I feel very encourage by the sense this level of authenticity. The second part of Jonathan presentation was a brief historical exposition of what is consider new monasticism -beginning at one the the earliest mention of the term by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1932. In one of his letters from prison to his brother Bonhoeffer spoke about the need for a restoration of a church in a new monastic way that would follows the rule of the sermon of the mount. From Bonhoeffer, we talked about Eberhard Arnold and the beginning of the Bruderhof Community, Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement, Clarence Jordan and Koinonia Farm, the Jesus People and Sojourners Community among many others that have lived out the values of together with the saints and the values of justice, peace, mercy, hospitality and love of God’s Kingdom. Been in San Francisco we could end the discussion without talking about St. Anthony and St. Francis.
The conversation were well engage with questions and discussion. The group seemed more relaxed and it began to feel like a group instead of separate people. By today I knew most of the names.
We all had local burritos for lunch and try to catch up with each others. I spoke with Zoe, a long time member of the community about the miracle stories in our lives that show us the greatness of God, like my dad giving up alcohol right away after a conversion experience and how that spiritual encounter changed him and changed my family. Then I chatted with Jenny and Debbie about raising kids bilingual.
For the early afternoon, we could choose from different activities, a walk around the neighborhood, a walk to Mission street and a local part where different ministries engage with homeless and run way kids, rest or help Louise originally from Belize and a long time member of the community prepare some of the food for the church meal tomorrow. I chose to help Louise cook. The house where she and other members of the community live is in Potrero Street about 8 blocks from the house I’m staying.
Around 4:00 p.m. we gathered for the talked that most people were waiting for, the community practices of Church of Sojourners. This group do not have a rule, but they live by practices. One of the practices is communal and relational space. People live in local households, there are single people, kids, widows and married people living together intentionally. The group discern pastorally where each person will live. There is no personal individual preference or choice on where do you live. It is all decided “together with all the saints.” Family household eat together 3 times a week, they take time for business discussion, ministry, service and hospitality discussion and worship time. There is a great sense of intentionality in coming together out of necessity, because we cannot walk the christian walk on our own. Another of the practices discuss was the economics of the house. The intention is to resemble the early church and early monastics where there were no rich and no poor among them. The group have developed ways to pool together their money as a community but still have money as individuals for their own discretionary fund. We were very encourage to discuss the household economics in our communities as a way to explore and expose where our allegiance is, if it is with the Lordship and Kingship of Christ or with cultural market economy of north america. Later on some members talked about the blessings and messiness of hospitality, their struggles with corporate rhythm of prayer and the blessing of Sabbath keeping, which is celebrated for 3 hours in the morning every Sunday.
Trying to make this short I will now list some other topics of the day -
More to come tomorrow.
I made it to San Francisco. I think the place named after Saint Francis is the perfect place to gather a group of people interested in discussing new monasticism.
I am staying in one of the 4 houses owned by Church of the Sojouners. This one is an old style row house, next to what they called The Monastery, because in it’s beginning it’s there where only single guys living on it. But that didn’t last long. There is one more house about a block from here and another one about 8 blocks away.
The group is quite inter-generational, which I was excited to see. I was even more excited when some people in the house started to converse with me in Spanish. This community is located in the Mission District which is mostly a Latino neighborhood.
There are about 16 of us that came from outside Church of the Sojourners for this School or Seminar for Conversion, as it was later pointed out. A school will take a whole life. There are people from Montana, North Carolina, Idaho, California and Washington
Our first session was lead by Dale Gish, a covenant member of Church of the Sojourners. Dale and his wife Debbie, have lived here for 20 years. They have a cute little 2 yr old girl named Rebecca, whom remind me a lot of Catie, with beautiful brown eyes.
Dale lead us in a discussion about conversion. His focus was how the people of Israel were losing their identity as the people of God at the time of John the Baptist. The presentation was very introductory, but it brought good parallels on the issue of how much Israel had forsaken their called and were influence by Roman culture with how much the western/north american christian church derive it identity from north american culture.
After the talk & discussion we went to our respective household for dinner. We had Tuna Pie for dinner in my house. I know it does not sound that appetitive, but it was very good. We had kids in our table which made the time fun and relax. We engage in a conversation about the importance of living in intergenerational communities, for 3 mayor reasons, pass along the wisdom of the old, reconciliation and for a sense of hope in something that take long to mature.
Tim Otto lead our second session. Tim have been part of this community for 15 years. His topic was an overview of God calling a people to himself but for the world. I was very impacted byt his exegesis about how the doors of hell will not prevail against the church. He spoke not that the church will be strong against the gates of hell (which is what is mostly taught) but that the doors of hell will not withstand the force of the church. What a great image! The community of the Beloved coming with all the force of love and the gate bursting down.
After that session, there was cake, tea and fruit and a lot of small discussions.
People came with different motives and purposes. Some, like myself, are part of a community and are looking to learn from others how to be more intentional about covenants, mission, praxis etcetera. . Some have read Shane Claiborne’s book The Irresistible Revolution and are curious about new monasticism.
We close our time together with chanted evening prayers and Psalms.
