Monasticism, Community and the Island

Recently saw the Russian film, the Island. (not to be confused with the 2005 sci-fi action movie of the same English title.) It is about a monk and an Orthodox monastery on an Island off the coast of the North sea. It is a beautiful depiction of monasticism, community and the struggle of the spiritual life. The story revolves around hte character of Father Anatoly, and the abbot Father Filaret and Father Job, a younger monk who is also in charge of much of the daily functioning of the monastery. Father Anatoly is troubled by a grave sin he committed before he found himself in the monastery, but people come to the monastery in search of him, believing he is a holy man and attribute miracles to him, and one whose prayers are especially efficacious. But Father Anatoly is not an easy man, and usually pretends that he is the aid of Father anatoly. Father Anatoly also plays pranks on his fellow monks and doesn't always pray in the church with the monks but prays the set prayers and psalms either in his cell or out in the steppes away from the monastery. He is also the monk who tends the boiler of the monastery and lives in the boiler room. Overtime we do come to see through the harsh treatment of those who come to him, the pranks, and isolation that he is a holy man, a holy fool, and probably a Saint. In a sense through being a fictionalized account we have a story of a holy fool that is not a hagiography, and can experience the challenge of Christian holiness without the aura of knowing for sure who Father Anatoly is.

I think there are many lessons people who live or seek to live in intentional community can gain insight about the nature of intensive communal living, even if not strictly speaking monastic. The Island shows that monasticism isn't retreat from struggle but is retreat to struggle. Even that monasteries aren't the place of the perfect but of sinners, who struggle with deep rooted and often hidden sins. It also beautifully portrays the frustrations and the beauty of being tied to those who are truly other in manasticism and intentional Christian community. Living in this way with others whose quirks, sins and bodily presence, the whole person, can simply rub against ones own person in ways that can make one acutely aware of both the others failings and ones own. The temptation then is to focus on the others sins and failings ignoring ones own. or as in the case of Father Anatoly to be so convinced of ones own failure that one cannot see how God is at work in your presence in the community.

I appreciate that the film in its short vignettes of monastic life and in the depiction of the relationship between the three main characters, shows the reality and the holiness of this form of life: a holiness that does not come from the perfection of the monks but the ongoing struggle over each monks own sins and failings and of accepting God at work in each person for the good of all both those inside and outside the monastery. Things we who look to monasticism and seek to live out the Gospel in this intensive and communal way need to keep in mind in our attempts to serve God and the church in living in intentional Christian community.

Labels: community life, Monasticism, Reflection, Spiritual Life

Letter to Friends of the Community

Dear Friends,

By now, you are probably familiar with who we are, on one level or another. To you, we may be members of your family, or longtime friends; maybe we are partners in faith on the Immanuel campus; it is possible that you have worked with us, collectively or individually, to help make a difference in the world; perhaps we are simply known as “The 'Nidge”, a gathering place for an increasingly diverse group of friends. Really, we are all of those things, and more.

The Community of the Holy Trinity was begun in 2003 by current members Kate and Larry Kamphausen, and two friends, who have since moved on. The community was formed to provide a space for Christians, especially those who are artists, social activists, and social workers, to come together in mutual support of God’s calling and living out the Gospel. For us, this means holding property in common in a life centered on the daily rhythms of prayer and an environment of hospitality. Our inspiration has been the monastic tradition of the Church, as well as specific communities like the monks of Taize, and the Reba Place community in Evanston. At the writing of this letter, we currently have six members, who are all artists, musicians, activists, and writers, all with the passion, talent, and determination to help make the world a better, safer place, free of oppression and violence. The community's common purpose is prayer and hospitality, and joining together in mutual support of each others's callings.

By the end of this calendar year, The Community of the Holy Trinity will be coming under the umbrella of an organization called *Culture is Not Optional ( or “*CINO”). *CINO is a group which seeks to encourage and support Christian engagement with all aspects of culture -- the arts, sciences, politics -- and to do so with an open but distinctly Christian perspective. The organization, like Holy Trinity, is ecumenical, though its founders all come out of the Christian Reformed tradition.

In order to support our members in their pursuits, and to fulfill our desire to extend hospitality to those in need, we need your help. Our immediate need is to help support two of our members who are called to social activism full time, one of whom suffers from chronic health problems and is uninsured; longer-term, our goal is to help support any of our members who desires to follow their callings, as well as provide a place of retreat, respite, and healing for members as well as guests. The Community is also exploring expansion, as we have three people who are currently considering membership, and in order to be able to accommodate these people, we need to find more space.

In order to meet our immediate needs for this calender year and to lay a good foundation for the coming year we are seeking to raise $9000. Your donation will be tax-deductible, and in early 2010 you will receive a Year-in-Review letter that will let you know how our budget breaks down, and the activities of our members as they are able to put your donations to work in the world. We invite you to partner with us as we continue to live into and expand the work that was begun six years ago.

Cash, checks, and money orders may be sent to: Community of the Holy Trinity, 1510 W Elmdale, Chicago, IL 60660.

We look forward to this journey together!

Labels: community life, Introducing Community

From Self-centeredness to Christ Centeredness.

This is a stab at articulating some things in my self and being part of the community that are on the edge of full articulation. This is sort of a sketch of thoughts on what living for and in Christ as member and prior of an intentional Christian Community.

Several things are on the horizon for the community, yet what they mean for the community is currently very vague and the time table for them happening is also uncertain and depends on things which are not entirely in our or my control. This is a difficult place to be one that requires detachment and a keen sense of call and the reason for having made and continuing to make certain sacrifices. Our Rule speaks of growing in awareness of things held in common, of hospitality and of being for the other. All of this, if followed, calls for moving beyond a self-centerdness into dieing to one-self for the sake of Christ. Here is the rub: at times it is not clear to me how what we do, what I do is for Christ, nor is it clear to me what exactly that means. I am not always sure how to evaluate these things.

The lack of clarity in part comes from the the moralistic interpretations of being Christ centered or the narrow cultural interpretations that would view my identification as Goth as a form of self-centeredness. Yet, I have for sometime felt that my identification as goth Christian and pastor was a coincidence of things That are expressions of myself and of being for Christ.

What I feel being called to now is that to entirely give over this identity to Christ and all that i do: for instance working with Kilter Magazine. What is odd is that this sense of call changes nothing of the externals, rather it is a disposition towards these things. A releasing of a preoccupation with identity and its preservation.

What has lead me to this I am finding that my various involvements are exhausting me, because I am attempting to do them because I am interested in them and for myself. Yet I have also been lead to do them for the sake of Christ and others. attempting to keep a division of what I do for myself and what I do for "ministry", creates at times an exhausting burden, because most of what I do currently is due to my interests and identity and yet I am also doing them as "ministry"

What I think is happening is that who I am is being taken up into Christ, I will take part in the editorial work of Kilter, I will write for Catapult, pastor Reconciler be Prior of the Community of Holy Trinity as its founder,

This all should not be surprising when Kate and I began down this path it was not for us but for others. Before our friends approached us and asked to start a community with them, we did not feel called to community. the very act of founding the Community of the Holy Trinity was an act of leaving aside a certain path in which we would have still served Christ but would have pursued our interests and certainly would have served Christ but in away that the service of Christ would have been through the preservation of an identity in the service of Christ, there would have been "ministry" we would have done and the things we did in our own pursuits separate from "ministry" I don't have a ministry, I don't have that which is for myself. This goes against much current conversation of self-care.

Labels: community life, Reflection, Spiritual Life

*CINO and Imagining spaces

*CINO has raised over 1500 dollars by yesterday towards the purchase of the Huss School property.  The deadline for the closing date for the property was moved back so they have a new deadline to raise the approximately 4000 dollars to be able to purchase the property.  

Labels: *cino, community life, property

Feast of the ascension

This evening the community held a vespers service with Holy Communion for the Feast of the Ascension to which members of Immanuel Lutheran Church and Reconciler were invited to attend. Since we are in the parsonage of we use Immanuel's chapel for our morning and evening prayer, we share this space with Reconciler . If one wishes one can join us for morning or evening prayer but people joining us for prayer has only occurred a couple of times and requires letting us know since the church is not usually open at 7 in the morning or 7 in the evening. One person showed up who has been to Reconciler and is a friend of Kates and mine as well as a couple other members of Reconciler. Since it was a feast day and members of the two churches were invited to join us in prayer it was different and it was the first time the community had its own Eucharist service.

I am of two minds about the service and that only one person showed up. I feel that in preparing for this service I came to understand the Divine Office better and the possibilities for the community as we enter more fully into it. So, I feel that marking this particular feast day and others is worth doing since it is living more fully into the patterns our Rule sets down for us. Yet, doing so is difficult with any full number. Given many peoples schedules even in the community itself there is rarely more than three of us at any one prayer service. even for us who have joined a community who say daily prayer is important other things (work schedule and other things) can mean that rarely do all of us show up together at prayer. So, that only one person outside the community showed up perhaps isnt' surprising. I wonder if few show is it worthwhile. I feel a little funny that I put so much thought into the service.

Then I think that especially of late as I have lived into being the sole pastor of Reconciler as well as prior of Holy Trinity, I know that keeping Morning and Evening prayer (even if there are days I miss one or the other) have given me the spiritual resources to face the chalenges of the past several months. I want to share this with others, and our friend did show up, so their might be a desire for this, but like the community has found over the years in a busy urban enviroment even when one is intentional about it keeping morning and evening prayer is a difficult thing to do.

Then there is that this is the feast of the Ascencion, and part of me finds this an odd thing to mark. Intelectually and theologically I understand it as significant and important, but although growing up I was in churches that marked Easter and to some degree emphasized that easter was a season of 50 days and then also celebrated Pentecost, the Ascension was never celebrated, not even celebrated on the Sunday before Pentecost. And for some reason as I have been preparing my sermon the issue of a cosmology in which heaven is up, (which it obviously is not literally), has troubled me about the story of the Ascension.

So, as I lead this service tonight, questions, doubts were swirlling about my head, and so even I was perahaps wondering what we were marking this evening. And then only one person shows up and only some of the memebers of the community. Also, it was a departure from what has been our practice, so I wonder if I should have lead us to do this. But as I said above, I am of two minds. I also, found myself seeing through to see that the action of Christ ascension is metaphorical as well as literal, and thus Jesus going up into the sky doesn't necesarily mean some cosmological commitment I do not share, but there is and always has been the symbolic meaning of up and down, and so this is about not only the glorification of Chrsit, but of all humanity in Christ. This is the last affirmation that Jesus of Nazareth was both God and human and that the incarnation is what has is and will transform the world.

Labels: community life, Divine Office, Feast of the Ascension, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Reconciler

Something from *cino

Our friends and hopefully soon partners over at *cino, are hoping to purchase property in Three River's Michigan to provide for a physical location for *cino. Check out the web page giving the vision they have for this property. It is an old school house. We are excited about this. And you maybe noticing that Holy Trinity seems to have a connection with Three Rivers Michigan.

Labels: *cino, fundraising, property

We are still active even if we haven't blogged in a year.

It has been over a year since we posted anything to this blog. However, it has been a full year for us. We explored for a time being a place from which a musician could travel touring coffee houses playing her music, and for a time she did so until deciding that she wanted to settle in another city. Also last year we were approached by someone who was taking a sabbatical from Christian Peacemaker Teams, and wanted to do so by living with the community for four months. Also in the last year two members moved on from the community and two members joined We have continued to have occasional Friday suppers to which at times over 20 people have come to one supper. And we have had our various celebrations of Birthdays, and Twelfth night, and people over to watch movies and then discuss them.

In October we had our first all community Retreat at St Gregory's Abbey in Three Rivers Michigan. We reviewed our Rule and life together. In doing so we recommitted to observing our times of prayer especially morning and evening, and agreed to for right now to have two days a week group mediation as our morning and evening prayer. We also came to the realization that something we do as a community and a way we live into our sense of calling to hospitality is that we take in people who need a period of time to recover or a time to transition from one period of life and circumstance to another. We decided that we needed to name this and simply officially say that this is something we are about and do as a community. Currently we can only recieve people who are able to pay for full room and board while they take this sort of extended retreat, which means we can't always take in people in need of such time of recovery. Our hope is to be able to eventually be in a position where we can offer such retreats with scholarships given to those who need to cover a large portion of the costs of their time with us.

In this last year we have also reminded and pushed the directors of *culture is not optional (*cino) to move on reforming their board so that the decision could be made of us to join *cino as an intentional community of *cino. The board is now reformed and hopefully they will be soon considering and discussing the proposal we sent into *cino two years ago or so, just before members of their former board had to step down and the directors had to take a position at Calvin College, and moved from Three Rivers to Grand Rapids.

We are also exploring ways we can expand and receive new members and also have room to have retreatants hear from time to time. We have someone exploring possibly joining the community in the fall, and are looking at the feasibility of renting an apartment near Immanuel Lutheran's parsonage. We are also exploring ways to expand and solidify the relationships the community has with Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler which I, Larry, pastor in addition to being prior of the community, and Immanuel Lutheran Church. One of our members is now both a member of Immanuel and a member of their church council. In the past year we have taken up for a month or two at a time taking leadership of the evening prayer service at Immanuel on Wednesday evenings, and we join in the community meal on Wednesday evenings which is part of their mid week afternoon program for school children and youth.

If you have come by and any of this sounds interesting to you and you'd like to join with us in any way or interested in becoming a member feel free to contact us via e-mail and we can let you know how you can join with us. If you are in Chicago set up a time for a visit or come and join us for prayer.

Labels: *cino, community life, Immanuel Lutheran Church

Easter thoughts on Brother Lawrence and Practicing the Presence of God

We are now a few days into the season of Easter. I had intended to write reflections over the whole of Lent on Brother Lawrence and Practicing the Presence of God. I obviously did not. In part because the more I read the more I realized that the simple life Brother Lawrence exhorts and the simplicity of practicing God's presence in everything and at all times was very difficult. for the last three weeks of Lent resting in God's love and remaining aware of god's presence became a real struggle as I realized how little I am mindful of God in my daily activities and as I realized how I could so easily be distracted away from resting in God's love.

Brother Lawrence is honest about both the simplicity and the difficulty of this way of life. He repeatedly says how he will fail to live this from moment to moment but he has learned to become aware of this and simply confess it to God and then continue on without self-chastisement. I found this was part of the struggle to simply let go of attempting to be perfect in practicing the presence of God and resting in God's love.

Now on the other side of Lent and Holy Week in this season of focused celebration on Jesus Christ's resurrection, I see how Brother Lawrence's life is infused with the fullness of Holy Week and Easter. Brother Lawrence trusts fully that all has been accomplished in Christ but also understands that the Christian life is both Cross and resurrection. The struggle and the achievement aren't simply mine I enter into what Christ did and in Faith I find that what I do is not enough but that God raises me up out of my failure if I trust in What God has done in Jesus Christ. In the face of the Cross and resurrection my own failures become invisible and I am able to move beyond them and not be mired down in the moments where I do not see or fail to remain aware of God and trust in God's love.

Labels: Brother Lawrence, Easter Reflection, God's Presence