Opportunity to Join the Community

 

The Community of the Holy Trinity has an opening for a single or couple who would be interested in joining our community currently made up of 5 members: 1 couple and 3 singles (we have cats).  We are a house of the ecumenical religious order, the Order of Jesus Christ, Reconciler (the order has members in Milwaukee and Detroit, and a second house in Detroit); two of our current members are professed of the order. Our daily life together consists of daily prayer (currently focused on prayer in the evening) meals together on weekdays, and a breakfast and community meeting on Saturday mornings. We don’t have a common purse, but pool resources based on the ability of each member to contribute to pay for rent, utilities, food, and other shared expenses. Members are encouraged to participate in a local Christian congregation or parish of their choosing or denominational affiliation. We are looking for baptized Christians who feel lead to communal life as a way to deepen their Christian faith and following of Jesus Christ.

We are currently located in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago, in a first floor apartment duplex down with 5 bedrooms, 3 on the first floor, two on the garden floor.  The available room is a small suite with a walk in closet attached to a private full bath on the first floor. The apartment has two kitchens, one on each floor.  On the first floor, there’s a dining room, living room, chapel, sunroom and shared bathroom; on the garden floor, there’s a shared bathroom, shared office, a library, and shared art/music studio. There is only street parking available to the community.  Most of our members use public transportation and bicycles for transportation. We are close to various public transportation options: two blocks from the Kedzie stop on the Brown line, and three blocks from the 82 Kimball/Homan Bus line, two blocks from the 79 Montrose bus line, and 4 blocks from the 81 Lawrence Bus line.

We live under a shared rule of life. You can find the rule here.

 If interested in exploring membership in the community of the Holy Trinity, contact us via e-mail at communityholytrinity@gmail.com, or contact our Dean, Kate Kamphausen by phone at 773-853-5086. 

Abba Easter letter: The Uncontainable Jesus of Nazareth

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Greetings to the Order of Jesus Christ, Reconciler, in the name of Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead on the third day, and who, through the Holy Spirit, guides us into all truth.

I took the season of Lent to read through the four Gospels. As we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and prepare to remember and celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, I encourage us to take up this regular reading of the Gospels, as enjoined for us by our rule of life. I didn’t gain any great insights to bring to you from reading through the four Gospels during Lent.  However, my experience is instructive for us. Namely, I found facing Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the Gospels challenging.  The challenge was that I couldn’t make the Jesus I found in the Gospels fit tidily in my own expectations, nor in any systematic presentation of theology or morality.

What is the role of the regular reading of the Gospels for us as an order with this charism of reconciliation? I think it can vary over time, but at root it is that we are always in service to the Gospel. We read the Gospels so that we never wield the Gospel and Christian faith for our own particular ends. Rather, we read the Gospels so that we may find ourselves overtaken by the Gospel.

God in human flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, as we find him in the Gospels is not an easy human being. I can’t make Jesus conform to my own expectations or what I would like Jesus to say. Jesus isn’t subject to any theology or system. If we take seriously the full witness of the four Gospels, it is very difficult to domesticate Jesus.

I’m not sure how to understand all that the Gospels report about Jesus’ words and actions. The difficulty is in part due to the fact that the four Gospels each have their own take and interpretation of Jesus.  Yet, In reading the four Gospels concurrently Jesus of Nazareth broke through even each evangelist's own framing. Jesus insistently refuses even the evangelists own view of him.

This runs up against attempts to make Jesus a model, or someone we should be like. Making Jesus a model to follow after is itself a domestication. We as an order don’t seek to read the Gospels so that we may model ourselves after Jesus of Nazareth. Rather, we read the gospels over and over again to be transformed by our encounter with God incarnate, as we read the Gospels.  God did the thing in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. We don’t seek to appropriate that work to ourselves, rather in coming to Jesus Christ, we open ourselves up to God incorporating us into Christ.

Yes, we share in the work of Jesus Christ, but that isn’t our work. Reading the Gospels as a practice encouraged for us by our rule of life, is at base that continually have before us that we are not Christ, but that God incorporates us into Jesus Christ. In regularly allowing ourselves to come face to face with the ‘untamed lion’ who is both fully God and fully human we ever more open ourselves to the work of God in Jesus Christ, begun in baptism and sustained in the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup.

As we enter into the fifty days of Easter, I encourage us to sit with Jesus who can neither be appropriated to whom we’ve been taught he is nor to whom we’ve represented Jesus to be for ourselves. 

Mark Charles on his podcast “My Second Cup of Coffee” for Good Friday encouraged Christians, especially Christians of European descent, to not rush to the celebration of the Resurrection.  He pointed out that especially white Christian remembrance doesn’t face the confusion, the doubts, the pain, and the waiting of that first Easter.  We are not well served by reading the first chapters of Acts alongside the Gospel stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances.  When we read accounts of the Resurrection alongside stories of the boldness of the apostolic church after Pentecost ,we can forget that Peter's preaching and the boldness of deacons Stephen and Philip and the other apostles after Pentecost came about over time (fifty days) and after the descent of the Holy Spirit..

I think Mark Charles point, as a Navajo Christian to us white Christians, is important. Part of what allowed our ancestors to commit genocide and enslave others in the name of Christ, was our assurance of our triumph and our being on the side of the truth of the Resurrected one.

If you are like me, the more I sit with the realities of institutional Christianity that has its origin in European Christianity, the more troubled I become.  I ask what is the power of the Resurrection? How do people who name the name of Christ, again and again act so confidently, and yet without any reason for that confidence as they betray the very reality they purport to serve?

The preacher at  the Maundy Thursday service for Saint John’s Episcopal Church (Chicago) encouraged us gathered to sit with the realities of the Three Days leading up to Easter Sunday. To sit with Jesus’ command to Love as Jesus loved, to not run ahead though we know the ending.  This is also the challenge of Easter. As we celebrate the fifty days we know the Holy Spirit will come with power. We know that the cowering small band in the upper room will boldly go out and preach the Gospel and turn the world upside down.  Yet, that wasn’t the feeling of that first fifty days between Easter and Pentecost.

First, there was doubt and attempts to explain the empty tomb. Then there was joy, but also fear and confusion.  In Luke, Jesus takes time to expound the Scripture to two disciples, who don’t really understand anything Jesus says until Jesus blesses and breaks bread with them, and then disappears.

The resurrected Jesus of Nazareth, the one crucified and raised to life on the third day, can’t be contained: Jesus appears and disappears, walks through walls and eventually bodily ascends and passes away from sight into heaven. At first, Jesus’s followers don’t know what to make of any of it.

Let the celebration of Easter open up questions for you. Don’t rush to the answers. Sit with the bewildered, joyful, doubtful, and overwhelmed disciples.

Do not let the celebration, blind us to the lamentable reality of the reason Jesus Christ was crucified. Let us remember that Peter, the beloved Disciple, and Mary Magdalene, all close and dear to Jesus of Nazareth, were baffled and dismayed and continued to weep on that first Easter Sunday.  Jesus meets his disciples ,and us, not in celebration and triumph, but in bewilderment and grief.

On the Second Sunday of Easter we recall the deep integrity of Saint Thomas the apostle whose doubt refuses any erasure of the terror of crucifixion. “Unless I can put my fingers in the wounds of Jesus, I will not believe!” The Resurrection of Christ, doesn't erase the lamentable state of our humanity, nor are we called to excuse and downplay evil that continues to be perpetuated in the world, especially when done in the name of Christ.

Let Easter be complex. Sit with what is lamentable in our world, even as there is joy. Be bewildered by this Jesus of Nazareth, who isn’t easily contained, who walks through our barriers and containers. Embrace Jesus, who appears to us and just as suddenly disappears from view. Jesus Christ the incarnate word doesn’t belong to us, but we can be gathered under her wings, like chicks to the mother hen. Our comfort is not in understanding, but in being held by the God who so loved the world that God sent God’s very own, one like an only heir, the word made flesh, Jesus Christ, that we might have life and be whole.

In the name of the one who raised Jesus Christ from the grave,

Abba Basil Irenaeus, OJCR

On God's Weakness: Christmas letter to the Order of Jesus Christ Reconciler

 

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Greetings in the name of God Emmanuel, incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ,

As we celebrate the season of Christmas this year, we are in still in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic.  Though the vaccines brought about some form of a return to normalcy, for a variety of reasons the virus has continued to spread and mutate: wealth and poverty differentials between nation states, vaccine hesitancy among poor and marginalized groups, the refusal to get vaccinated by anti-vaxers, and the nature of viruses to rapidly mutate. The latest major mutation of the virus leads to a more virulent strain of COVID-19, though the rate of hospitalization and rate of mortality is still unclear compared to other strains. This isn’t all we are dealing with as we celebrate Christmas.  There is the political turmoil in the U.S. and many nations. The world order of the Pax-Americana is strained if not waning. Then there are, most likely, things in our personal lives, which may leave us feeling less than celebratory.

I, Abba of the Order of Jesus Christ, Reconciler, feel quite overwhelmed. As I write this I don’t know what wisdom or insight I might have to share with us this Christmastide.  As I continue to recover from my fall off a ladder over a year ago now, and grieving the death of my mother, and dealing with all the logistics and economy of a person’s passing, I don’t feel up to being Abba of an order. I’m stumbling along without any great sight into what is to come, or where we might be going as an order.

Even so, as we remember that in the person Jesus of Nazareth, God comes to us as Emmanuel, God with us, isn’t this what we celebrate, God meeting us in our weakness? Christmas isn’t about human achievement, or human celebration, or human insight. Rather, God comes as one of us inn our very weakness and vulnerability, as a fetus and then an infant! The deliverance that Mary proclaims in her Magnificat, comes not from God coming with force like God did when delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt, but God becomes human flesh, starting out in the deep vulnerable dependence at the beginning of a human life.

This work of God is known to women, the poor, shepherds, and foreign astrologers from outside of the Roman Empire.  God doesn’t become human by being born to an imperial, royal, or patrician family.  The incarnation is largely unnoticed, insignificant in the realm of empires, rulers, and the wealthy.  Thus, God’s deliverance and liberation aren’t readily noticed, nor easily recognized.  It is hidden in God being with us in our most human vulnerable spaces.  God comes among those who have the least reason to celebrate.

The season of Christmas begins with three feasts following up on Christmas day. These feasts invite us into the messy and mystical dimensions of this season.  On the 26^th the second day of Christmas we remember the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, Deacon and First Martyr. On the Third day of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of Saint John Apostle and Theologian, who points us toward the loving dance of the Holy Trinity. On the 4^th day of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, remembering those infants slaughtered by King Herod. These three feasts invite us to see Christmas as something other than a “happy” celebration. God come in human flesh stirs up a reaction: those who seek to control the world are confronted with something beyond them, and death and oppression are used in an attempt to regain control. This reality is reflected in today’s feast as well as our current headlines. The celebration of Christmas embraces a great deal.

To the mind overtaken by thoughts and impulses of control and power over others and the cosmos the incarnation is hidden from view.  Even those who suffer at the hands of the wealthy and powerful, God’s coming in human flesh being joined to creation can be hard to see its relevance or how it can free from oppression (This is especially so when the oppressor claims the name of Christ and Christian).

This is not to say that there is no way to see and find the work of God in Jesus Christ in our world and circumstances. But it can be very difficult. Following after that work of God in Jesus Christ, while it liberates, also often leads us into difficult situations in which we are facing death.

In the first four days of Christmas we are confronted with human responses to the mystery of God with us. God comes to us in God’s Glory, which isn’t the glory of human power and wealth. These responses are often violent and following Christ doesn’t necessarily preserve us from suffering under that violence.

In the mystery proclaimed by St John the apostle, we need to confront our own violent and sinful reactions to God come to us in this way, where God gives up control and power over others and circumstances. There is something liberating in letting go of the idea that we can control anything. But it also, leaves things feeling unstable and uncertain. I know that in myself there’s something that rebels against that instability. There is something dissatisfying in the focus on what today will bring, rather than some grand scheme that I can live into and execute. Yet, rarely does a long range plan become fully implemented. While we want to believe that we or some human we admire or elect might have such ability to see all possibilities and plan accordingly and keep things stable, history tells a different tale of human ability. Even when we believe ourselves to have the knowledge to plan and implement security, things soon fall apart.

In the midst of suffering and oppression and genocidal violence, the question of where is God arises. In moments like that of the slaughter of the infants and toddlers in Bethlehem, God with us feels like abandonment. God with us flees as a refuge dependent on human parents to keep them safe.

So then where is the hope, If God is with us and for us, but in being so has also relinquished a type of control and power over the world? Are we left to the power of death and desire to have power over others? The answer to this question isn’t found in the coming of God to us as the infant Jesus of Nazareth.  The answer comes in whom Jesus is, Jesus’ whole life and his death, resurrection and ascension.

But God’s ultimate answer to death and violence begins here.   And so with the shepherds, the magi, and Mary we can contemplate and celebrate even as things aren’t yet fully unveiled. At Christmas we are contemplating a portion of the mystery of our faith and God’s revelation to us in Jesus of Nazareth. God with us comes to us vulnerable and relinquishing control and power over others. In this we learn something of God’s love, power, and glory. The longer we  live with this revelation the more unsettling and disconcerting it becomes.

In the love an grace of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel,

Basil Irenaeus

Abba

Order of Jesus Christ, Reconciler

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.

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.

Rule of the Community of the Holy Trinity

Introduction/exposition
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called childrenof God.
Matthew 5 3-11

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
Luke 6:20-23

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people.
Acts 2 42-47

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possession, but everything they owned was held in common.
Acts 4:32

Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God... God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:7-12

Do not love the world system or the things in the world system. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world system; for all that is in the system of the world -- the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches -- comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world system and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.
1 John 2:15-17.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
Luke 1:47-55

For Prayer and psalmody every hour is suitable, that, while our hands are busy at their tasks, we may praise God sometimes with the tongue (when this is possible or, rather, when it is conducive to edification); or, if not with the heart, at least, in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles, as it is written. Thus in the midst of our work can we fulfill the duty of prayer, giving thanks to Him who has granted strength to our hands for performing our tasks and cleverness to our minds for acquiring knowledge, and for having provided the material, both that which is in the instruments we use and that which forms the matter of the arts in which we may be engaged, praying that the work of our hands may be directed toward this goal, the good pleasure of God.
. . .
Prayers are recited early in the morning so that the first movements of the soul and mind may be consecrated to God and that we may take up no other consideration before we have been cheered and heartened by the thought of God, as it is written: I remembered God and was delighted, and that the body may not busy itself with tasks before we have fulfilled the words: To thee will I pray, O Lord; in the morning thou shalt hear my voice, In the morning I will stand before thee and will see. Again at the third hour the brethren must assemble and betake themselves to prayer, even if they may have dispersed to their various employments. Recalling to mind the gift of the Spirit bestowed upon the Apostles at this third hour, all should worship together, so that they also may be come worthy to receive the gift of sanctity, and they should implore guidance of the Holy Spirit and his instruction in what is good and useful, according the words: Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within my bowels. Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and strengthen me with a guiding spirit.

... It is also our judgment that prayer is necessary at the sixth hour in imitation of the saints who say: Evening and morning and at noon I will speak and declare; and he shall hear my voice.And so that we may be saved from the noonday Devil, at this time, also the ninetieth psalm will be recited. The ninth hour, however, was appointed as compulsory time for prayer by the Apostles themselves in the Acts where it is related that Peter and John went up to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer. When the days work is ended, thanksgiving should be offered for what has been granted usor for what we have done rightly wherein and confession made of our omissions whether voluntary or involuntary, or of a secret fault, if we chance to have committed any in words or deeds, or in the heart itself; for by prayer we propitiate God for all our misdemeanors. The examination of our past actions is a great help toward not falling into like faults again; wherefore the psalmist says: the things you say in your hearts, be sorry for them upon your beds.

Again, at nightfall we must ask that our rest be sinless and untroubled by dreams. At this hour also, the ninetieth Psalm should be recited. Paul and Silas furthermore have handed down to us the practice of compulsory prayer at midnight, as the history of the Acts declares: And at midnight Pal and Silas praised God. The Psalmist also says: I rose at midnight to give praise to thee for the judgments of thy justifications. Then, too we must anticipate the dawn by prayer so that the day may not find us in slumber and in bed according to the worlds; my eyes have prevented the morning that I might meditate on thy words. ...I think that variety and diversity in the prayers and psalms recited at appointed hours are desirable for the reason that routine and boredom, somehow, often cause distraction inthe soul, while by change and variety in the psalmody and prayers said at the stated hours it is refreshed in devotion and renewed in sobriety..
St. Basil, The Long Rules

Faith (pistis), as dispassionate (apathes) understanding (ennoia) of God
Hope, the journey of the mind towards the hoped-for.
Patience (or patient endurance), persistently and without wavering, seeing the invisible as the visible with the eyes of the understanding.
Without greed or covetousness, so as to wish not to have possessions as those who wish to have possessions.
Knowledge, as losing the sense of oneself in the ecstasy of God.
Definitions of St. Diadochos of Photiki

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love, where there is injury pardon; where there is doubt faith; where there is despair hope; where there is darkness light; and where there is sadness joy; Lord grant that I may seek rather to comfort than be comforted, to understand than be understood, to love than be loved. For it is by giving that one receives, by forgiving that one is forgiven, and by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
St. Francis of Assis

We set up a Rule to help us interpret our lives. The above texts stand as sentinels to watch over this Rule. We set these here also as signposts of our desire to live and interpret from Scripture and the Tradition.
Following the example of Acts and nearly 2000 years of ascetics, monks and nuns, we turn aside from the individualism and self-reliance of the world, resolving to hold real property in common for the purpose of service to Christ in, through, and for the Church and the world. We have chosen to live in community, in part, to speak to the current economic system, attempting to remove from ourselves the fetters of economic necessity. In doing this, we no longer trust the economy focused myopically on the creation and accumulation of wealth for individualistic benefit. We seek an economy of mutuality and the sharing of personal wealth and talents for both the common good and personal development, an economy beyond individual ownership and beyond all economies: the economy of the Kingdom of God. We come together sharing real property and other goods so that, through the joining of individual resources for the sake of the community, individuals may have not only what they need but also the means fully to express their selves and talents.
The community formed under this Rule exists for Christ and for others, not for itself alone. It is not a local church nor a replacement for a local fellowship of believers but a community of witness to the possibilities of the Kingdom of God, through its common life of discipline, communal living, hospitality, prayer, art, and seeking justice and mercy in the Church and world.
We acknowledge that God has called us to a life of common service, prayer and property according to the following Rule. In so doing we offer all to Christ in Love of God and of neighbor.
This Rule is to be reviewed by the community every year. This Rule is our covenant with each other and those who may join with us in this parable of the Kingdom of God, having made permanent profession or temporary vows to each other under this Rule before God and the Church.

Rule 1) On Community {On Membership and Guests}
Living in community means living life in common while allowing for and embracing differences in situation and call. We expect that members will come from all walks of life and be called by God to live in community in differing ways. To honor Gods call on the individual and to honor our communal life we order community membership according to discernment of call and commitment.
The Community of the Holy Trinity will consist of those who are professed members, committed members, and guests, long and short term, and friends of the community.

A. Professed members have taken vows to live in the community on a life long basis commit to life of prayer hospitality and common enterprise doing the primary work of the community. Permanently professed members must be in a life long relationship or called to a life of celibacy before taking profession.

B. Committed Members are those who wish to enter fully into the life of the community but find their commitment necessarily limited, either because they do not feel called to a lifetime commitment to the community or because other vocations will call them away from the community from time to time or keep them from taking part in the ministries of the community. These members will usually keep some form of employment outside the community and donate some portion of their income and time in aid and maintenance of the ministry and community. These members could also be artists (musician, visual artist, actor, etc.) or scholar in residence, based in a living contract agreed upon by the artist or scholar and the community (these might also choose to join the community as long term guests).

C. Guests can be short-term (2 weeks) or long-term .
a. Short-term guests will be those on retreat or those in need of short-term housing.
b. Long-term guests may be from a variety of life situations (artists or scholars in residence who do not feel lead to join as committed members and will be considered on a situation by situation basis. They will be seen as full members of the community partaking in all aspects of community life as their life situation allows and based on the reasons the guest has chosen to join the community as a guest.

D. Friends of the community will keep to the Rule of the community while living outside the community.

E. Observers are those discerning a role within the community, whether it be as friends, long-term guests, committed members, or professed members. (Further information on the reception of members can be found in Rule 2).

Rule 2) On Reception of New Members
There will be two means of joining with the community, as an individual/couple/family, or as an already established community which wishes to join our community through implementation of this Rule.

A. On joining our community as an individual or as a couple.

a. Those interested in joining us under this Rule of community life must first take regular part in the life of our community for three months to a year, by becoming an observer of the community. An observer first, having read the rule, will take part in the prayer services, community meals, and other appropriate parts of the communities life. An observer can join the community as an observer if she and the community agree there is a need for further exploration of the type of member she wishes to be in joining the community. Someone who wishes to become a professed member will spend some months after joining the community as an observer. However, even if one has joined the community as long term guest or committed member one can change ones level of commitment after a period of time and in discenment with the community in council The community in council will decide the exact amount of time on the circumstances and the nature of the individual(s) participation and the discernment of the individual and community on the readiness of the person to join us in community life.
If an individual seeks to become a professed member of the community and is single, this person should feel called to a life of celibacy and have examined the challenges and benefits of a celibate lifestyle in a community including a mixture of expressions of human sexuality: couples, families, and celibates.

b. If one is not called to celibacy, he may join the community as a professed member only as a committed couple where both individuals are called to life under this Rule in community. The discernement process for couples is the same as for individuals.

c. Individuals couples and families can join the community by renting/purchasing a property near the main house of the community, while in all other ways sharing in the common life of the community.

B. An Established Community Joining with us under the Rule.

a. For a community living on a different property but within close proximity to our community house, a period of discernment of three months to a year when the joining community takes a regular part in the life of the Community of the Holy Trinity.
Communities wishing to join with us under the Rule but dispersed over a distance that makes it impossible for the communities to join together regularly, (i.e. in prayer, meals, and council), then that community may join with us as a sister community, following the Rule and committing to work common cause between the communities.

b. After the period of discernment all members of both communities must agree to the joining of the two communities on separate properties.

c. It may be advisable that once the two communities have come together as one that they seek out space near their respective community houses that could be used for common prayer, common meals and council.

Rule 3) On Prayer and Meditation
Prayer and meditation will be the center and rhythm of our common life. The work we are called to do as a Community and as individuals is not possible without emersion in the life of God through prayer and meditation. We as a community seek to live into the balance of contemplation and action.

A. Times of Prayer
a. The three main hours of prayer will be Vespers, Matins and Noon prayer (precise times to be scheduled by the community) observed by all members of the community, acknowledging that some may occasionally be absent.
b. Three secondary Hours of Compline, Terce and None, roughly at 11 PM, 9 Am, and 3 PM will be kept by all professed members when at the house.
c. Two hours of voluntary night vigilsmay be kept, Midnight between 12 and 2 AM and Early morning at 4 AM.
B. Each main Hour will be a time of quiet for all who are on the property of the community. For those at work or when other circumstance take them from the community house, it is appropriate to acknowledge the hours by praying a short prayer, the Jesus prayer (with or without prayer rope), saying the rosary, making the sign of the cross or other prayerful or meditative action. The goal of this is so that wherever any member of the community is she may always be mindful of our living according to these sacred rhythms.

C. The three main hours of prayer are intended as corporate hours of prayer and should not be observed in private meditation. The secondary hours of prayer may be used for times of group meditation and/or private meditation, either in the chapel, if not used for a corporate service, or privately in her room.

D. In the absence of the Prior a member of the community will be appointed to lead prayer services

Rule 4) On Property and the Community of Goods
Essential to the life of community is a sense of what is held in common and seeking the meaning of simplicity. As in Acts space remains for what is one’s own and what is others’, and also the expectated discipline of offering up of one’s own to the community as a whole. Holding property in common is itself a spiritual discipline calling each member to care for community property. It is part of a chosen poverty, which seeks to care for more than just one’s own personal property. While portions of the common property will be for personal use, living together and sharing common space constitute this discipline and poverty.

A. Real estate (rented, leased, or owned) shall be held in common, each member contributing to its maintenance as she is able either from outside employment or in common enterprise of the community.

B. The responsibility for collecting money for community bills and paying them will be rotated amongst the members or assigned to one or more of the members of the community by the council.

C. The cleaning and maintenance of the community house (such as repairs and acquisition of supplies) will be apportioned to the members of the community by the community in council.

D. Each member of the community commits to exploring the nature of our community of goods, as defined and understood in the Rule of the Taize Community. and what personal property and the sharing of resources and goods means for the community.

Rule 5) On Food and Maintenance of the Kitchen
Food is another key aspect of our common life and hospitality. Sharing meals together and supporting each other in fasting are essential to the common life. Each meal of the community should be seen as an anticipation of the great wedding feast ofthe lamb.

A. We take Jesus’ table fellowship as our model in coming together as a community around food and the sustenance of our bodies.

B. Food for the community will be provided for by all, each providing according to their means.

C. Preparation and acquisition of food for the community will be rotated through the members of the community or assigned to one or more members of the community by the community in council.

D. Clean up of kitchen will be assigned to a member(s) of the community by the community in council or will be rotated through the members of the community.

E. There will be regular common meals, usually the evening meal.

Rule 6) On Governance and Leadership of the Community*
The community in Council will be the governing body overseeing the regular and daily functioning of the community through consensus.
The community will be served, as numbers and circumstances will allow, by 2 priors, a Hospitaler and Dean, duties include guests and hospitality and moderator of council when it is considering accusations of impropriety of one of both of the priors, is ombudsman and in charge of the observers under the guidance of the priors, a financial secretary, a secretary/archivist, duties include keeping minutes and maintaining archives of the community.
The community will have two priors, one male and one female (not married to each other), not for purposes of rank or rule—we are ruled by the gospel and its particular expression in this Rule—but to gather together the various intentions, motivations, and gifts and goals of the members of the community, shepherding them toward the goals of the community and to ensure that the discipline of the rule is kept.

A. The priors will be accountable to the body governing the clergy of the priors’ denomination(s).
B. The priors’ duties will include leading prayer and meditation, giving direction and counsel to the community as a whole and individual members as is needed or desired, providing a teaching ministry according to her or his gifts and the needs and activities of the community.

C. The prior will be chosen or appointed by the community in council.The prior must be a member of the community and the leaders spouse and/or family must also feel called to intentional community of goods, and live according to the Rule of the community.


Rule 7) On Administration and Communication
The community will meet at least once a week in council to allow a forum of discussion and to provide support to each other on our spiritual journeys. As needed or requested by a community member, the council will meet to administer the community, discuss new and ongoing endeavors, and deal with conflict within the community. Such a meeting will be announced to the community, and will usually be at the time of the regular community meeting.
Financial issues are to be dealt with in council. Members with financial responsibilities of the community shall report to the council.
The prior will be the moderator of all council meetings, except when the council is considering issues concerning conduct of the prior.
If the council is unable to reach a decision acceptable to all, the moderator, ensuring that all have made known their thoughts and feelings, will adjourn the council. At a later meeting of council, based on the views of the members, the stated purposes of the community and the Gospel, the moderator will recommend to the next meeting of council, either to leave aside the issue before the council or to move ahead in one direction or the other.
Rule 8) On hospitality
Our model of hospitality is God’s own self-giving love. The Scriptures consistently show God’s concern for the stranger. God’s love for us calls us to be a welcoming people.
Next to the life of prayer, hospitality is a central activity of this community. Hospitality will be expressed in various ways.

A. Overnight guests will be received according to the abilities of the community. And as the community in council decides

B. Guests are invited to take part in keeping the Hours of prayer, and are requested, if not keeping the Hours, to respect the Hours when on the community property.

C. Preparation for and reception of guests shall be rotated through the members of the community or the community in council will appoint one member to do so.


Rule 9) On Travel and Sojourns
In the tradition of Jesus’ and Paul’s wandering ministries and in the tradition of traveling monks, such as Saints Brendan and Columban, St. Francis and the mendicant monks, the community sees itself as an anchor for a wandering spirituality, of holy journeys and sojourns as a proclamation and realization of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God in the world.
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