Anglican Community Project

Here are some 'curricular' ideas for the intentional educational community I just described --what I have, provisionally, called 'Keble House.' I think there should be certain core aspects to life in such an intentional community. Common worship and work should always be intrinsic parts of the daily life in the House. On the other hand, residents should also be challenged to set forth a personal 'formation plan' for each year or, perhaps, even for a longer period of residency (say, an entire 4 year plan). Build into the life of the House a sense that personal formation--spiritual, intellectual, emotional--is a project each of us can intentionally and communally undertake. Build into it regular moments of self-reflection and -evaluation. And as a result, residents would be trained in a very meaningful set of disciplines for life, that would help transform them and their world. For instance, formation plans should include goals for spiritual disciplines (e.g.,...

Anglicans have always had a great commitment to learning. We have a rich tradition of clergy-scholars, and more importantly, of educational institutions committed to forming hearts and minds for Christ. The history of Christianity in the British Isles inspires admiration for bishops, priests and laity who have sought to form young lives for Christian service through educational institutions. I fear, though, that Anglicanism's educational identity has not weathered well the storms of the modern world and I suspect that the failure of education in the Anglican way has helped lead us to the crisis we are in. We see revisionism ripe in our seminaries. We see primary, secondary and higher educational institutions moving away from a Christian identity all together. And at the parish level, it is far too common to find uneducated laity, who cannot effectively disciple others in the basics of Scripture and doctrine. So we need to renew and deepen our commitment to the authority of ...

...but just barely! I hope this blog can lift off again soon.

Writing in Touchstone magazine, Eric Miller says: And what of the old "Christian" West? Maybe, in God's providence, it was time for it to recede. Like a college, a civilization that fails to incarnate many of the chief ideals it has championed deserves, if not ridicule, at least a stern rebuke and a sober exit. Maybe instead of fighting so hard to preserve a dying civilization, people of Christian faith should allow the most noble ideals and practices of our Western heritage to call into existence a new people, one that more faithfully adheres to that timeless vision of the good life the West at its best conserved, a people that will begin this time with a markedly improved awareness of the worth of each particular creature of God, and, indeed, of the inestimable worth of the entire creation. This is another call to thick community, to a new way of living rooted lives, to striking out against our current atomized way of life.

Here is one high-end approach to creating an intentional community in our day: Ave Maria and here's a video of the area: video

I don’t need to outline the pain that the price of gas is inflicting on us all. It is an albatross around the collective neck of our country. When you live in the exurbs like I do, you drive a lot. I drive an hour to work and an hour-twenty to church at 85 mph. I would never choose to live like this, but it is something of a lack of foresight on my part, and something of a lack of financial possibilities. I have a feeling that many people are absolutely sick of living in this manner. Now, there is also a large sector of the population that thinks the American dream is living on as many acres as possible, as far away from people as possible, in the biggest home that is possible. I think there is a change in the air, indeed upon us, but it will take decades to work itself out. One large factor in my thinking is the definition of the good life, as posited by Aristotle, Aquinas and the Christian tradition. Philip Bess sums up the tradition on the good life: ...the good life for individual ...

This story from yesterday is another sign to me that the ideas of shared community - not as just a concept but as a concrete reality - are catching on: Cohousing The idea in play here is discussed from a secular angle, but still has merit. It includes: 1. Participatory process. 2. Neighborhood design. 3. Common facilities. 4. Resident management. 5. Non-hierarchical structure and decision-making. 6. No shared community economy. I'd like to interact with some of these ideas as I have more time. But this is at the heart of what I see as gathered communities heading into a new Dark Age. These communities would serve as bastions to preserve Biblical learning, the best of Western culture, and a rich and winsome Christian fellowship, with all that it implies.

It was the beginning of Lent (2008) and I was walking out of a beautiful Roman Catholic retreat center, talking with a dear friend from our beloved church . We were talking about our parish life, especially our rhythm of seasonal retreats (like that very one), practicing the spiritual disciplines together. We were rejoicing in the community Christ is building in our midst and out of us. And on the grounds of this serene retreat center, our unity in Christ seemed more palpable than ever. Like many in our church, and like my wife and I were until deep into our thirties, this friend is single. Singleness has its rewards, no doubt. I could not have gone to grad school in Europe for as long as I did (won't say how long!), and could not have taken quite the cultural education in languages and travel that I did, were I not free-wheeling it. But singleness is difficult, too. I struggled with loneliness and felt forced to forge communal ties on my own, sometimes without much reciproc...

I have a vision for an intentionally Anglican community, that is, a town or urban area where Anglican deliberately move to coalesce around a parish and influence the geographical area around them. Such a community would have to reflect the Anglican way. What is the Anglican way? It is difficult to say after a century or more of muddle and confusion. However, some core elements of what I see as the Anglican life would include:  1. The parish being at the center of life. This means both literally and figuratively. Ideally, an Anglican town would have the parish building somewhere in the center of the physical location. Also, life would rotate around worship and interaction at the parish building, and in homes. If the community grew sufficiently, I envision several parishes of a couple hundred people all within the same town. Perhaps a central cathedral could be build for large gatherings of the saints.  2. Daily worship. The church doors should be open all day every day for the ...