For the past several years I have been observing with great
interest the emergence of the new monasticism movement within North American
Christianity, and the movement’s experiments in new ways of being church.[1] Although its roots are largely among young
disaffected evangelicals unhappy with the culture wars dividing the churches
and the nation, the new monastics have a deeply ecumenical outlook nurtured by
a discerning attempt to retrieve ancient Christian practices and adapt them to
the needs of contemporary society. Their
project is provocative, inspiring, and challenging.
In 1997, Shane and Katie Claiborne helped to found The
Simple Way, a prototypical new monastic community in an impoverished neighborhood of North Philadelphia. Moved by the plight of homeless people in the
area, they made a decision, along with other young Christians, to live and
serve among their poor neighbors. The Simple Way members meet together for
daily Morning Prayer, as well as weekly Bible study and Evening Prayer.
Together, they founded an after-school tutoring program, a
garden project, a flag football league, and a food bank. Members
of The Simple Way also lead campaigns
against home evictions, hold rallies for the rights of the homeless, and a Good Friday
vigil at a gun store whose products have been traced back to neighborhood
shootings. Members even went to Iraq as
part of a Christian peacemaking team to provide a prayerful witness in Baghdad
when the US invasion began there in 2003.
Drawing on the
teaching and practice of traditional Benedictine and Franciscan monasticism, as
well as the modern Civil Rights and Catholic Worker movements, The Simple Way has inspired similar
communities around the country. The new
monastics form intentional Christian communities with a disciplined life of
shared prayer, service, and witness, but they do not necessarily live together
and include married couples and families.
These new
monastics are creating a new form of church that seeks to offer a credible
witness to the Way of Jesus. As Shane
Claiborne admits,
Christians have often been the
biggest obstacle to God. Forgive us -- for blessing bombs, for the crusades and
"holy" wars, for creating an apologetic for torture, for holding
signs that say "God hates fags", starting apocalyptic militias, and
blowing up abortion clinics. These things are not the Christianity of Christ.
If they are Christianity, it is a Christianity that has grown sick, sick beyond
recognition. It does not look like Jesus. . . .
There
is a growing movement of Christians who are convinced that our faith is not just
a ticket into heaven and an excuse to ignore the hells of the world around us.
There is a movement of Christians who know that our Christianity is not just
about going up when we die, but bringing God's Kingdom down ... "on earth
as it is in heaven", as Jesus said. We are not willing to settle for a
Christianity that only promises folks life after death when people are asking,
"but is there life before death?"[2]
New monastic communities take a variety of forms adapted to their
circumstances, but they do share a common set of precepts. At a gathering of new monastic communities in
2004, these were identified as the “12 Marks of New Monasticism”:
1) Relocation to the
abandoned places of Empire.
2) Sharing economic
resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.
3) Hospitality to the
stranger.
4) Lament for racial
divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active
pursuit of a just reconciliation.
5) Humble submission to
Christ’s body, the church.
6) Intentional formation in
the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old
novitiate.
7) Nurturing common life
among members of intentional community.
8) Support for celibate
singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children.
9) Geographical proximity to
community members who share a common rule of life.
10) Care for the plot of
God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies.
11) Peacemaking in the midst
of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of
Matthew 18.
12) Commitment to a
disciplined contemplative life.
What is interesting about
these marks is that they identify a way of life, a practice, which embodies
Christian faith. Over the next year, I
will offer monthly reflections on each of these marks in the St. James Journal, our Facebook
page, and my blog. I invite your comments and questions as we
explore what Christian practice looks like in our context.
People
[1] Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove provides an apologia for the
movement in his New Monasticism: What It
Has To Say To Today’s Church.
[2] Shane Claiborne,
“Death Be Not Proud: The Easter
Gospel of Nonviolence,” published at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shane-claiborne/death-be-not-proud_b_524340.html.
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