12 Marks of New Monasticism
I found this passage listed on one of the websites connected to the Simple Way and Relational Tithe. Keith had asked me if they had scripture that guided them. There is one verse listed below but I see much scriptural influence in the ideas listed...
"Moved by God’s Spirit in this time called America to assemble at St. Johns Baptist Church in Durham, NC, we wish to acknowledge a movement of radical rebirth, grounded in God’s love and drawing on the rich tradition of Christian practices that have long formed disciples in the simple Way of Christ. This contemporary school for conversion which we have called a “new monasticism,” is producing a grassroots ecumenism and a prophetic witness within the North American church which is diverse in form, but characterized by the following marks:
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 communitiescombined 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 thecommunity 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.
May God give us grace by the power of the Holy Spirit to discern rules for living that will help us embody these marks in our local contexts as signs of Christ’s kingdom for the sake of God’s world."
"Moved by God’s Spirit in this time called America to assemble at St. Johns Baptist Church in Durham, NC, we wish to acknowledge a movement of radical rebirth, grounded in God’s love and drawing on the rich tradition of Christian practices that have long formed disciples in the simple Way of Christ. This contemporary school for conversion which we have called a “new monasticism,” is producing a grassroots ecumenism and a prophetic witness within the North American church which is diverse in form, but characterized by the following marks:
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 communitiescombined 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 thecommunity 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.
May God give us grace by the power of the Holy Spirit to discern rules for living that will help us embody these marks in our local contexts as signs of Christ’s kingdom for the sake of God’s world."
posted by Ryan at 11:46 PM
1 Comments:
Likewise, churches will change our culture. Churches should strive to be the monasteries of today. Monasteries are not well understood in our culture. We picture drab, dark places where hooded monks went about singing chants. Instead, monasteries were centers of Christian activism. J.O. Westwood describes monasteries as
schools, all the way from kindergarten to university, hospitals, hotels, publishing houses, libraries, law courts, art academies, and conservatories of music. They were houses of refuge, places of pilgrimage, marts for barter and exchange, centers of culture, social foci, newspaper offices, and distilleries. A score of other public and practical things were they: garrison, granary, orphan asylum, frontier fort, post office, savings bank, and general store for surrounding agricultural districts. We carelessly imagine the early monasteries as charnel-houses of cant and ritual — whereas they were the best-oiled machines for the advancement of science, the living accelerators of human thinking, precedent to the University of Paris.
Referring to the works of the monks in the Middle Ages in his book The Making of Europe, Christopher Dawson said, “The greatest names of the age are the names of monks — St. Benedict and St. Gregory, the two Columbas, Bede and Boniface, Alcuin and Rabanus Maurus, and Dunstan, and it is to the monks that the great cultural achievements of the age are due, whether we look at the preservation of ancient culture, the conversion of new peoples or the formation of new centres of culture in Ireland and Northumbria and the Carolingian Empire.”
Christian churches actually are doing the work of monasteries today, without the baggage of some of the errors of the Medieval time. Christian churches and voluntary agencies provide the best social services for our society today. Without endorsing President Bush’s program for aiding faith-based organizations, it is reassuring that the national debate recognizes that Christian organizations are the most effective means of dealing with poverty, drug abuse, and family problems. Christians are the ones providing the educational reforms (at no cost to taxpayers), music instruction, marriage counseling, English language instruction, and other needs of society.
There remain those churches that are merely stained glass edifices open to the public only for a few hours on Sunday mornings. But, some great Christian works are being done in places that do not look like traditional churches. The news coverage of the recent hurricane relief efforts in Louisiana and surrounding states could not help but highlight Christian ministries to the evacuees.
The greatest events going on in our day are not happening in cabinet meetings at the White House or in caucuses on Capitol Hill or in executive board rooms on Wall Street. Civilization is being saved by faithful pastors, dedicated Christian teachers, moms and dads who are teaching their children about Jesus, small name book publishers, newsletters, magazines, and websites dedicated to Christian causes, and to a host of other Samaritan-type works happening across the land.
Thomas Cahill contrasted the Romans, who were unable to save or salvage their once grand civilization, with the Irish saints, who changed the direction of history. Cahill says, “The twenty-first century, prophesied Malraux, will be spiritual or it will not be. If our civilization is to be saved — forget about our civilization, which, as Patrick would say, may pass ‘in a moment like a cloud or smoke that is scattered by the wind’ — if we are to be saved, it will not be by Romans but by saints.”
We could spend a lot of time bemoaning the legion of dangers to our republic, our civilization, and our way of life. Hillary just might get elected in 2008, the economy might implode, and gay marriages might become the rage. Congress might not pass and the president might not sign some mythical piece of legislation ending all bad things and promoting all good things. Don’t despair. Instead, teach a Sunday school class, support a Christian school or mission work, buy some Christian books, give away some Christian books, go to prayer meetings, witness to someone, encourage a faithful minister, and pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Arend van Leeuwen’s book Christianity in World History ends with this note: “We live in a time of crisis: and krisis is a biblical word. In the Bible it signifies ‘judgment’, but along with that, ‘justice’ and ‘salvation’. The Servant of the Lord ‘will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice (krisis) in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his torah,’ (Is. 42:1ff.; Mt. 12:18ff.).” Holding on to a few acres of rocky and jagged islands, Christians once persevered for a century, laboring to see the faith spread. We here in this land have so much more.
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