In our reflective season we began last night at Joshua's (whilst watching Arsenal scrape through to the Champions League Final!) to imagine what a Celtic monastic mission might look like... Jem had visited 2 Monasteries in Northern Ireland the other week... on either sides of a Lake... One was a Cistercian Monastery... It was (classically) rectangular in shape and had high stone walls and seemed (in his words) to be all about keeping the Monks in and the World out... a defensive structure... with the community life in the centre (the cloisters). The other was the footprint of a Celtic Monastery... it was made up of concentric circles, with low walls which had gaps or open gates as opposed to the large Oak doors of the other complex! The circles were focused around a 'sanctuary' - a place of reflection and prayer, with the next circle being a community living place, and the third a place of activity (workshops, markets etc.)... It was an inside out type of place in some ways... focused on living in the outer and returning to the centre for spiritual nourishment etc... a hub or Minster model of ministry I suppose... anyway with these thoughts in mind and the idea that life is about journey... and if we follow the Celtic missionaries seeding communities along the pathways... what might that mean for : safe space : so here is a first scribbling... We know this isn't new thinking... but we were reflecting that often new-monasticism can focus heavily on 'order' and 'community' that may actually lead to creating new exclusive communities rather than open fluid missional ones... anyway we would love to hear thoughts/reflections/comments/wisdom!
Technorati Tags: Emerging Church: Mission: Spirituality
good thoughts.
The celtic model of seeding communities is really amazing. The church I am a part of is going to try and do this next month in Paris. We're sending a group of our church (from the US) to Paris.
we'll start with a foundation of prayer. We're going to do 24-7, with a daily rhythmn of liturgy. We also hope to reach out to people as a community, inviting them into our safe community.
should be interesting.
Posted by: Isaac | 26/04/2006 at 18:06
Hey, I am a seminary student in the U.S. and have just started visiting this blog. I am trying to write a paper on how the word "missional" is being used. It has become quite popular of late and it is often being appropriated differently than the way in which it was coined. What does it mean for you to be missional?
Posted by: Matt | 27/04/2006 at 10:42
Some years ago I spent a few days on Lindisfarne (Holy Island) where the Celtic Saint Aidan set up his community. The Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway at low tide and was full of tourists with an almost frantic busyness as nick nacks and mead and tea-towels were sold in vast quantities. When the tide came in the tourists departed and a peace settled on the place.
Aidan and his community had time to withdraw and pray at times. At other times they would cross over to Bamburgh and the rest of Northumbria to spend time sharing the gospel with the people.
Posted by: Ross Garner | 28/04/2006 at 07:38