Community Of living traditions

Overview

• Associated with the Fellowship of Reconcilliation and the Stony Point Center
• Residential part-time and full-time components
• 3 month orientation, then re-evaluation and 3-9 month covenant
• Also run by local volunteers and paid staff
• 3 individual organizations are housed within: Shomer Shalom, Dar Anwar al Salaam and the Luke 6 Project

Sarah Henkel

Community

Co-Directors

• Muslim- Chaplain Rabia Terri Harris
• Jewish - Joyce Bressler
• Christian – Kitty Ufford-Chase

"The Rule"

• Covenants are signed individually between each member and the rest of the community
• Community practice is in constant evolution.
• Multifaith residents share passions, conduct business, and reflect on work together.
• It is community practice to volunteer to help each other and the Center with irregular tasks.
• Residents are held accountable to one another first, and then to the Co-Directors.

"The Rule" of communication

• Assume the best about one another's motives and seek to appreciate how others may approach things differently.
• Identify frustrations early on and seek healthy ways to approach one another with concerns.
• Seek to make "I statements."
• Affirm one another when things are working.
• Avoid speaking with others about frustrations. Instead approach one another directly to express concerns, or use other constructive, culturally appropriate methods.

Transgressions

• Theft, working while intoxicated, physical assualt, verbal threats/intimidation, intentional damage, sexual harrassment, tresspassing and possession of weapons are not allowed.
• Behaviors violating the law or which the Co-Directors deem inappropriate are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
• Discipline can be warnings, suspensions, or immediate and permanent termination.

The community is sustained through hosting local groups, volunteer work and profits from products made by and food grown by community members and residents.

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spirituality

Multifaith Collaboration

• Residents may participate in each others’ religious observances and/or create ceremony together.
• Residents also meet within their individual faith groups.
• Residents are asked to accommodate others' faith practices and needs surrounding their faith.

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Sheldrake's Classification

• Limited to Abrahamic faiths, in particular.
• Intentional dialogue around inequality suggests a philosophy of social justice.
• A mixture of active-practical and prophetic-critical.
• Practices are highly individualized by faith background, but there is space for group practice as well.

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Work

Values of work

• A positive spirit of camaraderie, where there is trust that each person is doing his/her share.
• Supporting one another, even if it causes inconvenience, and an assumption of goodwill regarding the actions of others.
• A culture in which each person is valued and all work is recognized as vital and important.
• Meaningful, fulfilling experiences of work that connect us to the sacredness of what we do.

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Excerpts from Sr. Joan Chitteser

• Work is fundamental and necessary and physical and holy and spiritual and creative.
• Work is not a nuisance to be avoided. Work is a gift to be given.
• Work is a commitment to God’s service.... [T]he creator goes on creating through us.
• Humility is something to be demonstrated, not talked about. Service is its own reward.

Excerpts, cont.

• Work is its own asceticism. A Benedictine spirituality doesn’t set out to create hair shirts or debilitating fasts as a pledge of commitment or a badge of spiritual discipline. No, Benedictine spirituality simply faces the work at hand, with all its difficulties and all its rigors and all its repetition and all its irritations—and accepts it. What today’s work brings is what is really due from me to God.

Reflection

Screenprinted pillowcases with the hashtag #GiveRefugeesRest on MLK day to send to state officials who did not want to accept Syrian refugees.

Challenges

• Living in a multifaith community has raised more questions than it has answered.

my reflection

• Multifaith community is unique in how it provides opportunities to broaden perceptions of God.
• This community in particular is challenged because they have to be selective with Christian applicants.
• In coming out of Christian tradition, it is difficult to make space for other conceptualizations of work and spirituality.

Questions?

Resources

• http://stonypointcenter.org/multifaith-community
• http://www.ic.org/directory/community-of-living-traditions-at-the-stony-poi...
• https://www.instagram.com/stonypointcenter/

Thank you