Issue 42 Autumn 2007 The Northumbria Community Newsletter CAIM How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee CAIM is the Celtic word meaning O Lord ‘encompassment’ ooking at the history of or ‘encircling’ L monasticism, it’s possible to see how often God raised up such movements as a call to his people to Inside this issue: return to him, to recover something Spiritual 1 that was lost or which had been Formation neglected—and to reorder lives in the light of the gospel. Prague 2 Thinking about the new wave of monasticism Community that is spreading across the world, I am drawn Gatherings 2 to the story in Luke 15 and the image of the ‘watching father’ welcoming home Becoming a his Prodigal Son. His son had been away in a ‘far country’. Companion 4 I believe that one of the reasons we are being called to embrace our new Northern Light monastic vocation and to live missionally in a changing world is to embrace that report 4 call to ‘come home to the Father’. For too long we’ve been away in a ‘far country’ of ‘Senior’ busyness, drivenness, being conformed to the values of a post Christendom, Appointments 5 individualist, consumer culture and creating God in our own image. Gatherings 6 Our vocation is an intentional Way for Living, rooted in Christ and orientated report towards seeking, loving and serving him and his purposes in the world, which Stories of the will inevitably be counter to the culture. Our mission is to help people like the Meditations 6 Prodigal to come to their senses and return home to the Father. Creative Arts So what does the Lord require of us? Retreat report 7 Firstly, we need to Repent. The root word for repent is metanoia. It doesn’t carry with it negative and guilt associations, but rather is an invitation to turn around, Cloisters 8 to change direction, to connect and respond to God and to live life differently— to find a way of life that leads us to ‘home’. Phil & Dave 9 Sage Secondly, Discipleship. To be in relationship with God is possible, to Retreats @ experience life as Jesus described, in all its fullness [see John 10:10] is possible— Ballydugan 10 but it doesn’t come automatically. It requires discipline and training. It is a journey of faith that calls us to grow and develop, to deepen and mature. It’s a Community simple formula; where there is no discipleship and no spiritual disciplines there Groups 11 will be no spiritual formation. If we do not embrace the gifts and graces God has given then we will not grow in Christlikeness, imatitio Christi, to which we are all called. The newsy bit! 12 Continued on Page 3 It’s time to start thinking about next year’s holiday perhaps... Northumbrian Week in Prague 08 Building on the success of last year’s Northumbrian week in Prague, and to deepen our partnership Community Gatherings with the Be sure to put the dates in your diary! See Judith community at Maskery’s reflections of her visit to two recent the Gatherings, on Page 6. Here’s the schedule of upcoming International Baptist Theological Seminary, we are Gatherings: returning next year! The dates for the 08 week are: Monday, 31st March to Sunday 6th April, 2008. 2007 2008 Oct 5th – 7th January 12th This is another great opportunity for us to ‘be Community’ Minneapolis, USA York & Leeds area during a week of stimulating and exciting programmed activities at IBTS. The week will consist of lectures, Oct 13th March (date tbc) ‐ seminars and workshops, together with input and sharing Washington DC, USA London with the staff and students. The pattern of each day will be Dec 15th 31st March—6th April built around the monastic rhythm of our offices, with lots of Ireland Prague time to relax and explore the delights of Prague. May 9th—11th Do join us! It promises to be a really good time. The cost Holland for full board accommodation, breakfast and lunch in Hotel Jeneralka, (which is part of the seminary complex,) is £265 per person for twin or double room and £310 per person Speaking of Community Gatherings, it reminds me for a single room. If booked in advance there are some very that at about the time you receive this issue of Caim, the cheap flights from most UK and European airports and it two US Gatherings will be just about underway. will be wonderful if folks from further afield could join us! It’s very exciting to see the Community growing in the Please respond asap. We look forward to you being with States, and to know that we have some good people there, us. Please email [email protected] helping to facilitate that growth. Do remember Margene or write to Jean at The Northumbria Community, Hetton Vessel, Tonya Toutge and Peter Wohler, who have put the Hall, Chatton, Northumberland, NE66 5SD, marking your MN gathering together, and Sarah Berry and Cyndy envelope ‘Northumbrian Week in Prague’. Geraghty who have worked hard on the DC Gathering. Do pray that both events will go well, and be a helpful step on the journey for Community in USA. WE DON’T WANT TO LOSE TOUCH WITH YOU! Welcome to the Autumn edition of Caim! If you have not returned the ‘database form’ we sent We’ve been fortunate enough to travel to each you recently, then you will find a separate letter of the recent Community Gatherings (see page enclosed with your copy of Caim. 6), and it’s been an inspiration to meet old friends and new...and to see again the precious THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! gift which God has given us in Community. Many of us experience much more the ‘Alone’ Please take a few moments to complete and return the form than the ‘Together’ of Community (of course, to us, otherwise your name will no longer be on the list of it’s not just about physical presence, yes, we contacts… So WHY NOT DO IT NOW!? know…) so we hope that Caim will bring you just a little bit of togetherness! It should only take a few seconds, and then all manner of Enjoy this issue. Jeff & Ingrid things shall be well… 2 Continued from Page 1 desire which is a rebuttal to the distractions and the Thirdly, attend to Desire, which addresses the landscape pursuit of all other desires. of our hearts. It’s also a challenge and a call to repent, to turn and move Our lives are driven by desires. Physical desires; e.g. in the right direction as we go on in the Office to profess eating, drinking, exercising, sex, and appearances. Desires our faith; ‘To whom shall we go, You have the words of eternal operate in every realm of life and work; how we spend our life’. money, how we occupy our time. We live in a society that is driven by feeding and consuming desires. They are It is no accident that our Morning powerful forces that, unchecked, can lead to compulsions, obsessions and disorder. Office begins with Psalm 27. It’s a daily reminder of the “one thing Yet we can’t deny desire. God made us to desire and gave necessary” - to seek God. us the capacity to desire. All the best things in life are also the objects of desire, e.g. love, joy, peace, justice, truth, goodness, relationship. To satisfy our desires for such Re‐order our lives, to desire what God desires. things makes life worth living. Whether you call it discipleship or spiritual formation, living the life and doing what God does is what should be So how do we align our desires to live life as God intends? our desire. So abiding, loving, having a heart for the poor, We can’t suppress them. Any attempt to do so just forces prayer, saturating ourselves in the Scriptures, valuing them underground, and they surface somewhere else, relationships more than reputation, respecting and caring often when we least expect them! Some attempt to control for creation, reaching out, loving justice, living mercifully, their desires by trying to lead a balanced life, so as to not embracing humility and expressing hospitality, these are let desires run riot, e.g. it’s okay to eat and drink but not to all things that God desires. excess. Or is there a better way? Jesus, in teaching the Sermon on the Mount, (see Matthew “Our hearts are restless until they chapters 5 ‐ 7) addresses issues of the heart and most of find their rest in thee” the human desires that relate to life’s big issues – money, Augustine sex and power. If we are to be a people exploring ‘a new type of So How then shall we Live? monasticism which only has in common an uncompromising allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount’ then we can find in our own Rule of Life ‐ Availability and Realise that God desires us Vulnerability ‐ a way helping us to realise what God The story of the Prodigal Son and the watching father is a desires. reminder that God wants us. He is love. He created us in love and he wants relationship with us. Here at In embracing our vocation we learn what it is to be bound Ballydugan, I cleared a pathway in the cottage gardens by the love of God, yet to experience the freedom to live this year, which leads to two seats carved out of tree life as he intends.