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Life Giving Spring is the name I have given to 50 acres in southeast Central TX that has been in my family since 1960, to which my parents retired at the end of 1983, and where I now continue to reside following my dad’s sudden death in 2006, looking after the property for my elderly mother. Over my life, I have spent a lot of time connecting with this place. Since early 1983, I have designed the residence and landscape gardens; sited the outbuildings, drive, vegetable garden and orchard; procured plants, and helped plant and maintain the landscape gardens. Currently, I am working on redesign of the website, setting up a discussion forum and converting to a content management system (CMS) to facilitate access to a growing database of information.
In the meantime, I am seeking others who are interested to spread the word and stay in contact by way of the Life Giving Spring Facebook
page. There, I try to post some insight every few days that I happen to glean from the Prologue from Ohrid, some news on how the website is faring, some links about topics I’m researching, or something about the property or life here.
I am hoping that discussions can begin soon around planning of an actual community as a model or prototype based on Diana Leafe Christian’s book, “Creating A Life Together”. I know that without a planning process, it is easy to get muddled in ‘discussion’ that isn't focused, so I would like to follow the design process that Diana outlines in her book for planning an intentional community. Diana has been editor of Communities magazine for many years, and has a lot of exposure to the ups and downs of creating communities, and I have over 20 years experience in landscape architecture which uses virtually that same design process. I encourage anyone so inclined to obtain a copy of the book and begin reading it in anticipation of participating in online discussion.
Building a network of connections with others who are interested is very important, because ultimately there are fewer and fewer ‘members’ remaining to actually join and build a community as planning progresses from the abstract to the concrete. When the rubber finally meets the road, there are fewer and fewer who are in consensus and committed to roll on down the rough road of reality.
As Diana says, joining community is like starting a business or getting married, so it's important to have long engagements and really get to know others with whom you are considering creating a communal life together. There is perhaps nothing more important to those relationships than spiritual maturity. As Met. Jonah (OCA) said in his talk on spiritual maturity, lack of spiritual maturity is what is hindering Orthodoxy in America due to lack of depth of monastic formation of the priesthood. In other words, there is more to Christian leadership than meeting academic qualifications and completing studies.
In light of this lack, I highly recommend submitting to the spiritual guidance of St. Nikolai Velimirovich (Nicholas of Zica), a ‘modern’ saint who lived near to us in time, by way of his Prologue of Ochrid and Homilies and veneration of his icon. Here is a sample homily by St. Nikolai that is a good source of contemplation for what constitutes family and community. I much prefer the translation of these by Mother Maria published by Lazarica Press, Birmingham (UK), and think that Dormition Skete Books (Bibles and Commentaries section) is where I purchased my copies sometime around 1999. Unfortunately, I don't find the Prologue (1985) or Homilies (1996) listed there any longer, although in January 2010, Homilies Vol. 1 was listed and Vol. 2 was listed as ‘available from the publisher’.
Before ordering, I would first inquire to make sure the Homilies and Prologue are published by Lazarica Press, and that they are the translation of Mother Maria. The Homilies of this translation have an inspiring introduction by Bishop Kallistos (Ware), author of The Orthodox Church. If cost of this edition is prohibitive, there is at least one other translation of the Prologue which may suffice, and one that is available here, online for free. Note that all prices at Dormition Skete Books are in Canadian funds which are somewhat higher than actual American dollars, so don't be put off by listed prices.
Spiritual maturity is what will enable all who are interested in Orthodox community to hash out the multitude of details that must be addressed in creating such community and forming consensus among themselves. The first step is a Mission Statement of purpose, and development of ‘goals’ and ‘objectives’ on how to meet those goals.
For now, we can each do our part by striving for spiritual maturity, staying in touch no matter what, refusing to take offense over anything, praying without ceasing (practicing Prayer of the Heart, the Jesus Prayer), praying for guidance, and becoming very clear on what each of our intentions are for wanting to create community. If we don’t clarify them, I think our intentions could end up serving something other than the Church (possibly our ‘self’).
As my mom continues to age, and most likely, to become less active at some point and in need of care, I will need to have help with gardening and maintaining the property, and hope that by then I will have met a few people who are likely candidates for community. There is a good possibility that the share of the property that will belong to my only sibling can be bought, so there is at least some hope here for creation of an actual Orthodox Christian community!
The LGS website attempts to lay out an ‘apology’ of need for Orthodox Christian intentional community and voluntary simplicity (or ‘poverty’), what I call The Simple Gospel Life. On the Case Study page, you will find my ideas for cultural connections which I think are essential to evangelism and that are based in ethnicity, because I believe that without identification in the Divine Image and Likeness, ethnicity is the primary ‘default’ human identity.
In the south, there is also an agrarian ‘tradition’ to which an appeal can be made for evangelistic connection. Having been old enough in the late 50s to experience family rooted in actual agrarian Texas sense of place, I've identified more with being ‘Texan’ than with family ethnicity (German-American), and find the following article descriptive of that experience. The book cited in the article “Flee To The Land And Take Your Stand, To Live And Die in Dixie”, discusses connections between people, place, land, family and community, something starting to be missed more and more in this age of rootless globalism, where everyplace is becoming the same everywhere. Some of the book, entitled “I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition”, can be read online here.
From the article, I infer that human ‘identity’, the connection to land, place, family and community that historically really is the essence of cultural ethnicity, could be a meaningful basis of Orthodox Christian outreach and goal of Orthodox Christian intentional community. Southerners, as described in the article, could come to understand themselves sacramentally (something the article indicates they lack as reformed protestants) as well as rooted in the South via the Church's spiritually unique anthropology and cosmology, aka the “Sacramental Life” as explained by Bishop Alexander Mileant of Buenos Aires.
I think sacramental connectivity is the cultural expression found in pre-industrial ‘old towns’ and villages sought out everywhere by modern day tourists who have no such connections but intuitively recognize the need. Sacramental connectivity is ultimately the beauty of Orthodox Christianity that doesn't belong to Greece, the Mideast or eastern Europe only, but which can be translated anywhere that anyone (including Greek, Mideastern, and eastern European expatriates) make themselves at home by cultivating such sacramental connections (relationships). The Earth can potentially be transfigured anywhere through the transfiguration of any human creature into a human being, a ‘person’ created in the Image of God, who, through grace (uncreated Divine energies), becomes recreated in the Divine Likeness.
Such reclamation (‘recycling’) changes relationship between God and human, human and human, and human and creation (‘nature’), the latter being something that has never been so crucial as in our modern industrial rootless age, a mere past 50, 100 or 150 years at most. I know of no better cultural expression of human being becoming ‘real’ in this way, than Pinocchio. Carlos Collodi wrote his tale in the 1800s to inspire Italian youth to virtue, because he knew that without virtue, the Italian people had no chance of becoming locally independent from foreign Hapsburg rule. In other words, real ‘self’ governance is that which comes from within, not from without via bureaucracy.
I think that agrarianism is important because it keeps human culture and community connected to Creation, whereas the goal of industrialism is consumerism which ends up disconnecting humanity from itself and Creation, which Met. Joseph says makes us 'insensitive' to Truth by addicting humanity to ‘false’ images. I also think that such 'addiction' is the root of social ills of virtually every stripe.
This quote by Fr. John A. Peck from The Orthodox Church of Tomorrow sums up well the hope and aspiration for Orthodox Christian intentional community:
Some parishes, I believe, will actually be formed specifically, in the old fashion, by purchasing land, building a chapel or Temple in the midst of it, and parishioners building or buying homes around it. The Church will be the center of their lives, and many will come from far and wide to experience their way of life.
Anyone wishing to contact me directly may do so from the Contact page. Here’s hoping we all can work together to make Orthodox Christian intentional community a reality!
Glory to God for All Things!
D. Stall
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