In Seattle, Easter Sunday is as often wet, gray or cold as it is soaked in
sunshine. But in the afternoon of Easter, 2000, we were given sunlight. The warm
sun mingled with our intentions for the day. We had journeyed together through
the winter and Lent to this day of covenant making. We chose Easter as the day
to begin a year of common practices as founders and intern members, of a new/old
form of Christian community in the tradition of the Church of the Saviour,
Washington, D.C.
But if gray and cold did not describe our time together, they certainly reflected the longings, awakenings, betrayals and hopes we had known and which were a part of our common response to God's call to community. Shaped by the past storms of our lives, we arrived to create a vessel into which the gift of community might be poured.
On January 9, 2000, The New Creation Community held its first worship service. Twenty seven people had gathered who were interested in or curious about this expression of Christian community. By Holy Week, seven were ready to covenant with us --- making a total of nine --- for a year of intern membership.
Hope in Action
On a previous Sunday, Cecilia, one of our intern members had said, "I have always longed for something like this. But it always seemed that as soon as I got close to it I would turn and run away." On this Easter we had turned away from our turning away and found ourselves running toward each other, perhaps with some of the same hope that led early disciples to run toward an empty tomb.
The stone had been rolled away from all our excuses and hesitations. So after each one who stood to share words for the yes growing within us had been blessed, we joined in committing to the practices which we pray will make us into a vessel able and willing to receive the gift of community. (The New Creation Community Covenant)
Kali Kucera shared with us what had brought him to this moment: "I have decided to follow Jesus with you, not because I'm ready. I have given up on being ready. Not because I think you will put an end to my disappointments with what has become of the Church. No matter how hard we try to be different, we will and still must be a part of that same broken Church, and we will continue to be careless with the power we wield.
"I have decided to follow Jesus with you, because only Jesus can be leading such a stubborn and eccentric venture as this. And because I have already been strangely warmed by your affection and compassionate love. And because I have seen the fruits of this tradition's labor, not only in D.C., but also here, and I believe what I have seen to be the marks of the Spirit of God," Kucera continued.
"And because, even though my trust has been betrayed in the past, trust is the only coin that God has placed in my hands with which to recover my liberation. And She has assured me there is no finer gold.
"And lastly, because ---
Spiritual Family
In the third chapter of John's gospel Jesus reminds Nicodemus that we experience not just a physical birth, but that we are "born" spiritually. Just as a baby needs a family if he or she is to mature and grow up into all that he or she was created to be, we, too, having experienced a spiritual birth, or spiritual awakening, must have a spiritual family if we are to grow up into the people we were created to become; if we are to grow up into the likeness of Christ.
At the first worship service in January, Killian Noe said that we need a spiritual family where we are both known and loved. Being known and loved must go together. But Noe observed that many churches lack the structures that foster the kind of knowing, loving and accountability that frees us to grow up spiritually and literally helps to set us free.
Noe observed that we need people in our lives who will hold us to the commitments that keep us in the process of becoming who we were created to be. Spiritual practices have no power in themselves to heal and transform. The spiritual practices are what keep us open to the power of the Holy Spirit which does the healing and transforming.
"I used to think of accountability as something negative, something punitive, but I have come to think of accountability as what naturally occurs when we allow ourselves to be deeply known and when we are willing to be intentional about deeply knowing others," Noe said.
"I think of accountability as saying to a small group of trusted seekers, 'I am going to journey with you. I will allow you to know me at least as deeply as I know myself. I will allow you to hold me to who I say I want to become. And I will do the same for you.' I've come to think of accountability as one of the purest expressions of love."
Noe also emphasized that while there is a therapeutic dimension to Christian community, we also become community in Christ for the sake of our wounded world and to move toward deeper and deeper surrender to the resurrected, resurrecting Jesus. What is important is that the body as a whole begins to embody the gospel by the way we love, forgive, care for the poor, and the way we stand with the oppressed.
Finally, Noe told us that although it is helpful to think about the characteristics of a healthy spiritual family, and about the commitments that make such a community possible, ultimately a healthy spiritual community is always gift.
"No matter how hard we try to create it, a community of faith functioning as one body and pouring out its life for the healing of the world is always gift," Noe said. "Let us pray that the gift will be given among us."
Randall Mullins, co-founder, first connected with Church of the Saviour through the writings of Elizabeth O'Connor. He has also started a faith-based non-profit in Seattle called Center for Contemplation and Non-violence.
Killian Noe, co-founder, was a member of one of the Church of the Saviour faith communities for 17 years where she nurtured Samaritan Inns, a ministry serving homeless and addicted people.
Photo: L to R:
Row 1: Ruby Takushi, Anita Manuel, Bart Preecs
Row 2: Kali Kucera, Cecilia McKean, Killian Noe
Row 3: LeAnne Moss, Michael Schut, Randall Mullins