Neo Monastisism
Boiler Rooms – 24/7 Boiler Room Community
http://www.boiler-rooms.com/cm/resources/26
A 24-7 Boiler Room is a simple Christian community that practices a daily rhythm of prayer, study and celebration whilst caring actively for the poor and the lost.(i) The Two Purposes: a 24-7 Boiler Room exists to love God in prayer and to love its neighbours in practice. These purposes are contextualised in community and expressed in a defined location.(ii) The Three Principles: at the heart of every Boiler Room is a living community committed to being 1. Authentic: True to Christ. 2. Relational: Kind to People. 3. Missional: Taking the Gospel to the World.
A Neomonastic network
http://people.clarityconnect.com/webpages/icm/home.html
The Lindisfarne Community is a network of people, communities, churches and groups committed to the “new monasticism.” Our mother house is in Ithaca, NY. We have professed members, novices and enquirers in several US States, the UK, New Zealand and South Korea. We are committed to following Christ in a balanced life of prayer, study, service and rest . . . . a new form of monasticism. We are relational, egalitarian, charismatic, sacramental and inclusive. We are deeply rooted in historical Christianity, and are open to insights from other traditions in the belief that “all truth is God’s truth.” Our prayer is “to be as Christ to those we meet, to find Christ within them.”
The Weary Pilgrim
http://thewearypilgrim.typepad.com/the_weary_pilgrim/2005/09/beginnings_neom.html
The beginning of this new monasticism will be the reality of the presence of communal bonfire…a gathering, a fellowship…in the midst of the passionate fire, the Spirit of God. It may be hearing what St. Francis heard, ” the Lord said, he wished me to be a fool, the like of which the world has never seen before.”
An Introduction to Monasticism
http://www.monachos.net/monasticism/index.shtml
In the Orthodox Christian tradition, monasticism has more than once been called the ‘barometer of the spiritual life of the Church.’ So great has the influence of and appreciation for this institution been that its life and status have been equated with those of the Church as a whole: the state in which the monastics existed, so existed the Church. That so great an influence would be granted to the monastic life bespeaks something of the great importance in which it is viewed by the Church. Monasticism is not just a ‘part’ of the greater scope of Orthodox life; it is the very centre and heart of the Church, out of which all other aspects of her life are born and grow. The monastics (both men and women) are those who choose to follow with singular devotion and obedience the call of Christ, who live the life of the Church in its fullest and most authentic sense. They are thus the models in which the Church sees her perfect icon: a communion of souls wholly living the Christian life.
Excerpts from Dietrich Bonhoeffer
http://www.prayerfoundation.org/dietrich_bonhoeffer_on_monasticism.htm
“The expansion of Christianity and the increasing secularization of the church caused the awareness of costly grace to be gradually lost…. But the Roman church did keep a remnant of that original awareness. It was decisive that monasticism did not separate from the church and that the church had the good sense to tolerate monasticism. Here, on the boundary of the church, was the place where the awareness that grace is costly and that grace includes discipleship was preserved…. Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace.”
The Rule of the Iona Community
http://www.iona.org.uk/community/issues.htm
Our five-fold Rule calls us to: 1. Daily Prayer and Bible-reading. 2. Sharing and accounting for the use of our money. 3. Planning and accounting for the use of our time. 4. Action for Justice and Peace in society. 5. Meeting with and accounting to each other.
The Rule of the Northumbria Community
http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/WhoWeAre/whoweareThe%20Rule.htm
Our history is one of responding to a call we believe to be from God: a call to risky living, and our Rule developed out of this life already being lived – a written response to the many people who were asking – what is central to your hopes and dreams, what are the values and emphases that reflect the character and ethos of your way for living? A Rule of life is absolutely essential to any monastic expression, and is a spiritual rather than a legislative document. It says this is ‘who we are, this is our story’ and reminds us of those things God has put on our heart, and calls us back to the story that God has written as foundational. Monastic stability is to be accountable to a Rule of life as a framework for freedom, not as a set of rules that restrict or deny life, but as a way of living out our vocation alone and together. It is, to use the words of St Benedict, ’simply a handbook to make the radical demands of the gospel a practical reality in daily life’.
