Over Reading Week in February, I had the incredible opportunity to travel with a group of 12 University of Waterloo Students to visit
Jubilee Partners, an intentional Christian service community in rural northeast Georgia. The members of this commune live radical lives of service, offering hospitality to refugees who have just arrived in the U.S., visiting prisoners on death row, working for peace around the world, and modelling socially and environmentally just lifestyles. Their philosophies on life and work are rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the farmer-theologian Clarence Jordan, but they work to build bridges with people from every kind of background. Their rich history has proven that intentional communities can be fertile ground for ideas and projects of all kinds. For example, Habitat for Humanity grew out of Jubilee's parent community, Koinonia Partners, and is now a household name in the world of NGOs.
My week at Jubilee gave me a very fresh perspective on local and international development work, and inspired me to think creatively about the many different ways of going about it. In particular, I have enjoyed reflecting on the importance of supportive communities in doing this kind of work, and the possibilities for cultivating these types of relationships in my own life. Over the past few weeks, my reflections have been featured on
seekingcommunity.ca, an online learning community hosted by Tamarack, a community engagement organization based in Kitchener, Ontario. I will be re-posting my reflections here as my next three blog entries, and I would invite you to read them and post comments with any ideas you have about the role of community or faith in development work:
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteYour link isn't working for me and requires a password. Is there another way to read it?
Your trip sounds interesting, but I wonder if you could elaborate on what exactly an intentional community is? I have an idea of what it is based on this post, but I don't want to make any assumptions.
Thanks for letting me know, Jeanette. I'll re-post my seekingcommunity.ca reflections here so that they're accessible.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, intentional communities can take many different forms, but I liked Wikipedia's definition:
"An intentional community is a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They typically also share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include collective households, cohousing communities, ecovillages, communes, survivalist retreats, kibbutzim, ashrams and some housing cooperatives."
In the case of Jubilee, it is a group of Christians who believe that Jesus' teachings point to a very counter-cultural life of communal living (resource-sharing), voluntary simplicity (they earn only $15 a week), living close to the land, and service to others. I think you'll get a better idea of what I mean by reading my next 3 posts!
Hey Laura,
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful opportunity! And definitely, it is experiences like these that help shape our perspectives about international development!
It's true, Fatima! As great as our International Development courses have been, many of my most important learning opportunities have come from traveling and learning outside of school. That's why I'm so excited for our field placements next year!
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