44/52 - An Ecumenical Experiment

A theme that seems to be developing in various aspects of my life, but especially within the commmunity house (now called The Harbour, by the way) has been the idea of the need for unity among Christians, despite our differing opinions and backgrounds.

Within this house and associated boyfriends, at least six different denominations are represented - Reformed, Baptist, Pentacostal, Mennonite and United.

Some of us have a more conservative way of viewing life and faith and how it should be lived out and some of us are more liberal. Yet all of us are committed to our one God, this community and to learning how to coexist and love each other.

I believe then, that a valuable mission this house could undertake would be in learning to listen to not just each other's voices, but the voices of various congregations within the city of Waterloo.

Online, there are forty-four churches that advertise on the City of Waterloo's website: http://www.city.waterloo.on.ca/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabID=260.

I think it would be an interesting experiment with Christian unity and mutual understanding to visit each of these churches on a typical Sunday morning, e-mailing each of them ahead of time explaining who we are and what we are doing, attaching a short survey asking their perspectives on what it means to follow Jesus, who in their congregation does an exemplary job of doing this and what about their denomination or congregation is most misunderstood by the Church of general public. Finally, we will invite each pastor and his/her family to come over to our house for lunch after the service.

The goal would be to gain a more thorough understanding of the Christian spectrum within Waterloo, gaining their perspectives on us and what we do as a house and to promote the importance of ecumenism in Waterloo.

I hypothesize that there is a wealth of untapped potential in various sincere Christian voices listening to and understanding each other, even if those voices may contradict at times.

I must admit that I found this quote off of someone's facebook profile page. I thought it was a thought-provoking quote.

"You’ve got to have good work to do together. You can’t just be community for the sake of community. You’ve got to have something to do. Work is liturgy. You need to worship together. But somebody’s also got to clean the damn house. Work requires everyday conversation and politics. It’s not accidental that the Benedictines are about work and prayer. Otherwise they’d kill one another."

- Stanley Hauerwas

Reasons I love this house

1. There is always someone around to talk to - No matter what time of the day you come home or when you wake up, someone is around to hear about your day or the weird dream you had.

2. You can be drawn into a theological conversation just by walking down the hall- I don't think a day goes by here without someone debating or discussing some meaningful type subject matter. I love that we engage in good conversation on a regular basis.

3. Studying/Reading together in the living room - Its easier to do your homework when 3 other people are sitting next to you doing theirs. This is also helpful when you need someone to edit your papers or keep you focused.

4. Pancake Fridays - Gloria gets up and makes pancakes for everyone every Friday morning. Its the best.

5. Sunday night dinner and devotions - I love when we all gather together and help prepare a meal. Everyone contributes whatever ingredients they have and we all eat and then do devotions together.

6. Hearing everyones story - Lately, instead of devotions we have been going through each member of the house and hearing their life story. I think its a great way to connect with each other more and I've loved hearing about everyones life and being able to share about mine.

7. Borrowing clothes - I love that when I am running low on clean laundry, I can step across the hall and grab something to throw on. Communal clothing is a huge plus to living with these girls.

8. Sharing food - Sometimes, people make too much of something or are just feeling generous and we get some tasty morsels that we didn't even cook ourselves!

9. Musicians - There are many musicians in this house. I love the sound of guitar and piano and singing wafting through the house and I love that we can use them for worship times as well.

10. Learning more about Jesus - Through the relationships here and through the way we are learning and growing, I am seeing more and more about what Jesus wants us to be and how to love more like He loves us. Everyone here is such a blessing and everyone reveals something else about the nature of God.

Winter 2011 Mission Statement

This semester, we as a house want to focus on developing shalom within the house and the world in order to glorify God by doing the following:

Caring for each other. We want to show each other that we care by being intentional about making time for each other and this house. We also want to hold each other accountable in ways that we have (or haven't, in some cases, perhaps)specified. Two specific examples are holding Trevor accountable in his time management and Katie accountable in her ability to leave for things on time. We love Katie and therefore will leave without her if she is running late.

Another way we will show that we care about each other is by helping each other exercise more by competing for who can exercise the most, making chores the consequence for those who lose each monthly competition.

We also commit to praying for each other and the world around us with set times on various days throughout the week where we will pray.

Another way we wish to care for each other and the world around us is by utilizing our creative abilities, especially through music.

Hospitality is something we wish to focus on as well. We wish to have others over for meals and host various events and parties at our house. These events and parties must have a purpose that points the world to a greater reality that reflects God's heart for humanity. One event in particular that we wish to host is a community BBQ.

Lastly, we are committing to establishing a relationship with the residents of SHOW, a local apartment building which houses those who used to be homeless. We want to build relationships with the individuals who live there by volunteering there as a house once a month.