Interactions

Delespesse, Max; Renshaw, Dick (ed.)

Publisher:  SHINAKI: A Unicorn Hunters' Guide, Toronto, Canada
Year Published:  1975   First Published:  1976
Pages:  9-14pp  
Resource Type:  Article/Report/Letter
Cx Number:  CX4

Remarks made at a meeting of New Communities and representatives of the Churches of Toronto.

Abstract:  These are notes of remarks made at an all-day consultation between New Communities and representatives of the Churches of Toronto. Comments by Max Delespesse edited by Dick Renshaw.

All Christians are called to community though in various ways. Such community needs to be relatively small: the parish is too anonymous. The Church needs to become a community of communities in which material goods as well as people are shared. This means ministries occur within the community, are recognised and formation for them is in this context. Religious orders, which have kept alive, often poorly, the tradition of community, now needs for their own sake as well, to open out to share the tradition and to live with lay people. Community is not monarchy or democracy, it is community and decisions should be by unanimity. Women will never achieve their full place in the church or society until they are reastablished on a communitarian basis which eliminates the central position of the possession of goods. Community is both means and end: end in so far as the Kingdom of God is the ultimate goals means in so far as it provides a live giving context for the journey. Suffering is an extremely important reality of community life; no community can survive without contact with those who suffer. To build church is to face in truth the problems of society.

Subject Headings

• Christian Organizations
• Christianity
• Communities
• Community Living
• Religion
• Religious Congregations