Tour of UK Christian Communities

A gallery, calendar and map of the communities I hope to visit can be accessed

here.

Written reflections and podcasts from my travels so far can be accessed here.

Hello friends!

Over the past few years, I have been strongly called to go deeper into my exploration of intentional Christian living, fed in particular by my 2 years at the Lyn’s House community, and various friendships with monastics. The calling has only continued to grow stronger and clearer as I feel drawn to set up and nurture Christian communities. God thus far has been paving the way rather strongly (!), and feel called to move onto the site of Rose Castle, Dalston, Cumbria in the upcoming years to help set up the Rose Community.

In spiritual and practical preparation for this vocation, as of March 2023 I will be taking 6 months out of employment to visit, experience, pray with and work alongside a range of UK-based intentional/lay/new monastic Christian communities. To helpfully inform the development of the Rose Community, I will be prioritising smaller communities and communities with a ministry to those on the margins and/or have an agricultural component. A map and visual table of the communities I hope to visit can be accessed here (https://www.notion.so/329fd87a2c384de68c9e6c7bfa4dbcf4?v=3f9c8f3024bb445696d2a65977c5c8c0)

More on my journey, convictions around community life as a need for this world, what I hope to learn, and more on the Rose Community can be read about below.

Having conducted an in-depth cost analysis, I anticipate this trip costing £4000 (£3000 going to various communities to support my keep and their work, and a calculated ~£1000 of train travel). If you feel drawn to support financially, the invitation is open do so. However other forms of support – sharing this page with others, keeping me and this project in your prayers, words of wisdom, or otherwise - are also deeply appreciated!

With love and blessings,

Lakshmi

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A bit about my journey and some extra details…

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.

Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.

Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,

That my life may only be a radiance of Yours.

Shine through me, and be so in me

That every soul I come in contact with

May feel Your presence in my soul.

Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!

Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine,

So to shine as to be a light to others;

The light, O Jesus will be all from You; none of it will be mine;

It will be you, shining on others through me.

Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me.

Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example,

By the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,

The evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.

Amen.

~ John Henry Newham

At the age of around 16, my friend gifted me a simple necklace with a small gold star as a pendant. Prior to that gift, I was never a one to wear jewellery, but even at that age I remember intentionally wanting to wear it as a daily reminder to shine and hopefully be a light to others.

Since then, I have had the utmost privilege of meeting person upon person who radiates something of God; people who have let “(The) spirit and life penetrate and possess (their) whole being so utterly, that(their) life (is) a radiance of (God’s)”. Through them I have glimpsed and received the beauty of God, drawing me to go ever deeper into this mysterious and joyful light.

It also has to be said that I have oft felt this divine radiance most powerfully in community settings. Many of the people whose light has touched me most deeply are those who live/have lived in Christian/monastic communities. And it is in sharing life with such communities that I continue to be profoundly touched by the tangible presence of God as love, joy, sacrifice, care… that they manifest. In these communities it seems that there is an amplification of shining, with each individual’s shining helping others to shine, contributing to a communal dazzling which makes it near impossible to not feel something – a something I personally experience as God and a phenomenon which points towards something of bringing God’s kingdom to Earth. It seems to me that communities are able to stand out as welcoming beacons which can truly transform, in a world in desperate need of transformation.

The Vision/Project

As I seek to go deeper into what it means to live as a radiance of God’s, I have felt myself heavily drawn to explore Christian community living as a model for bringing and sharing God’s transforming light to and with others. I feel a strong calling towards nurturing Christian communities as places where God’s love is strongly manifest, and as places of welcome where people’s light can be received, reflected back to them, and thus contribute to a strengthened individual light and a communal dazzling. Or in the words of Henri Nouwen -

“A gift only becomes a gift when it is received; and nothing we have to give will ever be recognized as true gifts until someone is open to accept them. This all suggests that if we want others to grow we should first of all be able to recognize their gifts and be willing to receive them. For we only become fully human when we are received and accepted.”

As mentioned above, God thus far has been paving the way really quite strongly ahead of me (slightly startingly so!). I am set to move to the US mid-2023 to pursue a fully-funded 3 year Master of Divinity at Earlham School of Religion which I sense will be deeply formational in equipping me for the ministry unfolding before me. Post-study I hope to move onto the site of Rose Castle, Dalston, Cumbria where I will help shape an intentional praying community with a focus on reconciliation, care of the land, local involvement, and creating a space where especially those who don’t feel they belong, can truly belong, be seen, and thrive.

It's a big project (!) which has been envisioned and prayerfully held for 10+years, with now feeling like the right time to bring it to fruition. I feel blessed and humbled that God has brought me in at this time to help build something which truly transcends anything of my own, or any one person’s, doing.

In preparation for forming this community - the Rose Community - I feel called to take time out of employment to visit a number of residential Christian communities (see here). During this time of journeying I hope to experience and learn from different communities’ charisms and how it is that a place of love, joy, welcome… can be fostered. I hope to witness and be a part of their rhythms of prayer and work, and in doing so learn how sustainability, care of the land, care of people… is intertwined and strengthened by community life. I look forwards to speaking with community members, new and old, and hearing of their experiences of community; the blessings, the challenges, where they feel God. I am also keen to intentionally explore the difficulties these communities have faced – spiritual, practical, financial – and the wisdom they have to share from these times. I am confident this time will be deeply formational and critical to helping start the Rose Community with strong foundations.

I want to preserve this time of travel and exploration as a prayerful space of listening, reflecting and growing. I will however be capturing and synthesising my experiences and learnings in written and podcast form which can be accessed here.

P.S. A shout out to the Rose Castle Foundation, especially Sarah and Neil, for enabling me to take time out of work to pursue my part of a much bigger vision. How grateful I am to have an employer so attentive and supportive to the workings of the Spirit…!