Next River Gathering – North America

You may remember that the Kihilla/Wandering Community hosted the Australian River Gathering last year. Heather and Chinua have announced the date and venue for this year’s Gathering in North America.

Dates: 9th – 12th June

Venue:
Diamond Arrow
15742 N Bloomfield Road
Nevada City, CA 95959

You can read more info and register for the North American River Gathering online at:

http://www.therivercommunities.com/gathering-detail/

Surrender 2017

The Surrender Conference is coming up on 24th-26th March 2017. The full program is available online.

Here is a list of speakers with experience living in intentional communities:

  • Pete Volkofsky: “Bodylife”
  • Nerida Cuddy: “Lament and Hope”
  • L’Arche: “Walking the Journey of Community”
  • Shane Claiborne: “Becoming a Peculiar People”
  • Andy & Rose Vincent: “A journey of formation, community and mission”
  • Dhiiyaan & Bruderhof Community: “Reconciliation and Cross-Cultural Community”

You can buy tickets and register online.

Embodying The Way – SURRENDER 17 from SURRENDER Australia on Vimeo.

The Pain of Saying Goodbye

The words “farewell” come with a lump in our throat and tears in our eyes. Christ is and has been at the heart of this journey, and through Him we will always stay connected to His followers. Looking back I realise this was one of those chapters where I have felt very spiritually alive and connected to the story of the Bible. It was intense but I would not have wanted to miss it. The relationships that formed over this time are strong, honest and deep. Like family. – Hannah

Hannah and Tonn experienced an emotional roller-coaster last year. After enthusiastically recruiting members for their community in the Blue Mountains, they faced the trauma of having their community residence placed under new management less than two months later. In her latest blog post Hannah reflects on some of the lessons learnt and the pain of saying good-bye: “A Beautiful Pain

New Monastic Community in Melbourne

Rachael and Jonathan Lopez are establishing a new monastic community this year in partnership with Spotswood Anglican Church, Melbourne. Jonathan and Rachael recently returned from London where they were living as community members at the Community of St Anselm from 2015-2016; a community established by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. They …

Should Christians argue more?

“I want Christians to argue more and fight less. To take it a step further, I’d even say that fighting less depends on our willingness to argue more and better.” – Trevin Wax

We learn early on in community life the importance of managing conflict. Some people are afraid of conflict, but avoiding it usually leads to more conflict in the future. We need to pro-actively create safe spaces for clean arguments.

You can read more of Trevin’s case for healthy arguing in this blog post on the Gospel Coalition website:

https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/trevinwax/2017/02/27/i-wish-christians-would-argue-more/