Architecture, sacred order and Benedict

Allow me to beat Gary Seaton to the punch - One can see this realization in real, "live" mortar and stone, taking shape before one's very eyes, at Clear Creek Monastery. For those not in the know, that is more formally known as Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Priory - a Benedictine monastery under construction at Hulbert, Oklahoma in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. There the monks are building -- with the active approval of our local ordinary, Bp. Edward Slattery, "a monastery to last a thousand years." You can read more about it at: www.clearcreekmonks.org I'm tempted to say that its just in time.

Gary's told me about Clear Creek before, and the community growing up around it. I'd say Clear Creek is the best cultural news I've heard in years. Bess says that the kind of work that will need to be done to regenerate community will not be possible to complete in 10 years, but will be the work of generations. God bless those monks and the faithful gathering around them.

How about a fourth option- a cooperative housing corporation. Cooperatives are owned by the end-users of the product, in this case housing, according to internationally recognized principles. There are models of cooperative housing all over the country, and there is no reason New Urbanists could not adopt the model.

fbc: Happy to have been "beaten to the punch"!

Here's a suggestion to those who want to build a community-friendly community: look at the places that already work. Find a way to incorporate convenient shopping places with playgrounds (the outdoor kind) and playing fields. Find a way to locate schools and churches within walking distance. Build houses in accessible neighborhoods... take a look at the older New England towns, or urban neighborhoods that were once functional (and now, too often, no longer safe). I come at this problem from a New England perspective, but see no reason why the concepts wouldn't work for sub/urban living in other parts of the country. My sister (in LA) talks about how she has to drive to get to the park, the store, the library, the place where she walks (!). I can walk to all these places, and to church when I don't have to transport a guitar and a baritone horn. I don't think people are unwilling to give up cars, if they can do so and get where they need to go.

Anthony: The laity who are locating near Clear Creek are doing it on their own. They're not considering entering the monastery. They wouldn't be admitted! (Although their sons would be encouraged....if they have vocations!) It's very much an "ad hoc" movement. Some families live quite close by.....others live 5 miles away, some 20, some in/near Tulsa (~50 miles away). If you visit (and you'd be welcomed) you can easily talk with the "local" families after Mass, and quickly get a feel for what's developing. The monks themselves are quite busy praying the Divine Office, celebrating Mass (Solemn High Mass daily at 10am, private low masses daily ~7:30 depending on when Matins and Lauds conclude), building the new monastery, raising sheep (organically), planting gardens, setting up a furniture-making foyer, and forming new monks. The days melt away......

Rod: Sounds good. Look for a private eM.

http://www.newmonasticism.org

Doug, Can you point me to more information on the Eagle River thing?

Gary, Thanks for the information. Are any of the Divine Office prayers open to the public? Or is just the Mass? A note for anyone in town, the Cistercian monastery near UD has every hour except compline open to the public. I'd like to visit Clear Creek. If anyone from the Dallas area would like to arrange a late spring/early summer visit and share a car, e-mail me. anthonyking at gmail.com.

Douglas Cramer, I also would be interested in the Eagle River story (I live in Kenai). Thanks.

In Santa Fe, we've explored the possibility of buying a property for the purpose of allowing a number of single older women - widows, and never married - so that they can live together and support each other. In some ways this sounds a lot like a return to the Beguine project of the 13th-14th centuries in the Low Countries: single women banding together in a religious community without taking vows. In their case they eveolved from good works into more of a mystical direction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beguines

...it's taken you this longer to come to this realization?? no wonder you were wrong on Iraq.

maybe this could have all been avoided if Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical letter Rerum Novarum had been supportive of the teachings of Henry George's teaching rather condemning George's writings (George warned that no economic solution could be permanently effective unless humankind abide by the precepts of natural law and conform to the principles of moral living as it relates to the private use of land) as contrary to Catholic belief and excommunicated Father Edward McGlynn from St. Stephens Parish in NYC (the largest parish in the US) for supporting them. http://tinyurl.com/2jgymc http://tinyurl.com/339ecv from Rerum Novarum: "The State would act in an unjust and inhumane manner were it to exact more than is just from private owners (of land) under the guise of a tax." (pp. 98, 194) more than anything else - the landowner's monopoly on the collection of the unearned and socially derived increment of the return on land (economic rent) based on state granted privilege without any obligation on those excluded along with the overt subsidies of public infrastructure ( a rent-seeking, public "givings" strategy) has contributed to the decimation of rational and an ordered urban living environment that the new urbanists hope to address. http://www.progress.org/cg/geoglynn.htm

Franz, The "streetcar" lines in most of the streetcar suburbs were built by the land developers to help sell their lots and houses. There was never a long-term plan for their finance and upkeep. None in-fact was possible. Ask any urban transit expert about the densities necessary to support light and heavy rail mass-transit and the answer is inevitably about 50 units per acre or more. Otherwise, expensive empty trains circle aimlessly most of the time. I speak as someone who has had extensive experience working with in-fill development projects and attendent city services including working with New Urbanist pioneer Peter Calthorpe. Peter, would take a more nuanced view than mine but reading from the same playbook wouldn't dispute the figures.

For many years I lived in what has been called a "streetcar suburb" and it was the product of a developer who rode the train out, saw a bunch of land just being wasted on farms and bought it to develop. And when the weather was not too hot or too cold and not raining it was nice to be able to walk downtown for lunch or take the commuter train into Chicago. But, my friends were all miles west and the weather was often dreadful, so walking was not an option. And you can't carry a week's groceries without the car. A small house is a burden if you like room and a garden is useless when it is 15 below 0. And the commuter train into the city is useless when the job is nowhere near either the city nor the rail line.

Matt: Here's the link to the site for the congregation in Eagle River. There story is frequently told in Orthodox circles, but I'm not aware of anyplace it's been formally published. Perhaps in Peter Gillquist's "Becoming Orthodox". http://www.stjohnalaska.org/ Bless, Doug

It makes me feel kind of tired to read this: ...all have a serious rule of life, with those who violate it kicked out. Forget about having people of "similar" faith; it would have to have real doctrine, with real authority, and real excommunications - otherwise, it most likely is a pipe dream. Before you (general--not just you, M_David) get started building this community, you might want to check out the history of the Catholic charismatic movement in America. Many intentional "covenant communities" were created, and once they came under the influence of the "shepherding" movement, they were run along lines much like this. Eventually they came apart at the seams, and it wasn't pretty. Of course, the leadership blamed most of the problems on faithless weaklings who couldn't take a little discipline. The fallout in messed-up lives and lost faith was, as the Vatican would put it, not negligible. There are remnants of the movement still around, and I believe Steve Clark is still running his Sword of the Spirit network pretty much according to the plan M_David suggests. I would rather have all my teeth pulled out than live there, but if this is the kind of thing you think you would like, you might want to check it out. It would save you the effort of creating one of your own. I'm not mocking the desire for community. It is an abiding human need, and can create much happiness and potential to grow in holiness. But what you need to get there is SERIOUS work on living in love with people who won't do things your way, NOT more draconian rules and anathematizing. If one cannot get along with people who are mere figments of the ether online, one will certainly not be able to love them when they are living next door. I wonder how many more times people have to place their hand on the same stovetop before realizing that, yes, it is hot, and it will burn you.

...There are remnants of the movement still around, and I believe Steve Clark is still running his Sword of the Spirit network pretty much according to the plan M_David suggests. I would rather have all my teeth pulled out than live there, but if this is the kind of thing you think you would like, you might want to check it out. It would save you the effort of creating one of your own sigaliris: First, I would note that you say your Sword community is still around (whatever that is) and the others are gone...hmmm... Second, communities that are founded in strong doctrine are not "my plan", and I never said I was desiring to form any community. I was simply pointing out the facts as they stand. From my limited knowledge, it is simply the history of any real community that has ever lasted more that a generation in America that I know of. Amish, Mennonites, Mormons, etc. The problem with the "love" based communities seems to be they can't outlast the few nice people that found them. They are based on good people, not ideas. And people die, at which time their bad doctrine cannot last. Heck, doctrine is the history of the New Testament, as St. Paul, Mr. Love himself, was not afraid to excommunicate as needed. If one cannot get along with people who are mere figments of the ether online, one will certainly not be able to love them when they are living next door. I'm not sure what you are saying here, but feel free to expound? I wonder how many more times people have to place their hand on the same stovetop before realizing that, yes, it is hot, and it will burn you. This is exactly my point! How many endless communities have been tried since the '60s in America and just don't seem to last? Thousands. I would look to the ones who have lasted more than a generation - and those, to my limited knowledge, all have strong doctrine and rules. All the rest fade away.

I am whipsawed between the loneliness of the suburbs and a very tribal parish; and the dis-appeal of the impression left on a secular friend by her observation of the remains of the Eagle River enterprise. May I propose that we all work on our souls, character, and agreeableness-in-nonessentials before we set up housing situations? I observe over many years a man I know fairly well, who, in spite of the general misery of the legal profession, has inevitably found himself employed among gentlemen and Christians. I conclude it is his competence, character, and sincere tacit values; and that all the effort in the world to set up a "Christian firm" would have gone for naught without "the Lord building the house" and "watching the city" in these affairs. And yes, New Urbanism is the pet these days of the childless and same-sex joined. Expensive, bounded, cramped, rather noisy, even if it is down the block from Whole Foods. It's the less-Creative-Class smaller cities that are growing, or so I hear. However, putting together a consortium to put a down payment on multiple-dwelling is a good idea. I'd want to try owning and maintaining it together as an investment for a few years before moving in. And to avoid making the living situation an idol, but only an infrastructure tool toward a life of charity and peace. Living too subject to others' varying indulgence-levels toward their children, would be very tough. Having a profit-making workplace associated is a gonzo idea! Thanks for the book tip. I'll buy it.

sigaliris: M_david, I didn't mean to make you feel picked on by quoting your words. You misunderstand me; that "I feel picked on" is not accurate. I was simply trying to ensure my words were not brought places they didn't go...the need for good doctrine and group authority has nothing to do with supporting power-mad individuals, which seems to be your concern. ...as successful as they are, I would not wish to be a Mormon...Unification Church, the Church of Scientology, the Hare Krishnas...All have strong doctrine, but it is not good doctrine. We agree 100% here. Well, it's not rocket science. It's clear that even in a place like this blog, where people meet voluntarily...bad communication, and hurt feelings abound. This is multiplied to the nth degree in a face-to-face community. Interesting; I would go the other way and say that blogs are not meant for community but rather for the testing of ideas...and folk who have hurt feelings on blogs are using them for the wrong reasons. It ain't a real community, just a forum for ideas. And an great one! Remember, folk who join a community do so because of shared values, and so 99% of the talk going on here wouldn't happen in a community. For example, anyone who is pro-abort / pro-homosexual lifestyle would be automatically excomunicated in most existing local communities I know of (that have lasted) and so those divisive issues simply never come up. Those folk just leave. But a blog invites all, and rightfully so. We don't have to live together. Ideas are cheap. BTW, a local community I know here has avoided this issue of authority by requring a minimum 2 hour/day discussion with all members...that sort of face time gets ALL on the table. Soon you know these folk better than yourself! No hiding from differing values, so off many go. To live together in harmony, it s not enough to have correct ideas. Interpersonal skills are needed. I agree. I would go further, and say that the family implosion of today has millions of "only child" or institutionalized kids that usually prevent them from learning how to work with others in a family setting, which is what real communities emulate. Thus, we have millions of people out there who cannot get along in community. Not as diffcult for, say, the Amish who have outlawed birth control and thus have 8 kid families. Family is thus a way of life, and getting along a learned childhood value. Mix family implosion with all the bad doctrine out there (much coming from the resulting individualism) and communities are nearly impossible with the people of America today, and rightly so. We have lost our families and (good enough) doctrine. Folk like the Amish have both, and can limp along. But folk raised on indivdualism - with the birth control pill, divorce, and 2-kid families - have little hope here. God is clever but not malicious.

sigaliris ...takes up Zoroastrianism or UFOlogy, I'll always love him and he'll always love me. But wait--oh no--he only has two children! And he's quite the individualist as well . . . not to mention he believes in global warming . . . So there's NO HOPE for him! Oh woe... Your political views seem to have interfered with your ability to process information and think objectively. I was not talking about individual relationships. I was talking about people who give up all to live with each other - community life - that involve many people living together. If you wish to challenge an idea, surely you can do so in a straightforward manner and not keep trying to imply I've said things I haven't. I'm intrigued by your description of the group that spends two hours a day discussing everything. Have you participated? Do you know how they run this discussion? No. Yes, I know a lot about it for reasons I won't go into here. How is it moderated, and do they have any code of conduct for modes of expression? How big is the group? Is the focus on consensus or on weeding out the bad elements? Social rules, yes, 50+, no, no.