L'Arche
Thursday was "Faith in Action Day". The participants signed up to go out from our place of learning and community and see places and people who are putting their faith into action. Some of the participants went to see a large downtown food bank, some went to see the London AIDS coalition and I took four young women to Stratford, ON to visit the L'Arche community there.
L'Arche is an intentional community for those who are physically and/or mentally disabled. We began by hearing from two of the assistants who live with some of the core members in the community. Felix is a German man doing a year's placement for social service - a requirement for all people who live in Germany: you can do military service or public service or social service abroad. And we met Melody who told us a great deal about her story and how she came to be at L'Arche.
We met a number of the core members, three of which have down syndrome, and we made cookies with them. The cookies were to be used as part of a fund raiser to send money to a L'Arche community in Honduras. The girls got right into it! They were mixing cookie dough by hand, one of them was proposed to by one of the core members, they completely immersed themselves into the experience and the community.
We had lunch with the core members, we engaged in a form of worship that the L'Arche community typically does, and we help the core members create some banners and posters for the Solidarity fund raiser. In the end each of the participants offered their talents and gifts to the L'Arche community and we were all moved by the experience.
L'Arche is a wonderful place to visit, for a day, for a week, for a year, for a life time.
Some of the girls left there energized to help in some tangible way and they dreamed freely of annual fund raisers of their own and perhaps in the future starting a L'Arche in Newfoundland (the only province in Canada with out a L'Arche community).
On the drive back we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy a beautiful sunflower field and we even did a little shopping.
What we did discover is that all this "theory" work we are doing in the classroom can be and is being put to practise. We saw grace and mercy at work in the world. We saw justice. We saw ethics. We saw good Christian practise being lived out in the lives of the core members and in the lives of those who live with them.
We debriefed the day by looking at the baptismal covenant and how it was seen at work and how we can put it to work in our own lives.
The day ended in a very emotional and powerful liturgy during which I was able to offer individual blessings to the whole community.
God is good!
L'Arche is an intentional community for those who are physically and/or mentally disabled. We began by hearing from two of the assistants who live with some of the core members in the community. Felix is a German man doing a year's placement for social service - a requirement for all people who live in Germany: you can do military service or public service or social service abroad. And we met Melody who told us a great deal about her story and how she came to be at L'Arche.
We met a number of the core members, three of which have down syndrome, and we made cookies with them. The cookies were to be used as part of a fund raiser to send money to a L'Arche community in Honduras. The girls got right into it! They were mixing cookie dough by hand, one of them was proposed to by one of the core members, they completely immersed themselves into the experience and the community.
We had lunch with the core members, we engaged in a form of worship that the L'Arche community typically does, and we help the core members create some banners and posters for the Solidarity fund raiser. In the end each of the participants offered their talents and gifts to the L'Arche community and we were all moved by the experience.
L'Arche is a wonderful place to visit, for a day, for a week, for a year, for a life time.
Some of the girls left there energized to help in some tangible way and they dreamed freely of annual fund raisers of their own and perhaps in the future starting a L'Arche in Newfoundland (the only province in Canada with out a L'Arche community).
On the drive back we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy a beautiful sunflower field and we even did a little shopping.
What we did discover is that all this "theory" work we are doing in the classroom can be and is being put to practise. We saw grace and mercy at work in the world. We saw justice. We saw ethics. We saw good Christian practise being lived out in the lives of the core members and in the lives of those who live with them.
We debriefed the day by looking at the baptismal covenant and how it was seen at work and how we can put it to work in our own lives.
The day ended in a very emotional and powerful liturgy during which I was able to offer individual blessings to the whole community.
God is good!
Comments
Post a Comment