Leadership and Intentionality

Or, should we chalk another one up to the monks?

We've gotten off to a slow start at the Teilhard Guesthouse. All of our class and work schedules changed at the beginning of the semester, but it took us until Week 3 to figure out how to adjust our goals and communal practices around these changes.

I personally was a bit frustrated by our slow start. You can reasonably ask why, if I was frustrated, I didn't just jump in and start the reorganizing. I certainly thought about it, but I was plagued by tiredness over always being the one who would wrangle things into shape. I wanted something else to happen.

This got me to thinking about leadership in intentional communities. Your average monastic community will have an Abbot/Abbess, someone designated to wrangle things into shape. We've avoided the monastic model, we have no designated leader. All last semester that worked fine. The five of us could easily make decisions by consensus. It broke down a bit when we needed to get going again. I didn't want to seize control of our leaderless group, and I'm guessing folks were likely grateful that I didn't do my usual wrangling thing, but it did mean we floundered there for a while. I'm sure I was more perturbed by this than others, being a person who likes to be regular and disciplined about things.

In the end it worked out. We brought things up over our communal dinner and were able to communally reset things. I do wonder, though, if there is some benefit to some form of communal leader, a wrangler as it were, for all groups, or even just some outside force to resist the tendencies to entropy that can set in when your intentional community is trying to simply be formed by intentions.

Advent in a Real House

I (Matt) had a great time making an Advent Wreath at All Souls Episcopal Parish - the parish sponsoring our little intentional community via the gift of the living space. One of my big challenges in seminary has been observing Advent. The season always comes at the end of the semester when everything has piled up, and although we make a few liturgical changes in the CDSP chapel, sometimes it is easy to forget we have entered into this important season. When I lived in the dorm my first two years, the room just didn't seem right to add things to (and I was overwhelmed).

So, this year I made a point of making an Advent Wreath which sits nicely as you can see in the room we use as a chapel. I've also picked up an Advent Calendar, put up a string of festive lights, and I found an old Nativity Set that must have been left by the Benedictine monks of the Order of the Holy Cross who used to live in this building. I'm very grateful to be able to make these changes and already they make a huge difference in drawing my attention to the season!

So much for guidelines

A couple of weeks ago we had to revisit the guidelines we developed. After so carefully declaring that we weren't monks, we realized that we were not keeping to as many of our planned communal activities as we had hoped. In particular, the check-ins on Mon-Tue-Wed basically weren't happening.

The reasons for this varied. Our newest member, Baby Alice, has her own schedule for us to work around. Also, we began to discover other things pulling various of us away from our plan. So, minimally we needed to adjust to continue to work around our schedules.

But, it was also the case that when something was a "guideline" it tended to get dropped. This perhaps is where the monks have it right with a "rule." It is all well and good to declare how important it is for us for our communal time and prayer life to not be a terrible imposition and a drag, but on the other hand if we aren't at least somewhat intentional, then it slips away.

So, we simply revisited things. We dropped leading Morning Prayer in Spanish at CDSP. The only people there were us and maybe one other person and there were a lot of folks who would have liked to have prayer in English at CDSP, so it made sense to let that go. That in turn enabled us to establish a house prayer and check-in time on Wednesday morning after Ms. Baby Alice was up and feeling sociable. So far, we've been able to keep that schedule very diligently.

We all will probably keep revisiting it. We did discuss wanting to challenge ourselves - to grow, to learn from each other, etc. - but the problem is that in a seminary setting with lots of challenges it is hard to feel enthusiastic about adding another. Score one perhaps for the monks, but I hope we can continue to find a way to both be intentional and not be overloading.

More Like a Set of Guidelines

Early in our life together we sat down and tried to think through what actual practices we would use to shape this life. In the classic monastic model, monastery/convent communities develop a “Rule,” most of which are based on a model developed by Benedict of Nursia in the 6^th Century A.D./CE. The model attempts to balance work, study, and prayer and usually structures everything around a standard set of fixed-hour prayers – often seven times a day. This model works great for monks.

But, as we have said many times, we are not monks. Nonetheless, our common life will only be common if we engage in common practices. So, we sat down and first came up with a number of goals for our life together. These included a common prayer life, a continued connection to CDSP's prayer and worship life, shared meals, time to learn about each other, shared fun time, a commitment to hospitality and welcoming others into our house, and, if possible, service of some kind to the world.

Out of this we then looked at our life schedules – classes, work, travel, etc. - and came up with the following “Rule” -

Monday - bring your own breakfast at 8am & music, check in 8:30pm in the chapel

Tuesday - dinner at 6:30pm & together time (every other week a different person shares something they care about with the group), check in 8:30pm in the chapel

Wednesday - Spanish morning prayer at CDSP (leave the house at 7am), bring your own dinner at 5:30pm if around, check in 8:30pm in the chapel

Thursday - CDSP community night

Friday - morning prayer in the chapel

Most of this is self explanatory. “Check in” refers to prayer-oriented life checking. We take what is on our minds and in our lives and pair it with some kind of text – Biblical, Book of Common Prayer, Hymnal, Poem, etc. - and use the time to see how God is working in our lives.

One aspect of this rule, though, is that a la Pirates of the Caribbean and the “Pirates' Code,” it is less of a “rule” and more of a set of “guidelines.” Or, better, as pointed out by our spiritual advisor/chaplain Dan, it fits with the original Latin sense of the term “rule” or “regula” - meaning something we commit to trying to be regular about, but not anything with punitive consequences.

I would have to say, based on 3 weeks of living our regula, that a couple of things seem to be working well. One is that we acknowledge our lives and that we aren't monks. We built it around our lives, not excluding them as somehow not part of our community and formation, and thus it works on both a practical and spiritual level. The second is that we are flexible. We don't all make every one of these. But we know they are happening and they are part of who we are, they do keep us connected and intentional.

This regula would probably not work for every community, mostly as other communities will have other goals. I personally think we will also need to revisit this regula after a couple of months of practice. The tension I expect we may have will be between being flexible enough to accommodate our life in the world, but not so flexible that we cease to be intentional about our life together.

Blessing of the Teilhard Guesthouse

It was a pleasure for me, as the community's chaplain, to participate with them in a house blessing and Eucharist on September 20.  What a wonderful way to celebrate their beginning as a community.  Several prayers struck me as giving us glimpses into the community's values.

One is their inclusion of a collect for their community's namesake:

Eternal God, the whole cosmos sings of your glory, from the dividing of a single cell to the vast expanse of interstellar space: We bless you for your theologian and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who perceived the divine in the evolving creation. Enable us to become faithful stewards of your divine works and heirs of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Another prayer was for the blessing of the guesthouse.  We were gathered in their chapel room for this first blessing prayer:

Loving God, you have taught us to welcome one another as Christ welcomed us: Bless those who from time to time share the hospitality of this home. May your fatherly care shield them, the love of your dear Son preserve them from all evil, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit keep them in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Also, I was particularly touched by the prayer for a child as the community eagerly awaits the birth of Liz and Jesse's child.  We gathered in their apartment for this blessing prayer:

Heavenly Father, your Son our Savior took young children into his arms and blessed them: Embrace the child whose house this is with your unfailing love, protect her from all danger, and bring her in safety to each new day, until she greets with joy the great day of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Some Basics

So, before we wax theological and get all spiritual, it is probably good to describe our context; the basic setting of our communal living.

The People – We are 5 (soon to be 6) Episcopal seminarians and family at Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), a seminary of the Episcopal Church and a member of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). We are myself, Matt, a Master of Divinity (MDiv) from the Diocese of Utah who also has a wife and daughter back in Salt Lake City (I commute weekly), Lauren – an MDiv student from the Diocese of Arizona, Jonathan – a Master of Arts (History) student from Portland, and Liz and Jesse – a married couple soon to have a baby girl. Liz is an MDiv student from the Diocese of New Hampshire and Jesse is a pre-school teacher. Liz, Lauren, and I are in the process to become priests in the Episcopal Church.

The Structure – We live on the second floor of an eccentric building owned by All Souls Episcopal Parish in Berkeley, California. The first floor is occupied by Episcopal friars, members of the Society of St. Francis. The third floor is occupied by a Deacon in the Diocese of California. Our floor consists of 3 apartments – Lauren's, one shared by Jonathan and I which also contains a former living-room we have converted to a chapel/house heart, and Liz and Jesse's apartment.

Here's our building. The Teilhard Guesthouse is essentially all the apartments/windows, etc. along that wooden balcony on the 2nd floor.

We all essentially have our own space. Even the apartment Jonathan and I share actually has separate bathrooms and we can have as much privacy as we want. We use our funny little chapel area as the house “heart,” for prayer, checking in, etc.

The Wider Community - We are closely connected to All Soul's Episcopal Parish. We are, in fact, guests of this parish (hence our name) and do not pay rent. We are committed, nonetheless, to worship and life with them, and all that entails. We also have made a commitment to not separate ourselves from CDSP and to maintain close ties in worship and community life there as well. Finally, we have a spiritual advisor, Rev. Dan, who is a resource to help guide us in forming our community.

A Note On the Name

After an enjoyable evening of discernment and discussion, we chose the name "Teilhard Guesthouse." The first part of the name refers to the Jesuit Theologian and Scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a provisional holy person (saint) in the Episcopal Calendar of Holy Women/Holy Men. While I can't speak for everyone in the group and hope others eventually weigh in, we really found a group resonance with his attempt to link faith and all of life, including his scientific understandings, and to never lose sight of a deep spirituality that would hold all of those issues. We very much resonated with his Collect:

Eternal God, the whole cosmos sings of your glory, from the dividing of a single cell to the vast expanse of interstellar space: We bless you for your theologian and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who perceived the divine in the evolving creation. Enable us to become faithful stewards of your divine works and heirs of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

 We also felt strongly that the name should include our sense of this as a guest house. We are guests of the local parish (as later posts will better describe) and we hope to be a place that also receives guests.

We thought through many possible names, after other saints, after Christian concepts, but in a really beautiful way Teilhard de Chardin's person and work felt like a good fit. We expect to continue to learn and grow through further reflection on him and his writings.