Psalm 133:1-2
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Coming down upon the beard,
Even Aaron’s beard,
Coming down upon the edge of his robes.
On Thursday, March 19th, in the wee hours of the morning, I cleaned out my locker at Seylou Bakery & Mill in downtown Washington DC. A Uhaul van, with all our possessions was parked in front of the shared house we had been living in as we poised to make our move back home.
Despite news of massive layoffs, my employer in DC, who had become a good friend over the one year we worked together, assured me that he could offer me work as long as I wanted. The pandemic had brought about an explosion in the demand for fresh bread. We had to limit the number of loaves any one customer could buy. Not only did we have more work than ever, we as bakers had now become public servants, and overnight we were called “essential workers”.
However, rumors were spreading of a possible Shelter-in-Place order, and some of the people we lived with at The Hiding Place, a community and hospitality house in DC, were being put in danger by my going downtown by metro to work. A few weeks before my commitment at the bakery was to end, my employer said, “You are a father, you can go home if you need to. It may be the only responsible choice at this point.” He encouraged me to talk it over with my wife.
Three years prior we had been sent by Lilies & Sparrows, our home community in the Shenandoah Valley, to learn the dual trades of milling and baking, in order to bring these trades back to contribute to our common life. The journey had taken us overseas and back. Now, my wife and I decided that I would unceremoniously end my final phase of formation in DC three weeks early to go back home to the Shenandoah Valley to be with our community of faith once again. After three years of apprenticeship, training, long unusual hours, and travel, we were finally headed back home to the Shenandoah Valley.
Even though we were coming home several weeks earlier than expected, there was an empty apartment available for us at a house on Lincolnshire Drive that is owned by our dear friends, a family of 6 who moved to the area many months prior to launch the Lilies & Sparrows community with us. Another longtime friend who had recently received a clear call to live in Christian community was also living in the house. They had been preparing the way and eagerly awaiting our return from Washington. The Shire, which is the name of the house on Lincolnshire Drive, is large, with two apartments and one efficiency under the same roof. Our plan was to launch Lilies & Sparrows community there, to build something we could invite others into, and I planned to start a bakery to help provide for our financial needs. My wife and I had saved money from my work at the bakery in DC to live for a time while I pursued starting a small home bakery at The Shire.
I had first learned to bake and to run a mill at The Community of the Ark in Brittany, France. It was also there that my wife and I, with our two oldest sons, experienced life in an established Christian community. We had come from countless more or less ephemeral experiments in community since graduation from college in 2009, but for the first time we experienced our lives within the shared rhythms and responsibilities of a community with eighty years of experience, history, and tradition to draw from. It was a treasure we will cherish forever!
The Community of the Ark was founded by Lanza del Vasto, an Italian noble born in 1901, who became a follower of Jesus and gave up his position of privilege for a life of walking by faith. After witnessing the first World War, he sought someone who could teach him about the nonviolence of Jesus. After having witnessed the horrific murdering of Christian against Christian, he decided to travel to India and live with Gandhi; for in that moment Gandhi alone seemed to understand the nonviolence of Jesus. He returned from India ready to found a community, only to encounter the second World War.
The rule of life that Lanza wrote for The Community of the Ark is laden with the wisdom of a man who lived through two hellish wars and participated in some of the most hopeful events of the century with Mohandas Gandhi. For example, the rule states that every new community that The Ark founds must first provide for all of its basic needs. New communities are not allowed to pursue any economic activity that is not a primary human need, like producing food, clothing, or shelter. Only after these key trades are filled would other economic activity, like a print-shop for example, be allowed. Lanza is well known for having said, “find the shortest, simplest way between the earth, the hands, and the mouth.” Those committed to the rule of life at The Ark must descend to the lowest positions in society so that there is no one forced to toil on their behalf; they must do the work of a servant, or in the language of the present times: essential work.
To build a community for over forty individuals at The Community of the Ark in Brittany today, the only means of income are selling eggs, flour, bread, and vegetables. These businesses are no half-hearted operations, they are serious and sophisticated, so much so that the people who live in the surrounding countryside and cities have come to rely on them over the years that the community has been in their area. How relevant this story is during a pandemic. What good news!
Back in our hometown of Harrisonburg, after our not-quite-triumphant departure from DC, we were greeted warmly by a house full of brothers and sisters. We received our first hugs in almost a month. Life at The Shire was thriving! Common meals, meetings, readings, prayers, walks, game nights, skits, hymn sings, worship, and common work all abounded. Our children had no idea we were in the midst of a pandemic. And since all of our children were already homeschooled, very little changed.
Other than the people we lived with, however, all of our dearest friends whom we had not spent time with in years were unable to be seen in person, and since we are intentionally low-tech, we were excluded from any digital substitutes. This gave us a great opportunity to deepen our ties to one another within Lilies & Sparrows and to hit the ground running toward Christian community. Those who have lived in community will know that there are many questions and challenges for a new communal effort, both philosophical and mundane. The realities of quarantine have quickened the community formation process.
Hine Matov! Truly, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to live together in unity! It is an earthly foretaste of the Kingdom. Oh, and how isolating and grievous it is to be suddenly cut off from your community! Lord, save those who are suffering! Help us to reach out to them!
Since the pandemic began, I have continually thought about the importance of intentional Christian community and simple hand work as a witness in these times.
In my heart, I believe that we have just experienced a dress-rehearsal for challenges that are to come. We have witnessed people's confidence in society's ability to sustain the status quo utterly shaken. Suddenly, living a simple life with brothers and sisters in community seems infinitely more relevant to the average person in society. Since the pandemic began, I have continually thought about the importance of intentional Christian community and simple hand work as a witness in these times. We have been encouraged by the few long distance phone calls we have had with the Community of the Ark in France. They too are keenly aware of how blessed they are in the midst of global uncertainty.
The many blessings of life in community stand out clearly in this context. Much less than being alienated from each other, we are effectively quarantined together, and further unified! Hine Matov!
Rather than having our fragmented lives exposed and even crumbled, it has become a virtue to have our social, spiritual, material, creative, and recreational needs met in the same place, within the same group of brothers and sisters. Hine Matov!
Rather than being called a non-essential worker, and eagerly waiting for the “buying and selling” to carry on as usual, those of us with the conviction to live a simple life of working with our hands are called essential workers! Hine Matov!
Rather than being looked down upon by society for plain work with our hands, we have become a symbol of resiliency and become attractive to those who are on the margins of society! Hine Matov! Yes! Truly it is good and pleasant!
Obviously, our community is extremely fortunate to be in good health. Also, we are aware that our circumstances could have been much different were we to have elderly or otherwise at risk community members among us. As it is, our community members on the whole are not at an especially high risk for the virus. Our hearts truly mourn for those who have had untimely and impersonal deaths, even deaths in quarantine due to Covid-19. Although we do want to share about how blessed we have been to be living a life together amidst unrest, we realize that not everyone has had the same privilege we have. May God be with us all.
To contact Lilies & Sparrows community, or to receive their print newsletter. call (540) 434 4745 or write 1130 Lincolnshire Drive Rockingham VA 22802.