There is a rhythm or “beat” to every life. This rhythm is calibrated by the values, demands and priorities of each life (work, family, play, etc.). No matter who you are or where you are, your life is shaped into rhythm patterns of practices and habits. Wherever life rhythms are shared, communities are formed.

Saturday May 2nd is an open meeting to explore New Monasticism and learn more about The Jeremiah Community’s Rhythm of Life. All are welcome.

What does “radical hospitality” mean to you?

With thanks to Elizabeth Turman-Bryant for this video. Visit http://www.radicalhospitalityfortherestofus.com/ for more information.

It is only fitting to end with a few words from our guide, Ched Myers.

“The question of whether the act of reading can animate the reader is nowhere better addressed than in contemporary German novelist Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story (1983). High fiction in the tradition of Tolkein or C.S. Lewis, Ende’s story within a story centers around Bastian, a boy alienated from his own world who tries to escape by immersing himself into the narrative world of a book about ‘Fantastica.’ He identifies closely with the book’s protagonists, but becomes terrified when it begins to seem that the characters are soliciting his help in resolving their crisis. As the drama in ‘Fantastica’ reaches its denouement, Bastian realizes that the story he is reading is doomed unless he responds to its cries for his involvement.

As he hesitates, frozen by fear, the story begins to turn back upon itself, unresolved, except that now Bastian is named in the text.  So, he finally ‘jumps into’ the narrative, giving it a new beginning. After many adventures in which he learns more deeply about his true self, Bastian returns to his own real world, a transformed person.

In similar fashion, Mark’s narrative of discipleship, which so tragically collapses because of ‘blindness,’ can continue only if we realize, like Bastian, that we are in fact characters in the very story we thought we were reading. Mark, like Ende’s novel, put the ‘future’ of the narrative in the hands of the reader. And he can do so precisely because he believes that the story and its subject are not ‘dead past’ but ‘living present.’ But how do we ‘jump into’ the Gospel and make it our own? Mark’s readerly crisis cannot be resolved through a mere leap of imagination, but only by ‘taking up the cross’ and following. The new story is one in which we are no longer readers but also actants.” (Myers, Binding the Strong Man, 449)

In case you didn’t know, you can find all of the sermons & reflections from river on our bandcamp site. There’s all kinds of goodness there.

CLICK HERE.

Sunday, Nov. 30, we begin the season of ADVENT in a posture of silent anticipation as we celebrate our monthly contemplative eucharist together (4pm @ 201 cowan ave).

Our Wednesday dinner and study is pressing the ‘pause’ button on our study of Mark’s gospel (“Mark In The City”) as we take 3 weeks in Advent to reflect on the women of Luke’s gospel who prepare the way for Jesus.

There is open prayer 4 out 5 weekday mornings (T/W/Th/F). All are welcome.

• to commemorate all victims of war
• to mourn the environmental devastation it causes
• to reject war as a tool for social change
• to call for dialog and peaceful conflict resolution
• to show your commitment to building a better future

Feast Days are a historic tradition created by the early church to commemorate and celebrate various persons who gave their lives to the Christian way of life. These “saints” were often martyrs; others were important leaders or reformers. The Eastern Orthodox tradition also includes Hebrew prophets such as Jeremiah (recognized May 1 annually). The purpose of a Feast Day is to remember the significance of a particular person: what s/he did, how s/he modeled faith, etc. Ultimately, Feast Days are an essential part of the common worship of the church because they incorporate us into a particular people and inscribe us into a particular story.

While there is no Feast Day for the prophet Jeremiah in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, The Jeremiah Community has initiated an annual celebration of our namesake in order to reflect more deeply on this renegade prophet who inspired a rich and radical tradition.

Some of the reflections from this year’s feast can be read HERE.