Life at Camino House

It's hard to believe that it has been a week since I last posted on here. Time is flying by quickly. I thought for this post, rather than ponder and reflect (my brain is fried at the moment), I would share a little of what life is like here at Camino House and the Jeremiah Community. I'm currently listening to the songs that will be played in River, our public worship service. "Turn me Tender" is putting me into a reflective mood so I may ponder and reflect anyhow. We'll see how the spirit moves....

As I was saying, Sundays is the day that we come together as a community to worship God in a more corporate setting and to break bread together. I recently learned that this is meant as a drawing together of the existing community instead of a tool of evangelism and growth. It is one of the places where we gather together be fed through the Word of God and through the celebration of the eucharist. There are about 30 to 40 of us who gather weekly. Lately we've been getting a lot of visitors - people coming from other churches who heard about our community or sometimes people come literally off the streets. Our church is beautiful and big and painted by some of the members of the Group of Seven. We are located in an interesting part of the city where gentrification is happening, but it remains an area that has the greatest percentage of people with mental illness per capita in all of Canada. It is also a very multicultural area, and in many parts, a very poor area. Sometimes we have people who are homeless or on the fringes come to our service. Sometimes these people talk and make noise throughout the service. I remember being challenged by my previous conception of church as being something that runs smoothly - perhaps these people are Christ visiting us and we are called to welcome them as we welcome others, as we welcome Christ. Perhaps they are a "holy interruption" rather than an intrusion.

Our music is quite eclectic - we sing traditional hymns, the "me and Jesus" praise and worship choruses, taize prayer music, gospel music, children's music and music from the secular world. We have sung the beatles, and the zombies and Alexi Murdox - each carefully chosen to move us to reflect on the passage of the day. Our "breed" is Anglican and our service has liturgy, though our liturgy varies from week to week, sometimes written by members of our community who have gifts of creative writing and can incorporate the themes of the day in words and beauty. Being a part of this service has expanded my understanding of "liturgy". Interestingly enough, liturgy simply means "the work of the people" - something that applies to all churches. What a beautiful word then to describe what happens at church, a word so reduced in power to the common understanding of written and rote prayers.

We are a missional community and we are sent from the comfort of our worship service to be in the world, to walk alongside others, to be church in the world, and to find Christ in places we often wouldn't think of. On Monday morning, a couple of us head down to a local church that is for the homeless, street-involved and at-risk peoples - something I've talked about before on here, but I love to talk about it so I shall do it again ;-) Mondays there is a drop in and this is very different from other drop ins I know of. The people who are "served" are volunteers and create the meal. Actually, they don't like the distinction between those of us who are like me who come into the community to help and those who require the community support services to survive. Instead, I am invited to come alongside people and journey with them in their stories as they journey with me. I have a lot of fun in the kitchen. Besides the fact that I love to cook, there is much laughter and joy. The cook is like no one else I've ever met and she is my hero. All morning she asks whether we have enough food to feed a hundred people, calls us all angels and quotes Robert Munsch's "I'll love you for ever, I'll like you for always". And then the rush of serving the meal begins as people pour into the room, hungry and often impatiently waiting to put food in their bellies. I've been to other drop ins to see what they are like. But this one stands out - it is more than a drop in - it is a community. People talk together, eat together, laugh together and look forward to seeing one another. Some get up and play the piano for a little while, others go around finding Euchre (card game) partners. Being at the drop in is one of the highlights of my week and I can honestly say that I have found friends there whom I've come to care about very much.

I got so excited about the drop in that I forgot to mention the role of prayer in the Jeremiah community and camino house. As with other monastic communities, we have a "rule and rhythm of life". As part of our rhythm, we have prayer at 7:30am, 1pm, and 9pm. Sometimes people from the community come to morning prayer, but the other prayer times are usually just camino house people. Camino house members  take turns leading prayer - we range from praying straight from the Anglican prayer book, to using prayer books from other communities, to meditation, to Taize prayer to free flow. Each prayer time a portion of scripture is read and reflected upon. I am amazed at how formative this rhythm has become in my life. I look forward to praying with others. A little while ago, I felt convicted to pray earnestly, out loud, and daily for my family and for reconciliation. Many days I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall of impossibility, but it's made me realize that prayer is a community thing - we mourn together when one mourns, and we rejoice together as one rejoices. And in the sharing of my deepest longing, my praying community has the opportunity to rejoice when at last God answers a prayer that we've been praying for months, years or however long it takes. Evening prayer is beautiful - it marks the end of the day, which is actually quite early for a former night hawk like me. But I love having candles lit, confessing the sins we have committed in the day behind us and praying for a peaceful and restful night.

Tuesdays we open our home to the community with an open meal. R. cooks up a big pot of soup and buys some handmade bread and 15-20 of us gather in the living room. I think this is changing to Thursday, but up until recently, this has been the rhythm of our life here at Camino house. After the open meal, we gather in the church for "The story of God, the story of us". For the first hour we go through a dramatic presentation of a portion of Scripture (i.e. the creation, the fall, the covenant). Then the second hour we gather in groups of 2 or 3 with a few questions to guide us and take what we have heard deeper into our lives by sharing with one another and being challenged by the words of scripture.

Wednesdays have typically been a quiet day, but I am finally starting to teach piano to a local nursing home residents. This nursing home is very high needs as it has few resources, and many people with physical and emotional needs. There are people there who are as young as thirty. Some have their wits about them, some live as if the past were present, and some lack a sense of reality. Some are mobile, others are confined to a wheel chair. I doubt very much that we will make much progress in terms of music, but I think "teaching" will become a vehicle for social interaction.

Thursday we go as a group to the nursing home for their hymn sing - "Hymns and Hers" (A name that the residents chose themselves". We sing all the great old hymns with gusto! There is so much rich and beautiful theology in the great old hymns. I am often inspired by the residents who have every word memorized. It makes me think of how important it is to learn the great hymns and scripture now while I am young so that it is permanently engraved on my heart.

Friday is my Sabbath and is a day that I look forward to very much. Since I am not working, I have had to think hard about how to make Sabbath separate from the other days. I usually spend time with God in the morning and I try to get out on my bike. I shy away from people who need me and require an outpouring of energy, though I do get together with friends that are mutually encouraging. It is a day of rest, where I give my body and my mind permission to rest in whatever form it requires. Then in the afternoon, often around 1pm, I gather my ingredients and cookbooks and do my favourite thing - cook. I have often made bread. One week I cook using foods that are in season, the next week I cook something international for us all to try - I recently cooked Pakistani food one night, and a gingered kale and tofu dish another.

Once a month, Camino house members are taking a "house sabbath". We are a house of hospitality and as such we have many people who come by for various reasons - to use our computer, to share a meal, to talk or to simply be with others. Some of our guests are high needs and/or live on the fringes of society. Sometimes these guests come as early as 8am and as late as 10pm (though usually the house is quiet by 9:30). As I write this, I hear the doorbell ring. There are often other gatherings that happen here such as council meetings, and other hospitality ventures. As an introvert, I find hospitality to be energy draining - though very life giving. I find hospitality to be the greatest challenge and greatest beauty of living in Camino house. Sometimes people come and I've had a long day or am dealing with my own issues. I am learning what it means to welcome people into our home on those days, when my day is not perfect. Anyways, we as a house decided that we need to take time away from the demands of hospitality and to take a day where we spend time with each other, encouraging and uplifting and re-creating together. This past friday we carved pumpkins together and laughed and enjoyed the morning together.

Saturday, we have our "Formation group" called Radically Ordinary. This is a time for us to learn the principles of New Monasticism, the monastic "order" if you wish that we are a part of. This week we looked at what it meant to be missional - to be present in the neighbourhoods that physically surround our church. One friend and I went to a coffee shop that is always busy and aptly called "The Common" and we just listened and observed. I was fascinated by the number of people who came by themselves, but with some device (cell phone, computer) that they were constantly checking. It seemed that there was a longing to be with people that wasn't quite fulfilled by the random people sitting in a coffee shop as people were looking for email or text messages in hopes of connecting. It reminded me that the church has such an amazing opportunity to reach out to the lonely.

So that is a life here at Camino House in the Jeremiah community. I am so happy to be part of this and am enjoying this phase in my life despite all life's ups and downs.