The New Monasticism

The "new monasticism", or as it is sometimes called, "secular monasticism", is an adaptation of the monastic tradition within Christianity. The community to which I belong, The Lindisfarne Community, "is a secular monastic community and like traditional monastic communities...places emphasis on a life centered on spiritual practices: prayer, study work, and rest. Yet, ours is a life of deep spirituality lived in the world rather than in the cloister."

~ From A New Way of Living

by Jane and Andrew Fitz-Gibbon

Abbess and Abbot of The Lindisfarne Community

The Rule of the Community

In the Lindisfarne Community we seek to follow the way of the new monasticism as expressed in our Rule.

Our rule may be summarized as: "To love, to serve, to forgive."

Our community prayer is: "That I may be as Christ to those I meet; that I may find Christ within them."

We are committed to:

A balanced life of Prayer, Study, Work and Rest.
The Understandings of the Lindisfarne Community -- to make them our own and to live according to them.
The Practices of the New Monasticism:

Eucharist.

Eucharist as frequently as possible and usually not less than once each week.

Daily Office.

Daily prayer and Bible reading. (the Lindisfarne Community has its own edition of the Daily Office, based on the Anglican and Celtic traditions.)

Meditation.

Daily periods of personal meditation and stillness; resting in the presence of G*d.

Mindfulness.

The practice of finding G*d in all things and being thankful; becoming aware of creation as we live in the light of G*d over all and in all.

Study.

Joining the head and the heart, seeing no conflict between a deep spirituality and academic pursuits.

Service.

Service to others as a regular commitment.

Soul Friendship.

The Celtic practice of the anamchara: a Christian friend, lay or ordained, of maturity and wisdom, from within or without the Lindisfarne Community, to help guide spiritual life.

From A New Way of Living, pp. 461-462

The Lindisfarne Understandings

The Community has 15 understandings that inform our collective and individual spiritual lives. I will will not share the complete description of each, but to summarize:

To be as Christ to those we meet, to find Christ within them.
That we are ordinary people struggling with the realities of day to day life in an imperfect world.
That love is at the heart of the Community. And that "with G*d's love there are not strings attached, no conditions to be met, no favoritism."
That "spirituality is at the level of being. It is who we are in our truest selves."
That life must be characterized by humility.
That we seek to be authentic people.
That we seek to be faithful.
That gender, sexual orientation, age, race, or class are not barriers to service or function.
That we value the freedom given to us by the Spirit of G*d. Freedom is the "liberty to be all G*d wants us to be; liberty to love and be loved; liberty to serve and be served."
That we are an ecumenical community. "In sacred history, G*d has allowed many different streams. They are all refreshing in different ways."
That we are called to a generous, self-giving lifestyle.
That we are committed to hospitality, receiving others as they are; who they are in Christ.
That we are willing to be out on a limb.
That we hold our convictions (which are few) without wavering, but hold our opinions (which are many) lightly.

From A New Way of Living, pp. 463-466

My Understanding

In St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians 2:12, he writes: "Therefore, my beloved.. work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"

This I have always taken as a call toward personal responsibility for one's spiritual life. In the end, one must take one's own spiritual journey. Institutions and communities may aid or support that journey but, in the end, it is ours to take. And we must take responsibility for that journey.

For me, the Lindisfarne Community is one in which this call toward personal responsibility is lived out. While we support one another as needed and as we are able, and while we are guided by the Rule and Understandings of the Community, we are nevertheless each still on our own path. And, I would argue, none of us is exactly on the same path -- though we all headed in the same direction (which is true of all those who authentically walk any spiritual path).

And so each of us is working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Meaning, in my view, that we are all working on our own healing, which is what the word salvation really means. Working on one's own healing contributes to the healing of the human collective, and healing at any depth is a sacred work that requires not only support from others but intimately involves what we might call the work of grace within us. And we each work this out not literally in fear and trembling but -- as I think these words are meant to suggest -- with a healthy awareness that we are not the exclusive possessors of some important truth. We each have pieces of the truth, but none of us is able to see the whole. And so there are things we get wrong. Just as there are things we get right.