New Creation Community - 1991-1992

Community Mission

"The spirit of the Lord has been given to me.

For he has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,

To proclaim liberty to captives,

And to the blind, new sight,

To set the downtrodden free,

To proclaim the Lord's year of favour".

(Lk.4:18-19)

"As christians... we are called as brothers and sisters to form gospel communities which are our principal means of evangelization... we endeavour to proclaim gospel values, to affirm the dignity of all persons, and to work for peace... we are called to witness by prophetic action to our option for the poor and the opressed and to solidarity with them...(Community) members have been called to evangelise other young people, especially those who are both spiritually and materially impoverished...

As brothers and sisters we together decide to give of our means to those in need, and make hospitality a special concern."

"To be brothers and sisters in community is the principal source of our companionship and the most suitable source of our personal growth... Community living means that we sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the other members whom we love as brothers and sisters... We, the members of New Creation, will grow as persons as we come to accept the difficult task of living for others, and as we become aware of our gifts and limitations in our human interactions"

With confidence, we grow as a gospel community characterised by love that struggles to cast out fear. In a deepening relationship with the Lord, we come to acknowledge the gifts of God in the other members of the community whom we affirm and support with a deep love. We strengthen the bonds of our community by sharing our prayer and work, our hopes and fears"

"To live in loving communication with our brothers and sisters is in itself an apostolate, a sacrament of the presence of God's Kingdom among us, and a sign of the age to come."

(Taken from New Creation Community mission booklet.)

General Overview

Co-ordinated by Christian Brothers and Sisters of the Infant Jesus

2 communities already running in Liverpool- St Michaels (owned by Christian Brothers), and Oakfield (owned by nuns)

The First Plymouth community was started the year before mine.

The idea was to live with the nuns and brothers in community, some of whom would support the group in retreat work, others would just be working in the wider community

My year consisted of 2 males, 7 women all 18-19, I was the oldest at 21.

Oakfield women's community:

Malen, (Nun), Catherine and Maire who were from Ireland, Dee and Caroline. Lived with 2 other nuns who worked seperately

St Michael's men's community:

Francis (Christian Brother), John and Tom. Lived with several brothers who worked separately.

Malen, Francis, Catherine, Maire, Dee, Tom and John worked on retreats together.

People mainly applied who had been on New Creation retreat the year before.

I was the only one who hadn't been on NCC retreat, but met a couple of people at Kintbury who had been in the community, and urged me to join.

The way I saw it, was that we were able to bring our individual values, life experiences and faith, to share with young people, to encourage them to see where their own life and faith was going, where God was working through their lives, and also, to help them to minister to each other, through roleplays and sharing with small groups of their peers, about their own lives.

I was based in Plymouth with 2 Irish girls, Lorna and Ursula, Harry who was a Christian Brother, and Aiden (an older Christian Brother who wanted to live in a small community, not a large institution.)

2 guitar players

We lived in a small 3 storey house, all had our own rooms, and converted the garage which was under the house into a 'chapel' with beanbags, crucifix, statues etc. It was very important to have a room set aside specially for community prayer.

We all gathered in the chapel before breakfast, and after dinner every day, each one of us taking it in turns to prepare morning and evening prayer (including the brothers).

This was a very important part of bonding for the community, both physically and spiritually.

As the New Creation Mission booklet put it:

"To be true brothers and sisters to each other we must find ways and times of praying together especially for the healing and the spiritual gifts. In this way we assist one another in the difficult and trying circumstances of our lives..."

Also, we found it helpful to give a brief talk to each other, on our life story up to the time of community, including significant events helped shape the person that we were at that time. Each person would have their own time set aside for this.

Day to Day running of the house

Morning and evening prayer every day (10-20 mins)

Rota for cleaning and cooking

Regular weekly community meetings where we could discuss personal issues or practical issues regarding the rotas etc. (If someone had a particular issue, an extra meeting would be called).

Regular weekly 'social times' where we would go out as a community, each person picked a different one each week: ie: go out for a pizza/cinema/zoo etc. Very important for community bonding.

Retreat work

Plymouth: 2 schools, St Bonniface's Boys which was run by Christian Brothers

Notre Dame for girls Run by Infant Jesus nuns

We had a minibus for transportation of retreat materials, hymnbooks, paper, pens etc

Our work in Plymouth involved taking 12-18 year olds on day long retreats - (all streams from each year),

Peer ministry meetings with the sixth formers who had been on retreat the year before

Co-ordinating and music for weekly mass in lunch hour at St Bonniface

Co-ordinating a Tuesday evening prayer group for 6th formers who wanted something more after the retreat

We also worked in the Special Needs class on a one-to-one basis

We also travelled also to Tremough Convent school for girls in Penryn, Cornwall, where we stayed for a week.

We would give an initial introductory 'taster' day in the school classroom, about an hour each class so they would know our faces before the day long retreat

Actual retreats held in hall of local church Redemptorist seminary - important to have large enough areas for group work, preferably several 'rooms'. Also seen as important to be away from the school environment, as children more likely to open up away from school regime. Could wear own clothes, more like a 'day out'.

Loose format of day

Started with a prayer, songs (lively ones with actions went down well with boys)

Always one of us who 'linked', ie: gave introduction to the day, what it was about etc.

Hand out a sheet which would have leading questions in fairly lighthearted way, (speech bubbles etc), on family life, friends, prayer, God etc, fairly lighthearted

Split group up into small groups and individuals would fill in. Quiet music played in background.

Individuals share their answers/ can use roleplay to express issues, (boys often found easier to express feelings this way).

Group leader feedsback to large group, any roleplays also performed

Break for lunch.

During the break, we would socialise with the group/if anyone wanted to talk on a one-to-one basis, we were available

The five of us would pray together to see who would witness in the afternoon session. It was an important part that we let God speak to us on who would be most suitable. Someone's name always came to mind and that person would then speak on a life changing experience they had had, or where they had particularly found God working in their lives.

Called the group together for a song, usually a quietish one to calm people down.

Witness by community member.

Second sheet handed out on 'sadness', sad events which had happened to people/ their family - divorce/bereavement etc, where has God been present in these events?

witness was often very helpful for getting people to reflect.

Sharing sheet in small group. Ok if people didn't want to share.

Return to main group - feedback and roleplays.

Feedback sheet on group leaders/ experience of the day

Song and final prayer

General "Pros" of NCC Community

We each had a one-to-one who we met up with once a week, for confidential support and just someone to talk to about community issues. Very important and necessary as usually someone in community who bugs us sometimes!

Social life very important, that there are others to socialise with, not just community members. We were involved with the local Poly chaplaincy group, met people through that, also the local Youth Club leaders, and people from the prayer groups. Important to have a community house where people feel welcome to drop in for coffee/come for a meal, as long as it doesn't become too intrusive on community privacy - limitations have to be set by what the community feel comfortable with.

Aidan's role was to manage the finances, but he also took on the role of 'mothering' us and also informal counsellor. Very helpful to have someone older and more mature living in the community, who wasn't actually involved in the retreat work.. He was a good 'peacemaker'.

I was older than the other 2 girls, found that my experience as a student and being older was very helpful within the community environment, as the other two had just left school.

Ideally needs to be a good mix of ages and experiences.

Needs of community members should be taken into consideration, ie if someone is sick, should be a 'stand-in' available to help cover, so that small groups don't become too big.

We were often 'physically' available to the kids, they got to know our faces as we spent a lot of time on the school premises. Also produced a small publication 'Network' for distribution in the schools that we worked in to keep people updated with what we were doing. Also invited kids to send in articles about anything - their experience of the retreats/feedback/jokes/poems/stories etc.

Regular day out for community to recharge batteries

"Cons"

We had very little spending money which was very difficult sometimes. Needs to be a realistic amount of 'pocket money' given to community members, as life in community is hard enough!

Things like medicines etc should be paid for.

All female community (apart from Harry!) may have been a little offputting to an all boys school. I feel a mixed community would have been more effective.

Training

Two weeks in Liverpool with the whole group - 9 of us, included