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Community The Keats Place
We are often told that committed small groups are the way forward for the Church. Steve Lavery from Dundee, shares how he and his family, were led nineteen years ago to form a small covenant community with some of their neighbours in the square where they lived, which provides support for their work as individuals in the parish and the prayer group
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Our community of seven adults and five young people evolved rather than us having planned it. It all started when my wife, Frances and I decided to move from our tenement flat to a small house with a garden as our son, who is now twenty, was just eighteen months old and needed to be able to get out in a safe environment and play. Frances, my wife saw a flat with a garden for sale in a small quiet square called Keats Place. Having surveyed the area it seemed ideal and as a bonus it was also very close to our church. At the prayer group the following Tuesday we discovered we were next door to the then prayer group leader, Mary Margaret and her cousin, Anne. Interestingly it was Anne who, eighteen months earlier, had called by to see the new baby and invited us to “do the seminars” as a way of giving thanks for the birth of our son. As they had been praying for whoever would be their new neighbours, Anne believed God’s hand was in it all and suggested that we make a commitment to pray together, as neighbours, once a week. At that time Frances and I were leading the Life in the Spirit seminars and Jim and Anne, a couple on the course, began to show an interest in this idea of praying together as neighbours too. Not long after the seminars were finished another house in the square came on the market so Anne and Jim decided to put in an offer for it – without even having seen inside! No sooner had they moved in than they began to join us on Thursday nights. A short time later we invited Mary, another member of the prayer group, who had felt drawn to this idea of a neighbourhood prayer community to come along as well. This made seven adults and two toddlers meeting every Thursday and The Keats Place Community was born. (That name was how parishioners identified us so we kept it!) Augustinian influence Over the ensuing months we prayed and listened to the Word and slowly it became clear that we should deepen our commitment to pray together. At the heart of our parish at that time was an Augustinian community and, in our early days, they supported us and helped us discern in which direction we were to go. The infl uence of the Order was strong as the majority of us had grown up in the parish and, of course, had absorbed an Augustinian spirituality. In these early days the words from The Rule of St. Augustine “Be of one mind and heart intent on God” seemed to fuse the group and draw us to deepen our relationships. Although the Augustinian community changed regularly we were never without spiritual guidance and advice and they would often join us for social events. After about two years together praying and discerning we wrote down our commitment to one another and this covenant binds us together today. We are committed to accepting each member of the community as they are and where they are. We are committed to helping each other out – this can mean anything from giving someone a lift to giving them your car. Support is given without question and without condition. Unconditional love cannot mean the burden of indebtedness it must be free in imitation of Christ’s love for us. Not itinerants but a permanent family group Early in our development we received the reading Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8. “There is a season for f everything…” At the time we were not sure what it meant but knew it was important. One of the Augustians whom we came to know at one point thought we should break up and that each household should start another small group. We did take his call seriously but when we prayed, the above reading came back. We realised that unlike our brothers in the Order we have not grown out of ‘itinerant’ stock but are firmly based in our families, our parish and our prayer group and we feel our calling is to be committed to this particular group of people for better or for worse, not just to creating and spreading community generally. Community Cousins “A time for giving birth.” There are now five young people in the community. My daughter was born into the community and Anne and Jim’s son and younger daughter have not known life without Thursday prayers. When the two older children began school the teachers quizzed them about the relationship which they recognised in them but could not quite understand. The children who were only fi ve at the time explained that they were “community cousins”. This stuck and is how we have come to refer to each other and the adults have been known as community aunts and uncles and the children as community cousins ever since. Auntie Anne sounds a bit better than Sister Anne! We try to live the Ecclesiastes reading in our lives sharing each one’s sorrows (“a time for mourning”). And over the years each household has faced serious difficulties of one kind or another (“A time for (“A time for tears) but the community, like an extended family, has been there for all of us when we have needed it – praying, listening ministering, holding, comforting and challenging. What does it mean as far as commitment of time? We still meet every Thursday to pray; listen to Scripture and share. Not unlike a prayer meeting I hear you say. True, but the intimacy of the smaller group, its stability and longevity, allows for a deeper sharing at a personal level than would be appropriate within a group with people constantly coming and going. It also allows us to focus on one person and their situation if that seems to be the need at the time and for us to minister to them alone. On the first Sunday of the month we extend our celebration of the Mass forward and spend the whole day in fellowship and eat and share together. This is simply a social time and when the children were younger we always tried to do something for them too. This Sunday meal has always been very special and in this I’m sure we have been infl uenced by the Augustinian charism of fraternity in community. Not called to be residential Over the years some of us have holidayed together. At other times we have gone away to retreat houses and lived as community for a few days. We even thought of setting up a community house, but we have realised that that was not what we were about. Our commitment is to the prayer group and the parish and we are called to stay in our own homes like most people, while trying to support each other in outreach. I once described the community to one person who said that it was nothing special and that was how we were all called to live as Christians. I agreed and asked if he had a small group to share with too. “Oh no, my belief is between me and God. I am a private person.” The irony is, so am I. If it had been down to me to go out and choose a community to share with, it certainly would not have been these brothers and sisters. We are all so different and all quite strong characters so life has not been easy at times. Making this commitment to them and sharing my life with them, however, has made me a better person. This in turn has benefitted all who know me, particularly my wife and children and we have all been enriched by this special family that God has given us and we plan, God willing, to grow old together.
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