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The Knights of Nazareth
Louis Power, a member of the Community of Nazareth in Ireland, tells about a fascinating rite of passage they have instituted in their community life to help the young boys of the community grow in their understanding of Christian manhood and God's call in their lives.
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Many cultures throughout the history of the world have recognised the importance of marking the progression of young males from boyhood to young manhood as part of their moulding into future men and possible community leaders. These initiation ceremonies range from the killing of their first lion or wild beast in some primitive societies to the Jewish celebration of the Bar Mitzvah. At his Bar Mitzvah, a major milestone in his life, the boy reads a passage from the Torah or the Prophets in the synagogue on the Sabbath and is then accepted as a full member of the congregation. We felt it would be appropriate to do something similar for the young boys of our community. Our initiation procedure in the Community of Nazareth may not require the slaying of a lion but it is nonetheless a powerful experience for a young boy. We drew our inspiration from the idea of the Medieval knight, popularised in the chronicles of Pierre Bayard (1476-1524) and the idea of a "Chevalier sans peur et sans reproache" (Knight without fear and without blemish). In medieval times, the term knight was understood tobe a title of honour granted as a reward for services - and a very appropriate one at that, considering that the ideal of knighthood involved the maintenance of personal honour, religious devotion and loyalty to one's lord. "Very few initiation ceremonies for boys in Western culture" The actual idea of doing something originated from a reading of John Eldridge's book "Wild at Heart", in which he asserted that in today's Western culture there are very few initiation experiences from boyhood to manhood compared with more primitive cultures - but that those that remain can still have enormous impact. Reflecting on the possibility of some form of initiation ceremony for the many young boys in the Community of Nazareth, the idea grew of introducing something significant to mark a transition-point for boys of around the age of 7 or 8 years, who, up to that age, are usually still very attached to their mothers. The initiation experience was visualised as the start of the long growth into manhood, beginning with an experience of working with their Dads in the company of other men. The idea was that they would have an experience of developing some elementary handiwork skills through doing something worthwhile, difficult, perhaps even slightly dangerous. The solution it was decided, was that the boys should each make a wooden sword with the help of their Dads and other men - which would be fashioned from real timber and using adult tools such as a saw, ruler, drill and knife. Swords have been used throughout history and the images of such heroes as St. George slaying the dragon to rescue a young lady, Peter being given a sword by Aslan before he became King of Narnia, William (Braveheart) Wallace, the Crusaders, the Three Musketeers, Maximus the Gladiator, Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the Age of Chivalry, El Cid - all still have enormous impact even in today's satiated culture as seen by the popularity of these types of film. These young Christian boys were not being called, however, to the horrors and violence of warfare but to the courage of warfare and with this in mind, it was very important that the swords should be made of wood. The story of Proximo in the film Gladiator being awarded his freedom and receiving Rudius, a wooden sword, was related to the boys and it was stressed that that the wooden sword was intended to be a symbol of his freedom. "Swords of the Spirit" The swords were expected, in effect, to be swords of the spirit, the Sword of the Spirit being the Word of God and God being Love. Thereby we sought to teach them that the weapon in today's cultural battles - and the battle for our souls - is love. Love is the call of every son of God, love of God, love of neighbour and love of enemy. It is not intended to be warfare against human enemies, rather it is against such transgressions (even in an 8-year-old boy) as deceitfulness, lying, lack of respect, disobedience and other such lapses in behaviour. The boys were encouraged to memorise and use scripture verses for their initiation ceremony, just as a young Jewish boy participating in his Bar Mitzvah learns by heart a story or a Psalm from the Old Testament. An evening was set aside for the manufacture of the swords by the fathers working in groups of four and sticking to a prepared drawing . Then the boys were encouraged to decorate or carve the finished products with their own designs, many featuring Bible images or verses. Some very colourful swords indeed resulted that would put the fear of God into any person or spirit they confronted!
About seven boys up to the age of eleven took part in the first initiation ceremony in the Community of Nazareth. They marched into the hall to the sound-track of Gladiator or Braveheart, went down on one knee to have a sword placed on their shoulder to be initiated as knights and were then handed their own personal swords. As they each accepted this, they received the applause of the Community assembly, the men present giving the loudest roar of acceptance, such as the medieval knights might have received. It was a moving and important moment for them. "Joining with the adults" Afterwards, all joined together at an adult meal, where fathers, grandfathers and the new young Knights - and indeed, all the men in the Community of Nazareth - mingled and shared their experiences of the day and the preparations that had gone into it. Fathers - some grandfathers too - had brought along photographs of themselves taken at that age to better connect with the boys, to show that there are indeed transitions in life and that this was to be one of the first and most memorable. It sometimes comes as a surprise to young people to realise that their parents - even their grandparents - were once young too, a long long time ago. It was a living witness to the old adage that it takes a village to raise a boy. Another feature of this occasion was the remembrance of deceased male members of the Community, our brothers who have gone before us, showing photographs of them if possible. In doing this we hope to induct the young Knights into the hall of fame that we all are aspiring to. "Father/son weekends away" The whole concept has been enthusiastically received by those boys who have already been knighted and there has been none of the embarrassment or foot-dragging that might perhaps be expected at a later age. Since that first initiation ceremony, about three or four boys have been added to the ranks of the Knights in each subsequent year and it is intended to continue the initiation ceremony annually until the existing army of small boys has been enrolled as Knights. Father/son weekends away from home are also planned, on the lines of the mother/daughter days that some Community parents have already embarked upon. Other meaningful events are being considered and
will, no doubt, be tried in the future, as we seek to help the boys
as they grow older to feel part of something real, something unique,
a fellowship of men that it is a good thing to be part of. It will obviously
require care that such ventures do not become trivialised through casualness
or over-frequency. But our hope is that the Lord will take care of that
and we are seeing good fruit from what we have already done.
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