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“WE ARE GIVEN TO ONE ANOTHER BY CHRIST,

AND HE CALLS US TO ACCEPT ONE ANOTHER

AS WE ARE. BY ABIDING IN HIM, WE CAN UNITE

IN A MUTUAL LOVE WHICH GOES DEEPER THAN

PERSONAL ATTRACTION.”

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THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE IN COMMUNITY

Chapter 5 from The Rule of the Society of St. John the Evangelist

The Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE) was founded in the parish of Cowley in Oxford, England, by the Reverend Richard Meux Benson in 1866. SSJE was the first stable religious community of men to be established in the Anglican Church since the Reformation. Our order came to Boston in 1870. For many years SSJE also had houses in Scotland, India, South Africa, Japan and Canada.

Now, the Brothers of the North American Congregation live at the Monastery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square, and also keep a rural retreat center, Emery House, in West Newbury, Massachusetts. The Brothers live under a Rule of Life and, at profession, make vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience.

EVERY CHRISTIAN IS CALLED TO LIVE IN COMMUNITY AS A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH.

Christ and his wisdom draw each disciple into that particular expression of community which will be the best meaning of his or her conversion. Our way of life in this religious community is one of many expressions of the common life in the body of Christ. We can be confident that Christ has called us into our society because he knows that the challenges and gifts it offers are the very ones we need for the working out of our salvation.

The first challenge of community life is to accept wholeheartedly the authority of Christ to call whom he will. Our community is formed by the natural attraction of like-minded people. We are given to one another by Christ, and he calls us to accept one another as we are. By abiding in him, we can unite in a mutual love which goes deeper than personal attraction. Mutual acceptance and love call us to value our differences of background, temperament, gifts, personality, and style. Only when we recognize them as sources of vitality are we able to let go of competitiveness and jealousy. As we actively seek to grow, and discern which men are being called into our society, we must ardently seek for signs that God desires to increase our diversity and culture and race.

We are also called to accept his compassion and humility the particular fragility, complexity, and incompleteness of each brother. Our diversity and our brokenness mean that tensions and friction are inevitably woven into the fabric of everyday life. They are not to be regarded as signs of failure. Christ uses them for our conversion as we grow in mutual forbearance and learn to let go of the pride that drives us to control and reform our brothers on our own terms.

The Society’s dedication to the fourth gospel draws us to see reflected in it certain values which we especially take to heart as we

MODERN MARTYRS | the Great West Doors of Westminster Abbey

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live in community. In John’s Gospel, the community of disciples is portrayed as a circle of Christ’s friends, abiding in him in obedience and love, and depending on the Advocate who leads them together into the truth. In this portrait, we recognize an implicit critique of the tendency for communities to harden into institutions, and for officialdom to replace the spontaneity of mutual service. Our faithfulness to our calling will be seen in the ways in which we fearlessly subject our life to hard questions in the light of the gospel, resist inertia and rigidity, minister to one another generously as equals, and stay open to the fresh inspiration of the Spirit.

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