The Community Fellowship Weekend

Including Notes from Abbot Erik’s Talk on Community

Abbot Erik wanted to address the reasons behind a Christian community. We were in mid-Lent, bringing thoughts of the Exodus narrative and the forming of the people. The individuals who came out of Egypt – the 12 tribes and others, a bit of a rabble! – turned into a nation of people through the experience of the time in the wilderness. He spoke of the redemptive dimension, how something was healed. The community we form in the church – ecclesia – “coming together”- is a redemptive process and experience. Atomised, individualised people were “redeemed” in a social group held together by God’s forgiveness, mercy, promise, covenant.