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Journeying together
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February 5, 2025 / 11:36 am / Uncategorized
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Many people have asked about the process of becoming linked with the Northumbria Community. In response to these questions, we have put together a small booklet, which sets out the various levels of commitment, and the process of becoming involved. Usually, it is sent out by post to those who ask! But we thought it would be helpful to make that information available here on the site – and so here it is in its entirety. You really need to start at the beginning and work your way through.
‘Covenanted together within the love of Christ we share a common vision to see the Kingdom of God extended 
in Northumbria and to carry the torch of the gospel wherever the Father leads us.’
‘Dynamic and erratic, spontaneous and radical, audacious and immature, committed if not altogether coherent. Ecumenically open and often experimental; visible here and there, now and then but unsettled institutionally. Almost monastic in nature, but most of all enacting a fearful hope for society.’ William Stringfellow
‘The renewal of the Church will come from a new type of Monasticism, which only has in common with
the old an uncompromising allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount. It is high time people banded
together to do this.’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
INTRODUCTION
Northumbria Community is a dispersed network of people, hugely diverse, from different backgrounds, streams and edges of the Christian faith. As Companions in Community, we are united in our desire to embrace and express an ongoing exploration into a new way for living as Christians that offers hope in our changed and changing culture. We are A Way to express The Way and acknowledge there are many other valid expressions of the desire to follow Jesus Christ in today’s world.
We are united by a Rule, which we call our Way for Living and which can be summed up in two words: Availability and Vulnerability. Each of us has to learn how to live out this Availability and Vulnerability, to God and to others, within our own unique combination of circumstances, roles, responsibilities and relationships. Since these are constantly shifting, so application of our Way for Living can never be fixed or finalised. We find ourselves living with questions rather than answers. This is why Northumbria Community is always in draft form and never a finished product. It remains a dynamic, ongoing work in progress, aware that ‘constant change is here to stay’.
Whilst the detail will vary from Companion to Companion and from one day to another, the important questions for us remain:
Who is it that you seek?
How then shall we live?
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
Northumbria Community is the gift of God to those whose hearts are set on this pilgrimage and whose lives are constantly being redefined and redirected by the living out of these three questions. As Companions we are able to help each other keep these questions alive.
Our Rule and our rhythm of Daily Offices (Celtic Daily Prayer) reflect the influence of the monastic tradition in the development of our Community ethos. Seeking God as the one thing necessary, in our continuing quest for a new type of monasticism, is at the heart of our life, whether alone or together. Our identity is rooted in the history and spiritual heritage of Celtic Northumbria. From this source of inspiration, our Community has learnt to live the ebb and flow of contemplation and action, monastery and mission, solitude and community. It is this blending of ‘a prayer that is quiet and contemplative with a faith that is active and contagious’, lived out in our ordinary everyday experience, which has been our foundation as we have grown and developed. We seek God on the inner journey in order to learn how we can better live with others and serve the world of our influence whether it be great or small, wherever the Father leads.
A COMMUNITY OF THE HEART
As a geographically dispersed Christian Community we are in essence a community of the heart. Although expression of our Way for Living will be diverse, we share core values, just as those in a family share DNA. We are united by our Reason to Be: the living out of our questions; our Rule for living: availability and vulnerability; and the rhythm of our daily life: seeking God as we move between the pattern of our Daily Offices and our engagement with the world. Underneath the wealth of diversity the heart is the same.
Being a community of the heart brings its own challenges. As with any vocational life there needs to be balance and each Companion must find a way to hold in tension the demands of vocational life within their own context. We draw on the analogy of the human heart to help us understand the importance of keeping aspects of our vocation in balance. We see the heart itself as our calling to seek God for Himself, the purpose that should always remain identifiable at the centre of who we are. Just as all the chambers of the human heart must be in good working order for the heart to do its job, so must the vocational life be a healthy balance of relationship, reflection, resolve and rule. We need our relationships to be supportive, loving and affirming but if we become too inward looking we risk losing touch with the wider community and the world. It is important that our lives are reflective but we must take care not to become theorists only. On the other hand, if we allow our resolve to act to drive us we are in danger of meeting our own needs at the expense of others and we will not be living what we teach. Our Rule is a helpful framework for us, as we seek out how to live, but it is not an end in itself; it is provocative rather than prescriptive.
WHY DOES THE NORTHUMBRIA COMMUNITY EXIST?
To be part of Northumbria Community calls for an engagement with the world in which we live. Since the earliest days of Northumbria Community, we have understood that our ‘ethos’ is connected to our ‘ethics’. So our core values shape the habits or practices of our daily lives, lived out and expressed in the specific contexts in which we live and in the larger context of our consumerist, postmodern, global culture. Since we do not seek God as an end in itself but in order to be His salt and light in the world, we are committed to understanding that world and how to bring the gospel to it through a new monasticism.
We believe that we have been brought into existence as a Community in order to call people back to a relational God, seeking Him daily, as the one thing necessary, in the cell of our own hearts. We carry a monastic heart, called to the cell, but as contemplatives in a world of action.
We believe that we have been called, as a new monastic movement, to contribute to the re-imagining of church. We seek to find a different way, in a different culture, to be faithful to the gospel. We began as a small prophetic voice, crying in the wilderness, but are now operating in an apostolic building phase, building on foundations of old, seeking to maintain the prophetic voice, and operating as a sign of a re-imagined church.
We are looking to God to help us interpret our culture in order to understand how to be church. We see ourselves as being both catholic and apostolic in the task of re-imagining the church. We are part of Church but also an expression of church as, for many Companions, the Community is their only expression of church.
WHAT IS NEEDED TO JOIN THE NORTHUMBRIA COMMUNITY?
In order to discern vocation, a three stage novitiate process is in place.
Stage 1: Community Introduction Retreat
These retreats are for anyone interested in finding out more about Northumbria Community including those actively exploring admission to our Way for Living, who we refer to as Postulants. Community Introductions are usually held at the Nether Springs, our Mother House, over a weekend or during a four day mid-week gathering and run approximately bi-monthly.
These retreats will give Postulants:
– An introduction to the Community, its history and influences, life and ethos.
– An opportunity for personal reflection to consider ‘what would Companionship mean for me?’
– An open forum for discussion and questions
– The chance to experience the day to day life of the Community as it is expressed at the Mother House
– An outline of the novitiate process
– An invitation to journey further with us either by joining the Novitiate or, by becoming, or continuing to be, a Friend of Northumbria Community
Following the Community Introduction Postulants are encouraged to:
– Reflect and pray on who they are and what God is saying to them about what they have heard and experienced during the retreat
– Write to the Community Office if they wish to become Novice Companions
Anyone who does not feel, for whatever reason, that they want to become a Novice, and who is not already a Friend of Northumbria Community, is very welcome to become one by letting the office know of their wish to continue to journey with us in this way.
Those who wish to become Novice Companions enter stage 2
Stage 2: Novitiate
This involves accompanied distance learning. The Novice is allocated a Mentor who will journey with them as they work through a series of 12 modules. As this is a discerning process, not a knowledge gathering exercise, it is important to take enough time over it to allow the material under study to be reflected on and tested out in daily life. We suggest that, normally, the minimum time taken over the modules is one year.
The modules are a way of looking in more depth at the Community’s Rule. Each module takes an aspect of the Rule and explores it in the context of real life. Some information is given as a starting point but the Novice is encouraged to use the reading and resource list provided to find out more for themselves. It is not intended to be an academic exercise so the emphasis is on application to daily life and consideration of how being a Companion in Northumbria Community would help the Novice to seek God, make life choices and be a witness in the world. It is intended to deepen awareness of what committing to a life of Availability and Vulnerability would really mean. It is hoped that the Novice will feel able to share their discoveries with their Mentor but there are no exams or marked assignments.
The role of the Mentor is to be available for discussion and advice, to act as an encourager and sounding board and to help the Novice discern whether our Way for Living is right for them. Exactly how this works in practice will be for the Novice and Mentor to decide between them but regular contact is expected by various means, including some face to face contact if at all possible.
During this period Novice Companions will be expected to:
– Use the Daily Office
– Take what opportunities they can to meet with other Companions, Novices and Friends of Northumbria Community at Community Group meetings, Community Gatherings or at the Mother House. If the opportunity arises, Novices are encouraged to join a team involved in an event to which the Community has been invited to contribute.
– Undertake to spend at least a week at the Mother House preferably as a volunteer. We appreciate that for some, particularly those living abroad or whose lives are constrained in other ways, this may not always be possible, but where it is not feasible, Novices are encouraged to work with their Mentor to find another way of gaining the additional perspective on Community life that such an opportunity brings.
– Take an annual retreat at the Mother House, or undertake a pilgrimage to a site of significance for the Community for time alone with God.
Stage 3
On completion of the modules, the Novice Companion and Mentor will discern with the Community leadership whether it is right for the Novice to be invited into Companionship. If the decision is that they should be, then the Novice will receive a written invitation to journey on with the Community as a Companion.
At the earliest opportunity the Novice will be received into Companionship at a gathering of Companions. This could be as part of a retreat or other event at the Mother House or else it can be at a specially convened informal gathering of Companions near the Novice’s home. We have a dedicated liturgy and blessing for the welcoming in of new Companions and the occasion will be marked for the new Companion by the receiving of an illustrated personalised copy of the Rule. The event will be made known to the rest of the Community through announcements in Caim and at Easter Workshop.
We are pilgrims on a journey, we’re Companions on the road
We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load
WHAT ARE ELEMENTS OF COMPANIONSHIP?
A commitment to Companionship is a commitment to the following:
– Seeking God as the one thing necessary, alone and together.
– Covenanting together before other Companions to embrace the Rule as a Way for Living and living it out.
– Recognising that Exodus and Exile still characterise the people of God in a changing post modern culture and responding by living the core values.
– Being available to Community and to other Companions through relationship, practical help, soul friendship, Community teams, and where appropriate other roles such as serving as a Novice Mentor.
– Taking time at least annually to reflect with at least one other Companion on where each is in their personal journey and in their journey with Community.
– Remaining teachable and committed to spiritual formation which includes constant learning about our Way for Living, for example through reading or listening to teaching resources or attending a led retreat or gathering.
– Using the Community Prayer Guide for intercession and prayer support
– Making a spiritual renewal of vows each Easter, if possible in the company of other Companions, either on Holy Island on Easter Sunday or at a gathering near home.
– Trying to attend a Community Group in your area
– Being supportive of mission and Community Gatherings in your area
– Being supportive of Nether Springs as the Mother House and administrative centre of the Community’s life
FINANCE
As a Companion you will be asked to contribute to the family purse with a suggested minimum donation of £30 per month, preferably by Direct Debit and, if appropriate, through Gift Aid. At less than £1 per day, this will be affordable for most. We are very thankful that many can and do give more than this but we are also conscious that some may not be able to afford even this much. For this reason we do not think of regular giving by Companions as a subscription. We do not want anyone to feel that they cannot be a Companion because they cannot afford to contribute as much as others. We simply ask you to pay what you can as an expression of belonging and commitment to Northumbria Community. All giving is strictly confidential.
We believe our commitment to our vocation and vision, and our dependency on God, must be expressed through our willingness to give and serve. The contributions of Community Companions represent only a small percentage of the income required to fund the growing work of the Community but a necessary one if we are to fulfill our responsibilities and commitment to serving God’s purposes, as He has laid them on our hearts.
JOURNEYING WITH THE NORTHUMBRIA COMMUNITY
Although we are not a religious order as such, we do take our vows of Availability and Vulnerability very seriously. We seek, as a geographically dispersed Community network, to follow a lifestyle of Alone/Together that mutually blesses and encourages one another on the journey. Having read through this booklet you will now realise why we use the term Companion to describe one who is walking the journey with us. A Companion is a person who associates with another, who shares the lifestyle of, and travels with, another. The root meaning of the word is the latin phrase ‘cum pane’, literally ‘one who eats bread with another’. Our understanding of the spiritual life as travel emphasises a willingness to explore the inner journey, the landscape of the heart, as well as the outer journey, the landscape of the land which we all traverse in life as it is. In this we find that most are more alone than together but find inner companionship with those who have embraced the same Way for Living. So for us it is not so much being a member of an organisation but rather being a Companion with others in a conscious embracing of a shared life and lifestyle. We are all on the same journey of faith with the Rule of Availability and Vulnerability uniting our hearts so that we are Alone in our uniqueness but Together in our commitment to persevere as Companions in Community on a journey. It is this sense of ownership and belonging which marks out a Companion who is committed to the vision and vocation of Community.
We eat together, even if it isn’t at one table
We live together, even if it isn’t in one house
We pray together, even if it isn’t in one chapel
NORTHUMBRIA COMMUNITY FRIENDS
If you are interested in journeying with Northumbria Community but feel that becoming a Companion is not for you then you are welcome to become a Friend of the Community. A Friend is anyone who thinks positively about us and supports the work we seek to do. These are people who want to keep in touch, pray for us and be on our database but who as yet have not been been drawn to a commitment to the Rule. To become a Friend you simply need to write to the office expressing this desire or complete a database form.
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you
Wherever He may send you
May He guide you through the wilderness
Protect you through the storm
May He bring you home rejoicing
At the wonders He has shown you
May he bring you home rejoicing
Once again into our doors.
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February 5, 2025 / 11:36 am
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