>> Kate VanGiesen
The Emmaus Community, centred at the big yellow house on Belmont Avenue and Grant Street, is where members engage in a “new monastic” lifestyle, participating in daily prayer, weekly worships, simpler living, and potlucks with people in the neighbourhood. A few members were inspired by the energy of Fernwood to start this intentional community two years ago.
“We hope to bring together people of goodwill from all places,” says Rob Crosby-Shearer, one of the community’s dozen or so members, who all live in the Belmont house or in the nearby neighbourhood.
The Emmaus Community provides the freedom to be creative and to get outside of institutionalized religion by “gardening, participating in social justice events, connecting with people on the margins, and being present as people of faith in the neighbourhood,” Rob says.
The Emmaus Community makes commitments to prayer, presence, and simplicity. It is supported by the Anglican and the United Churches, but there are members from many different traditions, or from no specific tradition.
If you want to get involved, “drop us a line. You can participate in daily prayer at the house, come by to say hi, drop a prayer in our prayer box, or join The Abbey on Sundays at Paul Phillips Hall to participate in experimental Christian worship. You can also tell us how we can support something that’s already happening. We’re eager to partner with others!”
“In the same way that we support local businesses and take our kids to neighbourhood schools, the Abbey is our way of giving back to the neighbourhood by praying here each week,” says the Reverend, Meagan Crosby-Shearer.
“The Abbey,” Rob says “is our way of re-imagining church; it’s grassroots, intergenerational, inclusive, and sometimes messy. It draws on ancient practices, roots us in this place, and connects us to something bigger.”
Currently, the Emmaus Community is starting a shared urban-organic gardening and neo-monastic internship with City Harvest. The Emmaus Community has also started experimenting with a micro-industry of brewing beer in the Trappist tradition.
You can connect with the Emmaus Community online at www.emmauscommunity.ca, The Abbey Church at www.abbeychurch.ca, or by email at info@emmauscommunity.ca.
