This sermon was presented at Stevens Chapel on July 9, 2000 by Rev. Judith Campbell

INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY

Earlier this year, a colleague of mine used the term "intentional community" in a discussion we were having about a mission statement and goals for Lesley College where I "Used" to work!!!

Intentional community

I started to think about it. The word and the idea of community is enjoying a new popularity these days. And in a culture in which our daily lives have become increasingly fragmented, it would seem that many people are going to considerable effort to re-establish a sense and a spirit of community. If you think about it, very few of us are living in the town where we were born, or anywhere near it. Many of us regularly tear out of our homes, (a family community) to school or to our jobs – or to a volunteer commitment - (another kind of community). After work, we might go to a health club or the local watering hole for a little socializing and then back home or off on a business trip and so on and so on.

Few kids play with the kids in their neighborhood beyond the beginning of school age. Instead, middle class kids anyway are ferried to lessons, scouts, and sports and then home to the TV or to do homework. We go to one set of grandparents for one holiday, another for another, and if there is a divorce in the family, then the subdivisions and the logistics accompanying blended family responsibilities between the in-laws and the out-laws and the bylaws could stagger a Clydesdale!

For the most part, an extended family with two or three generations all living together or in close proximity is a thing of the past. I’m not saying this is a good or a bad thing, but it does leave many of us feeling rootless and isolated and somehow longing for a sense of connectedness… which we may or may not be able to define and will be different for each one of us depending on what specifically we feel we are missing.

By definition, a community is a group of people that in some way share resources, provide support for one another and work in some way towards a common goal. So what then is "intentional community"? And is it any different from a more general definition of Community as I have just presented it?

The answer for me is yes; intentional community is just that, "INTENTIONAL", created by choice and not by accident of birth or geography. Many communities develop simply because of proximity, and intention has nothing to do with it, although it may develop as a common need arises. For example, the people we work with, if we work with a group, form a kind of community. We might have shared goals for the work space and working conditions. The management community in the same company might have a very different set of shared goals and expectations.

But these are not intentional communities, they are and this is my own definition...circumstantial communities.

Marriage is a kind of intentional community of two people. But when a couple in a committed relationship produce or acquire children, it is no longer an exclusively intentional community, because the children, when they are young anyway, did not choose to become part of the community, they are not active policy makers...active perhaps, but policy makers only by default. In a community of family it is the parents that should be the goal setters and the policy makers. (We all know this is not always the case, but…that’s a different subject.)

A kibbutz in Israel is an example of intentional religious and cultural community. There are still active Kibbutzim in Israel serving the agricultural needs of both the country and the personal needs of the members to be an integral part of a dedicated religious commune. Small intentional communities can and often do fill the needs of an individual who feels isolated or in need of the security of a family-like structure, without the emotional baggage of the original one…or so we think!….I will talk more about this later!

The communes of the late sixties and early seventies of the past century…..wow, think about that – the past century…and Transcendentalist Brookhaven and Hopedale communities of the mid-eighteen hundreds were attempts at intentional community and for a while, some of them worked. Convents and monasteries are hierarchical intentional communities whose shared goal is to live a strictly ordered life of service and total submission to the presumed will of God and/or the rule of the particular order.

I believe that most Unitarian Universalist fellowships are intentional communities in a way that other denominations whose membership is comprised of mostly of people born and raised in the faith are not. I believe that many, if not most, members of Unitarian Universalist fellowships have come here by choice rather than chance of geography or birth. Many of us have come here from other denominations or from backgrounds where there was no professed or practiced religion or ethic and who are looking for something that was missing in their spiritual or religious life. Others came because there was TOO MUCH that was required of them in terms of adherence to religious dogma, capital outlay, or strict codes of behavior and in some cases… even ways of dressing.

People who come through these doors will find a community of individuals with widely differing theologies, (and that is an understatement) but with a shared interest in a personal search for truth, respect for the worth and dignity of all living things, and like our first, religious and spiritual cousins, the Reform Jews,…a deep commitment to service in the name of human love. Even born-to and second and third generation Unitarian Universalists are here because they have chosen to stay here. There are no dogmatic locks on these doors. I'm curious, how many of you here who are UU’s are "Born-to" Unitarians or Universalists? See!

So...if we are in fact a loosely organized intentional community, what are the rules? First of all, you know and I know...in this association there aren't specific ones. We have The Seven Principles and purposes by which we try to shape our living, but that's about as close as we get to a dogma or a doctrine. We don't do rules...that's why most of us are here!....But what keeps us here and what I believe qualifies us as an intentional community is our shared vision of the greater good and our willingness in some cases to agree to respectfully disagree and to put down the gloves – so to speak - after the last "animated" discussion and still get together for the monthly pot-luck. We are an intentional community in spite of…or because of…those intentions and a commitment to our faith practice and the people it includes.

But let’s go back to my definition. An intentional community is a group of people that have chosen to share common goals, have decided to provide support for each other, have agreed to share resources and.....among other things, continue to recognize themselves as a community sharing responsibility for the general well being and/or survival of the community as a whole and the individuals within it. We certainly fit that definition.

The picture is a rosy one, like minded caring individuals working together for the common good. It sounds and often is wonderful. The reality is, that with any group of people, however lofty the intent or goals, people are still people, and just like in a family gathering, there are leaders and followers, people who would argue with a circle saw, just for the fun of aggravating someone else and those who would do anything to keep the peace. There is the caretaker and the nurturer, the person who can talk all afternoon and never gets to the point, and the person who has a point to make on every subject under the sun and doesn’t wait for an invitation to let you know about it. And that’s when the fun begins…or ends depending on which side of the issue you are on, and how easily you as an individual deal with other ways of seeing a problem or finding a solution.

In many respects an intentional community functions as a family with all that that entails. Remember what I mentioned earlier about emotional baggage…or more delicately defined as "personal history? Well none of us is without it….and no community, intentional or geographical or circumstantial is without people, and people have personal history. ….And that, dear friends, however you define it,…is what it’s all about. Human beings, being our very human selves, trying to get the job of living done to the best of our abilities within our tribe. But like the two couples in the story I told earlier, each of us will receive almost exactly what we choose to bring with us.

We say to ourselves that we want to be an inclusive rather than an exclusive community. We want to welcome new people to our group but not overwhelm them with committee assignments to the point of scaring them off. We probably each have an individual theology or system of ethics by which we try to live our lives. And as card carrying UUs we are supposed to respect individual views and beliefs even though they may be quite different from our own. We do that. And we are trying our best to be a welcoming community to those individuals or couples who live alternate lifestyles.

But what do we do when it doesn’t work despite our lofty goals and ambitions? There will always be those who will pack up and get going when the going gets too tough. I always feel badly when someone leaves, but we don’t lock our doors. But then there are those who, despite the marathon meetings and negotiations and gallons of coffee and herb tea, will hold fast to something that is greater than those individuals within the society….and that is the intention of the community. And…if and when that intention needs reviewing…to hang in there with our like minded mavericks and ensure that there is one place where Pagans, Christians, Agnostics, Humanists, Atheists, Buddhists, Theists, Pan-antheists, witches, and all those others who would seek a growing deepening spiritual life in a welcoming inclusive community can be together in faith and trust. Faith in the power of the community to sustain them as individuals, and trust that as individuals we can share our pain as well as our pleasure and have that trust honored and held sacred by the group.

That….my friends…is one tall order. But the fact that you are here today, and will be here again next week and in the fall and in the winter….is elegant testimony and witness to the commitment to our intent as a welcoming, inclusive, and socially responsible spiritual and religious community ….But in all of this high minded and passionate rhetoric, I have neglected to mention…. that a vital part of our intention must include having fun while we are being lofty and purposeful.

Fun is good! Fun is healthy! Fun is vital to spiritual and emotional health.

I have often referred to myself as one of God’s clowns. Humor is a powerfully renewing part of my own spiritual practice and one I try to share with others. Loving healing laughter is one of the best communion services I can think of. So is a Pot-Luck supper…Food and laughter work in community just as effectively as choir practice and committee meetings, to serve the greater good.

Intentional community is just that...intentional, and it is us and we is it… with all of our strengths and frailties and quirks and irascible lovable wonderful humanness. We don’t leave our personalities and our knee-jerk reactions at the doorstep like overshoes, when we enter into community. We are who we are, and with that as a premise, we agree to work with our differences so that we can work together.

It is a commitment and a gift and for some, …yet another example of divine Grace. We are here by choice, in a common quest for truth and community support in that quest. If we happen to make friends and have fun at the same time, so much the better. The religious practice of my Episcopalian childhood stressed that it was more blessed to give than to receive. This was usually said before the collection! I have also heard it said..."Ask and Ye shall receive." I like that one better, but it’s one heck of a lot harder. It is the real test of your faith in your intentional/spiritual community. Having enough faith in yourself to allow your spiritual community to know you for who and what you are, and to dare to ask for help and trusting that it will be given in love is what and trust and faith in intentional community are all about. Faith and trust are much harder work than organizing a church yard sale. But faith and trust and service to the larger community through yard sales and crop walks and meditation and even…prayer, are the real work and the real fun of this intentional community, whether it is right here in the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard, or the larger intnentional community of the Unitarian Universalist Associations of America. Working in community is how we will perpetuate ourselves, serve others, and welcome newcomers.

Like parenting and loving partnering, sometimes the loving is tough…when members disagree, but it is part of the shared journey…and I for one, am profoundly grateful to be part of it.

Blessed be…and …Amen.