New York: Community of the Crossing
Last night I attended a special ecumenical service at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City to welcome the Chemin Neuf Community, a Roman Catholic Community with an ecumenical vocation. Inspired by the Community of St Anselm in Canterbury, this will be the second project of Chemin Neuf establishing itself within the structures of the Anglican/Episcopalian Church.
The Community of the Crossing is made up of young people (20-30 years old) from across the United States and across Christian denominations who choose to take a year out of their normal pathway …..
“in order to study, to dive into community life, to experience a radical rhythm of prayer, to serve the poor and the City of New York and to be interrupted by God. Through the experience of a deeply-shared community life, we will forge faith-filled leaders with the courage and moral core to transform the world by the way they practice their chosen vocations”.
Willem Klaver MHM
Members of Chemin Neuf, a Catholic community with ecumenical membership, arrived from France before the Sept. 8 service and will spend the next year working with the leadership at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to prepare to welcome the first Community at the Crossing cohort in fall 2023.
Community at the Crossing leaders hope 12 young American adults from diverse Christian traditions will live at the cathedral in a residential segment of the program and another 20 or more members will continue to live and work outside the community in New York City. These “working life” members will join the residential community for prayer and events.
“Weekdays will be an intense shared community life, but on Sundays we will encourage each member to celebrate in his or her own church,” Fr. Jean-Sébastien Laurent, a Catholic member of Chemin Neuf who will take a leadership role with Community at the Crossing in 2023, told NCR in an email.
Community at the Crossing will draw on a long focus on Christian unity at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, one of the largest church buildings in the world. According to Rev. Patrick Malloy, the cathedral’s acting dean, “the building itself was built as a statement about Christian unity.”
Source: NCR
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