A while ago I had an article published in a journal exploring the hermenutic of communitas - It's a theme that I've also picked up on this blog with regard to it's sustainability - anyway a few years after I wrote a chapter for a book where I explored a variation on this theme: the hermeutic of community. Both articles were in realtion to Sanctus1 and as I prepare to leave Sanctus1 I've be reflecting back on a number of themes in the life of my time with the community.
The shift for communitas to community is significant, as communitas is essentially an experience of separation for the rest of society. It happens in isolation, and whilst for the people involved it is a significant formational experience, for those who are not part of it it can feel like a closed off utopian experience for those involved. It is never intended as a permenant stage of existance and is essentially isolationalist.
After communitas is a stage called aggregation when the group that has had the experience of communitas rejoins the rest of society and ceases to be communitas. The first article I wrote was written in 2004-5, Sanctus1 had been going for about 3 years and was still in a fairly fragile state, the second article was written in 2008 and Sanctus1 was less fragile and far more connected in with Fresh Expressions and had a greater national profile.
Before 2004 there was no Mission Shaped Church Report and no Fresh Expressions Initiative, Sanctus was mentioned in MSC and essentially through the report and FE initiative was brought into the mainstream. It was aggregated. Now, don't get me wrong - I think that this is a good thing (from a sustainability and catholicity perspective) - but something was also lost in this process: communitas. Aggregation enables a groups to belong to the rest of scoiety, however some will struggle with this. Communitas appeals to a certain kind of edge person, and the experience of aggregation for them maybe to mainstream and to compromised.
Tags: BenEdson, FreshExpressions
Recent Comments