News from former volunteers

Volunteers from 2007/8 let us know what they have been doing in the months since leaving JVC…

Sarah Willis is living in Leeds and training as an internal auditor (the good guys!) with Grant Thornton so that one day she can be a volunteer with really marketable skills!

Tom Viita is working in Leeds as the Campaigns Officer for the Refugee Council, very busy on his new allotment to grow his own vegetables, and trying to make time to pray!

Tanja Roske decided to stay in Britain and started her studies (Psychology) at Stirling University in Scotland some weeks ago.

Julia Babos has become an attendant in a museum in Budapest. Part-time, retired work.

Terry Conlan is waiting for his visa to go to Nigeria working with a project with kids and street projects for 8 months.

Birgit Garthe is currently enjoying her new Manchester life! Course in Speech Therapy is great so are her new friends! But she still misses JVC times…

Aura Polocenkaite is settling in Nottingham (she really loves it! …though it was quite hard in the beginning). She has started theology studies, trying to live at least three values of JVC without her community.

Quynh Thuy Vo wants to join the Jesuits but is waiting for them to accept women Meanwhile, she is working as a researcher in a life insurance company in Vietnam where she hopes to gain skills to work in an NGO related to economics for development. She is also helping with a group for Catholic students.

Diana Salazar is studying for a masters in environment and sustainable development while living with half of her community

Jo Lewis is studying in London and living with half her community

Jana Korcuskova is studying in Slovakia

And some news from other years

Paola Toledo (Birmingham 2004/5) and her husband Eddie are pleased to welcome into the world their son Diego. Diego was born on 14 September 2008. JVC will be pleased to recieve his application in 20 years or so.

Regina Duzy from Germany. (Liverpool 03/04) joined the Benedictine convent of Fulda this September and keeps in her heart all who are in some way connected to JVC and especially those she got to know during her year of volunteer work in Liverpool.

Lucie krupickova from Czech Republic (Liverpool 2006/7) recently came back from  pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Antonia Raetzel and Ian Quigg (2004/5) recently got engaged in Hawaii

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Jesuit Volunteer Community BY GED EDWARDS

JVC recently held it’s 21st Birthday party in St Frances Xavier Church Liverpool, everyone agreed it was a lovely evening. Ged Edwards gave this speech, looking back at the first JVC community.

I’m delighted to be asked to speak tonight.  It’s a real privilege to be here on such an occasion, an occasion we could barely dream off 21 years ago.  I’ve always felt that JVC is a movement, not a voluntary organisation and our collective presence here tonight shows how true that is.

Lest we forget where we’ve come from, JVC was Jesuit Volunteer Corps and started in Alaska about 50 years ago.  Eddy Bermingham SJ was asked by The Society of Jesus, the Jesuits to set up JVC: Britain.  To do this in 1985 he approached 2 students Tess Clancy and Sue Hogg to go to the States to experience JVC programme there and to come back and after a short while take on the running of JVC: Britain which he started to shape in their absence.  While Eddy was recruiting the first community, building links with Community Service Volunteers and the Housing Department in Liverpool, Tess and Sue were in California and Montana.  At 21, Tess ran a soup kitchen for up to 600 homeless people a day in Sacramento which was part of the Loaves and Fishes Project inspired by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement so she’s the longest-standing volunteer with us tonight.

Last September, twenty years after its formation of the first JVC: Britain community JVC Liverpool (or JVC Rialto as we knew it), we held a reunion attended by five of the first six JVC volunteers (Jo Sullivan, David Cronin, Ann Wilson, Patrick Sweeney and me), and Tess Clancy and Ken Vance from the Management Team and Sr Liz Stinson SND: Community Partner, four of us are here tonight.

We had a great day wandering around the European Capital of Culture.  We knew a different culture back then in Toxteth where we had lived for the year.  In 1987, the area was still struggling with the label of the infamous Toxteth riots of 1981 and burnt buildings and dereliction were to be seen everywhere.  We lived in two dilapidated maisonettes in Berkeley St which we had to decorate (after taking down the red light bulbs!) and hurriedly furnish with furniture from a flat where someone had done a moonlight flit.  In our JVC year our work took us away from Toxteth but we tried hard to support the local community and be accepted there too.  One of our community, Steve Jobling was a brilliant magician and the local kids a keen audience so that for the years the Liverpool community was based in Berkeley St, they were all known as “The Magies”.  We helped in the Toxteth Carnival in our year and when some children tried to break into the flat when we were away on the Spirituality Weekend, people we didn’t know came and boarded the place up late at night and thrashed the culprits.  We were in!

When we got to the area last September, it had changed so much.  Both blocks of flats, which had been so liberally decorated with graffiti, had been pulled down and new, smart terraces put in their place, and other houses given a facelift.  It was a great physical improvement but the memories of being there, in a place I thought of as so much as home, were still so powerful and I was glad we were together to experience it.

Then off to Liz’s for prayerful reflection.  We looked at the four JVC values of simplicity, community, spirituality (Ignatian) and social justice, where they had influenced us over the years and what they meant for us now.  We took time to reflect also on the JVC USA strap line “Ruined For Life”.  After all that time. were we?

We noted how the values were continuing to shape little things – like running the office tea fund – as well as having shaped major choices, like careers in health, social and environmental work.  The friendships we had had remained vitally important.  Some of us were ruined in terms of personal relationship: the quality of those relationships, people who had been complete strangers, had been so strong and now we badly missed community living and contact with like-minded people as we had spilt up over the UK and this was hard to come by.  Community is such a powerful, natural and necessary experience it will be rediscovered and JVC is part of that effort.  Where God is leading us is alive for us still and all of us are still strongly drawn to Ignatian spirituality with its foundation of contemplation in action.

Simple lifestyle had become more of an issue for some with environmental issues coming to the fore.  How can we live more simply and share what we have with others?  What are the benefits of this?  In terms of social justice, for most of us dealing with systems and bureaucracies rather than just with the people we signed up to help was causing us to scratch our heads.  We were being paid as professionals and we welcomed that for the most part.  But was this helping others as well as it might – or ourselves?  Again, the simplicity of being in touch with others as volunteers, running soup kitchens, cooking with someone who lives in a hostel or playing the piano in an old people’s home brought back vivid memories of individuals we had formed bonds with.

JVC: Britain started amid a blaze of interest from the Society which was exploring in particular how its charism of Ignatian spirituality could be used with lay people.  During the year we were visited by many people most notably by the then Provincial, Michael Campbell-Johnston SJ and by Alec Dixon, the founder of Community Service Volunteers who had advised President Kennedy on establishing the American Peace Corps who stayed overnight with us.  For us as the first volunteers, staff and support staff, for all the challenges, there was a sense of a great adventure, both personally and as a movement.  We were open to experiencing first hand something of the need for social justice, of the vitality and difficulties of living in community with people we had not met before, of living with the strengths and limitations of few choices and of finding God amidst this, individually and together.  For all of us, 1987-88 remains both a rich and influential period, a touchstone and influence for today and the future.  Eddy’s phrase to us was, “It’s not about getting the right answers but the right questions!”  That’s all part of being ruined for life – in theological terms, being dead to the world and truly alive for God’s work, building a fairer more compassionate kingdom here, now.

Jesuit influence

The Jesuits have always used their limited resources to influence the social fabric by helping people to find God in all things and, because of their courage and approach, that influence has been phenomenal.  The BBC is currently running the 2008 Reith lectures on China and has highlighted the Society’s work, in the shape of Matteo Ricci SJ in 1580, as the first westerners to enter China.  Their impact there and China’s interest in the West because of that is still being felt today.  St Francis Xavier had the same goals when he went to India.  Here in this Church named after him, Bro Ken Vance SJ and the team are seeking to influence modern Liverpool and are hosting as well a special exhibition next month Held in Trust  on the work of the Society in the UK to influence the Capital of Culture.

And the Society is hosting tonight’s celebration as it has so generously supported JVC for 21 years financially and with its Jesuit members in spiritual development particularly.  Why?

It does this because it wants every volunteer, to do what Ricci and Xavier tried to do.  To go into the places where people are excluded from Jesus’ message, to learn from them and live along side them to change the world for the better.  I personally want to thank Fr Michael on behalf of his predecessors and the rest of the Society for continuing to ruin my former conventional life and help to make me part of the Jesuit movement.  I’m sure many of us who have gone through JVC feel the same.  The challenge we took up continues – but God doesn’t leave us alone.  It’s God’s work we are about to make a fairer Britain, where personal relationships are valued and not cheapened, where spirituality is respected as part of the whole compass of human experience and where people are encouraged to see the wisdom and joy in simplicity in a world teetering to the edge of catastrophe through consumerism-led climate change.

On behalf of my Rialto community, thanks for listening and staying ruined!

Ged Edwards was one of the first JVC volunteers in JVC Rialto 1987-88 in Liverpool.

A day in Manchester

10.00-11.00

Tom: Tom arrives in Rainbow Haven, a project mostly for refugees and asylum seekers. Some kids are messing around with Tom’s shoelaces while he sorts out a doctor’s appointment for an Iraqi refugee. Tom spends a while playing with the kids – he’s just a big baby at heart, but only the other children notice.

11.00-12.00

Sarah: The Welcome Centre rents a church hall for two days a week. I and 8 other volunteers get all of our equipment out of storage and set up the tables, chairs and information stalls. The Welcome Centre has a lot of volunteers. Most are asylum seekers living locally. They are not allowed to work. Some have been waiting to hear the outcome of their asylum applications for seven years or more. In both my placements I have noticed that the dividing line between volunteers, clients and staff is very thin – and owes a lot to chance and circumstance.

Aura: People are excited today – they were talking about the TV show where there was15 minutes of fame for Loaves & Fishes and for some of our clients. They showed our new kitchen and a millionaire who gave it to our drop-in centre. One and a half an hour I spend in a kitchen by serving tea, coffee and washing dishes.

Julia: I arrive to the Prison Visitors’ Centre before 10. It will be my first working day there because of all the police clearences, which needed two months to be done. I have some induction and read some leaflets about drug problems, the effects of drinking on unborn babies, and having a family member in prison. Nearly nothing is happening because in the mornings there are only legal visits

12.00-13.00

Julia: Lunch (a nice tuna and salad sandwich), and some socialisation: a volunteer has her 70^th birthday so we even have some chocolate cake, too.

13.00-14.00

Sarah: Visitors are wrapping shoeboxes in Christmas paper and filling them with gifts for children. Every child who visits the Centre in the week before Christmas will be given one of these boxes.

Julia: The gate has been opened for the family members. I sit at the reception desk with another volunteer and watch how the booking process is going on. When nobody is coming I write some new information into the Visitors’ Handbooks, and read the booklets about prison life.

14.00-15.00

Aura: There was one woman who quarrelled with another client. Helen calmed them down. It emerged that woman got angry because she was on a TV yesterday and none behaved with her like with a star. :)

We decided to sort donated clothes in a clothes store. There were some clients who wanted to buy some clothes.

Tom: Tom and a young refugee from Africa eat a late lunch and chat. They play a bit of basketball with  a refugee from Iran who also volunteers at the project. Tom is not good at basketball, and loses the game.

15.00-16.00

Sarah: A manicurist, masseuse and mendhi (henna hand painting) artist are at the Centre today and I am offered (and accept!) a neck massage and a henna painting on my left hand. I can’t bend my left hand until the henna dries so I go and help out in the café, making hot drinks for visitors. Some regular visitors, who I helped to enrol their children into a local school in previous weeks, arrive and I chat with them for a while to see how things are going.

Tom: Amanda (a staff member) and Tom talk with a woman from Somalia who has been given refugee status in the UK. She’s located her three missing children in Ethiopia, but the UK government has refused to re-unite the family. She is very upset, and doesn’t understand why the government can be so cruel…

16.00-17.00

Sarah: The Centre closes at 4.30 so I help clear up then catch the bus home. There have been 65 visitors today.

17.00-18.00

Julia: The others ask about the “prison” (which, in fact, I haven’t even seen), and seem to be a bit satisfied when I tell them that it was pretty boring. They all have had boring days already, unlike me.

Tom: Tom looks up a recipe for dinner, after seeing that nobody has been shopping and the random ingredients that we have are not going to make a “nutritious and tasty meal”. He settles on some new Indian food with lentils and rice, but out of compassion for Julia and Aura he will remove every trace of chilli or spice from it.

18.00-19.00

Sarah: I knit and pray. Not at the same time!

19.00-20.00

Julia: Dinner together. I like it. J Even the cleaning after makes some fun if it’s done together.

20.00-21.00

Sarah: Thursday evening is set aside for faith sharing. We sit down in the living room with a fresh pot of tea and our pudding. We only eat pudding on faith sharing days or when the community partners bring it. During sharing we each have an opportunity to tell the others what has been going on for us over the last week, how we have felt about things and whatever else seems appropriate at the time. This is one of my favourite things we do together. Although it can be hard, I find that it fills me with love and compassion for my community.

Julia: We have sharing tonight. It begins quite slowly, nobody wants to start but then we just come into practice, and talk about things we found good/bad/interesting etc. during the last weeks. I slowly realise my ‘complaining mood’ – the recognition doesn’t make me happy but at least helps to cope with it.

Tom: Faith sharing: the best part of the week! This is personal: I usually don’t know what I’m going to say until I open my mouth, and often I talk a lot more than the others because I ramble lots. It helps me to think, and it helps the others to get bored! I find it very frustrating when we hide our feelings in community (I am very much to blame), because it’s only on Thursday that I actually discover what someone was thinking on Monday! But for me, the sharing is a time of real community and communion: we can talk, share, break bread (or ice cream), and really connect.

21.00-22.00

Sarah: After talking we pull a question out of the box – these are discussion topics relevant to faith-sharing. Today the question is ‘What is the biggest obstacle in your relationship with God at the moment?

Aura: We end up with ‘Our Father’ and a hug when I had to tiptoe for taking as much comfort as I could from our hug.

Julia: I find the “question of the week” difficult but still want to speak – and shortly after it turns out that it was worth trying to answer. The others are really sympathising and it already makes me feel better.

22.00-23.00

Julia: Evening ritual: two or three of us are usually brushing their teeth at the same time. I like it.

Why live in community these days? by DIANA SALAZAR

When I decided to apply for the JVC program I did it because of the four core values: Social Justice, Spirituality, Simple lifestyle and Community. From my point of view all of them together, and each separately, motivated you to think and be interested about the people around you as well as yourself and your role.

The life in community has interested me a lot for many reasons, environmental benefits; the feeling of belonging and the possibility to serve; the necessity to develop a living (practical) spirituality; the opportunity to create rituals and inner languages to communicate among each other and make possible ideas and projects together; and for the chance to grow knowing your self better and quicker because of having many “mirrors” where you can see what you like and what you don’t in others, which is really an image of yourself.

Around the world there has always been a tendency to live in community and experience the companionship and solidarity that are meant to be the values of our species, since we are interdependent and gregarious beings.

But what are some of the reasons that inspire communities to set up? What are the visions they have about their projects? Here are some examples of different types of communities in Britain.
There is a community in Scotland named The Findhorn Ecovillage and their vision is:
“The Findhorn Foundation is a spiritual community, ecovillage and an international centre for holistic education, helping to unfold a new human consciousness and create a positive and sustainable future”.

The Steward Community Woodland is located close to Exeter in the Dartmoor National Park. Their aims are,

By encouraging natural regeneration of broadleaved woodland and appropriate new planting, we will restore areas degraded by plantation conifers and invasive species.
By increasing opportunities for access, recreation, tourism, and education, we will promote greater understanding, involvement and enjoyment of the wood, its wildlife and management.
By using permaculture design principles, we will demonstrate environmental solutions and sustainable low impact development.
By establishing forest gardens, we will produce organic food, renewable fuels, medicinal herbs and other useful products.
By providing new habitats for wildlife we will restore a diverse and characteristic community of animals and plants.
By providing sustainable products for local needs, we will help the environment and the local rural economy.

Braziers Park

Braziers Park is a community, a residential college and an architectural treasure hidden deep in the south Oxfordshire countryside. It was founded in 1950 as an educational trust, and is a continuing experiment in the advantages and problems of living in a group. Community members share responsibility for running the college and the estate. The food is grown organically in the land surrounding the community.

Enlinca Cohousing, their vision is,

“Sustainable way of living in Cambridge”

With the following advantages: Mutual support if needed; Safe environment for children; Encourages being active; Support for parents; Improved physical and mental health for residents of all ages; Economic and environmental benefits.

Each community had different objectives when they were set up, but most of them share an interest in the environment. This interest has been addressed in different ways by each community, for example the Steward Community decided to live indeed in a protected area, making sustainable development and simplicity their way of life. But they also affected the communities around them through education, doing courses related with the environment.

Other communities do not live in a protected area, but still are interested in sustainability, sharing transport, using electrical cars; waking, cycling, growing their food organically with permaculture techniques, using technologies to produce clean energy, using compost toilets, designing ecological building, treating their wasted water, to give some examples.

Central to the community life is the social aspect. Some of the communities are intended as projects for life, a long-term decision to work and live in the community and understand the world from within the community. Others are for determined periods of time with educative and experiential purposes like the Braziers’ Community.

In the social aspect we can find many components like economics, the development of social skills and the exploration of Spirituality.

In relation to the economy: some communities do not share their sources of funding; others face the need of sustainability with self-growing and establishing a free-range organic flock of chickens, ensuring ethical business. In most of the cases this means education through workshops and courses, and selling their products. Living in community also represents a cheaper way of living, because the expenses are also shared. Cars, physical spaces and even the work is shared, like Who cooks today? In JVC Birmingham we have experienced this and definitely our life is more harmonious because we decided to share food and house tasks.

The Findhorn Community has created Ekopia, that is a “community investment company helping to create a sustainable local economy and contributing to regeneration of our rural area in Scotland. They invest in local projects and has also created a community currency, the Eko, to further consolidate and stimulate economic cooperation.”

About social skills: the communities allow very big processes like decision making, respect for the difference, responsibility, commitment, resolution of conflicts and the opportunity to serve among others. The community itself could be an “experiment in the advantages and problems of living in a group” as the Braziers Park Community mentioned. JVC Communities could also be seen as an experiment where the JVC staff mixed people (personalities) with placements (skills and passions).

Concerning spirituality: personal growth is inevitable when living in community, so even though this aspect is not mentioned in all the communities, it is from my point of view, present in all of them. The Findhorn community mentions this: “By living in community, the people at Findhorn actively engage with spiritual values in everyday life. All of the varied activities and relationships we experience give the potential to put these into practice 24 hours a day, and expresses our commitment to spiritual service. We honour and recognise all the major world religions, and also many new expressions of spiritual principles. Guests and staff follow whichever path they choose for their own spiritual growth. In the community we focus on the common principles which underlie all these paths.”

As a last characteristic to be mentioned, I think living in a community produces a general Well-being in each member, for example it gives the feeling of belonging, support in times of desolation, friends to share happiness and good times, and a group to discuss and analyse thoughts. I say this as a result of my experience living in the Birmingham community, but also as a deduction of what I have been reading of other communities.

Even though all the examples shown are related to open spaces and country areas, communities can also exist in cities; the JVC communities are an example of this. The model used in the programme is also useful for communities in a longer term. So communities in both environments, countryside and cities, have a great opportunity to develop spaces for people growing as individuals and being aware and taking care of what surround them.

Trying to conclude about why people chose to live in communities these days, I just have more questions. If you live in a society where you can afford everything, where health and basic education are free; where the supermarkets are always in “summer time” and food from around the world is available in fresh and tins. Why are some people trying to create their own society? Why are they trying to give their own education a focus in nature, in playing and in awareness of others? Why are people looking for other types of economies taking into account human values? Why are people using their time and energy growing their food? Why are people today more conscious of the need for a ‘spiritual’ dimension to life? Why are they trying to go back to country areas or make cities greener; if the city can be seen as the great invention of humankind? Why are some communities showing reverence and respect to nature? Why are Celtic and Indigenous traditions becoming more valued now?

What is the “gap” that simmers to be fulfilled with community life?

Diana Salazar is from Columbia. She is currently a JVC volunteer in Birmingham.

Recipes by MANCHESTER & BIRMINGHAM

Tom’s Banana Pancakes

1 cup rice flour*
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
a pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon, etc

1 cup soya milk*
1 tbsp oil
1 ripe banana

Mix the dry ingredients; mix the wet ingredients; combine the two mixtures, stir and leave to stand for five minutes. Fry as thick American pancakes and eat in a stack with a topping of your choice.

*The recipe hasn’t been tried with wheat flour or cow’s milk, but in theory they should make quite good substitutions.

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Sarah’s Sour Chickpeas

350g dried chickpeas: picked over, washed and drained
1 ¾ l water
275-300g onion: peeled and very finely chopped
2 ½ tsp salt
1 fresh green chilli: finely chopped
1 tbsp very finely grated (peeled) ginger
4 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp vegetable oil
225g finely chopped tomatoes (tinned tomatoes are fine)
1 tbsp ground coriander seed
1 tbsp ground cumin seed
½ tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp garam masala
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Soak the chickpeas in 3 pints of water for 20 hours. Put the chickpeas and their soaking liquid into a large pot and bring to the boil. Cover, lower the heat and simmer gently for 1 ½ hours until the chickpeas are tender. Strain the chickpeas and save the cooking liquid.

Put 2 tablespoons of chopped onions, ½ tsp salt, green chilli, ginger and lemon juice in a teacup. Mix well and set aside.

Heat the oil in a heavy, wide casserole-type pot over a medium-high flame. When hot, fry for 8-10 minutes or until the onion bits develop reddish brown spots. Add the tomatoes. Continue to stir and fry for another 5-6 minutes, mashing the tomato pieces with the back of a slotted spoon. Put in the coriander, cumin and turmeric. Stir and cook for about 30 seconds. Now add the drained chickpeas, 400 ml of the cooking liquid, 2 tsp salt, the garam masala and cayenne pepper. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and cook very gently for 20 minutes. Stir a few times during this period.

Add the mixture in the teacup, stir to mix and serve hot or lukewarm.

Traditionally this dish is a snack, but it makes a delicious meal (serves 4) when served with rice or chippatis, pitta bread, etc.

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Birmingham Biscuits

(Adapted from that culinary classic, The Usborne First Cookbook)

Ingredients:
250g rice flour
125g margarine
125g brown sugar
1 beaten egg
2 teaspoons mixed spice
pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190oC (375oF; Gas mark 5). Grease two baking trays.

2. Beat the butter and sugar together until they are fluffy. Then beat in the egg, a little at a time.

3. Add the rice flour, salt and mixed spice. Mix everything well to make a ball of firm dough which should hopefully stick together.

4. Sprinkle some flour on the table and a rolling pin. Roll the dough out to about ½cm think.

5. Cut shapes out of the dough with biscuit cutters or a knife. Decorate them with raisins or bits of peel if you like. To use them as fortune cookies, we made a hole in the middle of each one.

6. Put the biscuits onto the greased trays. Bake them near the top of the oven for about 15 minutes, until they are light brown.

7. If you’re feeling very primary-school, the recipe suggests icing them and then decorating them with smarties, silver balls, or anything else you like.

Learning how to Love by SARAH WILLIS

Prior to JVC, I had fallen into Christian community on several occasions, each an experience of joy and consolation. Part of my motivation for applying to be a Jesuit Volunteer was to consciously re-enter community and reflect on it as a means of entering more deeply into relationship with God. I would have been wise to bear in mind at the outset that God can only bring about real insight and transformation when one’s identity and way of ‘seeing’ is challenged. Half way into the JVC year, my understanding of community and myself has altered more radically than I ever anticipated.

Communication and conflict

Meeting my community at Orientation was exciting and affirming. Our discussions over the week led me to realise that we shared a similar vision of what living the core values might mean. The evident potential for dialogue and shared life felt like an affirmation of my reasons for choosing JVC. This initial consolation was a gift on which I have learnt to draw for hope and inspiration during our journey.

By the November residential, elements of our common life were in place. Some aspects of our domestic life were worked out and we had established a routine for prayer. However, I had a sense of uneasiness. I had imagined passionate discussions and an opportunity to reflect together on how we were encountering God and the core values, but for the most part this had not begun to happen. Furthermore, some practical issues had not been addressed at all. While we had shared moments of togetherness and productivity, far more common was a sense of estrangement, awkwardness and inertia

I found much of the work around conflict resolution at the residential puzzling. It assumed that there would be a point at which conflict in community would be angrily verbalised. Talking to members of other communities, past and present, I heard stories of stand up rows, tears and door slamming. Life in JVC Manchester didn’t look this messy or unrestrained, yet something wasn’t working. We weren’t engaging.

Gradually we came to realise that the trouble is not that we have nothing in common: it is that we have too much in common. At heart we are four highly idealistic, independent and introverted people. All these qualities can make an important contribution to JVC, but they need to be counterbalanced by other qualities such as interdependence, pragmatism and communicativeness. None of us instinctively pays much attention to the niceties that grease the wheels of everyday life, so we constantly run the risk of falling down over the mundane. Conflict for us does not take the form of expressing concerns and needs confrontationally, but of not expressing them at all. It is a breakdown in communication.

A new understanding of engagement

We are in a process of coming to recognise that in order for us to function as a community, we must consciously engage with each other. It is not enough to wait until we have something important to say and then say it. If there is no light-hearted chat about the day or the latest terrible joke from work, no room for musing and half-formed ideas, then there is no soil in which ‘deep’ communication can take root.

Initially it was embarrassing to realise that we were falling down because we lacked social skills that other people take for granted. I was overwhelmed by a sense of my own failure. If I couldn’t get something that came so naturally to other people right, what did I have to offer? Our sheer bloody-mindedness kept us going. We learnt by trial and error that community meetings and regular times to share faith and everyday experiences are necessary for our communal life.

It is not easy to admit that things are going wrong and look for solutions. My instinct is to withdraw and bury my head in the sand rather than get to the heart of the issue. It is taking time to accept that making mistakes is part of our journey of being community, but I am coming to realise that that our ability to acknowledge our failure is what makes us strong. In the process of sitting down, talking, and recognising anew our shared desires, we reaffirm our commitment to each other and find practical ways of living it out. Instead of giving up we keep coming back to our common vision, striving to make it a reality.

Community as a place of healing

Recognising that in order to make the community function I must be more open and communicative is the most difficult part of JVC. It has forced me to see that I have become used to dealing with the world on my own terms. I have a public face: I like to appear impassive and capable because it feels safe, but this public persona divides me from the people around me.

My commitment to my community forces me to be a person who says that I am in a bad mood today, rather than pretending that I’m not; who says that I don’t understand something when I want to appear knowledgeable; who looks weak when I want to appear strong. I am learning to act out of consideration for the emotions of those around me rather than in order to protect my own.

I don’t think any of us expected life in community to be so difficult. Instead of hiding our weakness, each of us is constantly challenged to confront and express it. But to our surprise, these moments when our weaknesses are exposed and acknowledged have become our most graced place of engagement.

The more I see the vulnerability and struggles of my community members, the more I am moved by love for them. This love is pure gift: the blossoming of a seed I did not know had been planted in me. God, however, is not content to leave it at that. We may ask for silver, but he longs to give us gold. This love for my community is bringing about healing in my own soul. In loving others in all their weakness, I am beginning to glimpse the love that God feels for me for me in my own brokenness.

The scandal of our faith is that God brings about transformation where there is pain and failure. We are becoming able to engage deeply and creatively because of the journey we have travelled together. I am proud of us for having the courage to face the pain and frustration of our first months and strive to overcome it. Adversity has brought forth humility, perseverance and the ability to laugh at our own stupidity. Our community is becoming a place of healing and tenderness.

Community as a constant process

The challenge for us is to maintain a sufficient level of communication to make our ideas reality. Moments of deep engagement have taken place in our time together: magical instances of presence to the moment and each other in which God has reached through the pores of reality. As we continue in our halting dance, I realise that the invitation for this particular community is to learn not to have big ideas but to act on little ones. We are asked to realise that the reality of communication takes place within the mundane practicalities of everyday life, not in spite of them. Relationship is a process constantly unfolding, minute by minute and word by word, not a static concept.

In engaging in this process I am learning what it is to be human and how to exist in a world which God enters into and reveals himself through. I am striving to bear witness to a God who is embodied in every person and present in all things. I am discovering what it is to love a God who constantly reaches out in desire, despite the possibility of rejection. I see that my own failure is not a place of shame but an invitation to enter into the unfolding dance of creation. I am becoming more fully alive.

Sarah is a JVC volunteer in Manchester. She volunteers at MERC and a refugee welcome centre in Cheetham Hill

Two Examples of Christian Community: by LUCIE KRUPIKOVA

Lucie compares her experiences in two Christian communities: At her volunteer placement, L’Arche (Liverpool) and at home in the JVC Liverpool house.

The Christian community: what does it mean? Do I talk about a necessarily “good” community or sometimes a “bad” one? Once part of a community, do I have to be constantly with my community members or am I allowed time off? For the last year I experienced what it has meant to be a part of the Jesuit Volunteer community (JVC) and also work as an assistant for in The Ark (L`Arche). In the following article I have attempted to give my own answers to the questions posed above.

Firstly: To Be Part of The Community Is A Decision

It is a long-term decision but it also requires a re-commitment to that decision on a daily basis. Sometimes I can feel “now I need to push myself to stay longer with these people, to serve them, to listen to them, to share with them my opinions and at least somehow like them”. But other times I do not feel that it is an effort. I am simply enjoying the “staying, serving, listening, sharing…..etc.” Thanks to God`s grace most of the time I feel very rich, very uplifted, simply loved!

As an example of being part of the community let me tell you about my broken accordion. My parents decided to send me my accordion.

The parcel arrived in due course but the instrument inside was seriously broken. I carried the case home bearing its its weight on my head and hurt my shoulders in the process. It was also raining and I went down with a bad dose of flu. Mariana, Sigita and Alan, people from my community, took pity on me. Alan helped to open the accordion and started looking on the internet for someone to fix it. Mariana and Sigita stayed with me and made me a cup of tea. Next day, they bought me a big mug for more hot tea, because I stayed in bed sick. The story of the accordion continued to grow. The following months lots of people were involved in the repair of the accordion. Sergio our co-ordinator, Steven our community partner and James another co-ordinator were also involved. By Christmas day I had received the repaired instrument and could play carols, using it in the Jesuit chapel. My community shared in my happiness at having my accordion back to play once more.

To be a part of the community is a free-will decision of each person in the community. If one part of this “body” does not want to belong to the body anymore, there starts a long painful separation process. A person can detach themselves or be detached from the community in many ways but while we are still praying for them they are still connected with “the tree of the community”. In this way membership of the community is a two way process between the individual and the rest of the community.

I never say that my community is “bad” or “good”, Because it is a living body. It is very dynamic and it is changes every minute. Many times I have to say to myself: do not judge! We are all trying to live together. It is fragile, it relies on trust and a never-ending attempt to understand or at least accept what I am not able to understand. I can say: “this is rubbish” about some action, opinion or work, but not about a person or the community!

The Community Is Something That Attracts and Welcomes Other People

During the year, after the basis of our community had been built, when we had agreed the rules and established a prayer time together, when we had fun together, watched a lot of movies, played a lot of games, there was still something missing. It was important to be mostly just together, but soon some people appeared who were interested in who we are. Most of them became our very good friends. What is interesting – when somebody got a friend, the others from the community soon met them and also became their friends. The people around see us as one integer and always ask how the rest are doing?

I am going now to focus on Christian (JVC) values in the community and how we put them into practice. Because the Community is a place where it is possible to share, learn and reflect on Christian values.

A Simple Lifestyle n The Community

I have to say, that I still do not understand exactly what this means. What I learned is that it is not just about simple accommodation or simple food or cheap clothes. I used to live and eat much more simply (and that was still more extravagantly than people from the poor countries). It is more about using what I have, what I found, received and made. It is more about “doing” in a sense “creating” rather than consuming. I found out, that we do not need so much to be happy, have fun or have a great time. Let me give you a small example.

One day I mentioned to my community that I had not had a bath for more than 10 years. Some time after, Sigita asked me if I had a free hour. I was quite busy, but followed her. I was surprised when she covered my eyes with a scarf and took me to the bathroom. There was a gentle glow coming from the light of several candles decoratively arranged around the room. Soft fluffy towels were folded ready for use while a selection of fragrant soaps added a touch of luxury to the scene. A gentle perfume suffused the atmosphere, steamy from the hot luscious bath that had been pre-prepared especially for me. My favourite Czech music was playing softly in the background. “Enjoy your bath!” Sigita said. I really did! The next day I wrote to my friends about this example of the simple “love” style.

Social Justice In the Community

When we look at each other as brothers and sisters, all with the same basic needs and rights, when we share troubles from our own countries, it helps me to understand the situation in Liverpool and in the wider world. It has helped me to understand why Sigita was crying for a refugee mother who had to be sent “back”. It helped me to empathise with the old women who is a victim of violence and whom Mariana visits. Also why Alan`s placement, a Methodist church, welcomes people in their bread-making workshop. It also helped me understand Jesus – why He decided to die for all of us – and why one of the most powerful actions that we can do for those without justice is to give them our friendship and prayer.

Spiritual Life in the Community

It is a great gift that I live with people, who understand that I like to pray or even that for me, God exists! We support each other in this way. Once a week someone prepares a prayer for the others. The prayer is always different and provided in an original way. The prayers also reflect what is happening around us. For example: I received a gift that provided the material to make your own “bath bomb”. I decided to use it for my community prayer. One community of the JVC seemed to have some troubles, so we offered this prayer for them. Let me explain. Each of us made an original bath bomb, the size and design of which was up to the individual. One evening we took our bath bomb and as we said a prayer we threw them in to the Mersey. Each one floated differently and our prayer followed them. Other types of praying together included saying the rosary in different languages (with the responses in English) or imaginative prayer etc.

Finally I have to mention my placement at L`Arche community. The chance to work here has been a great gift for me. I work in the weaving room and once a week with the sports group. After a few months I also started a new workshop with a “drama group”, where house assistants, core members and workshop assistants meet together.

In L`Arche there are also houses where assistants and people with learning difficulties live together. I am not part of these houses, but I visit them and have a lot of friends there. What is magical is when the program for those assistants finishes, they still like to return to the communitiy. Many of them continue to work here, because of friendships with disabled persons. They love them even if the work is difficult and after the program – they miss them. L`Arche celebrates festivals and also anniversaries and birthdays for everyone there. One example from many: when Peter, one of the core members turned fifty, all of us dressed in striped clothes because he loves stripes. When one woman died, we planted a rose for her in the garden, while singing a song about her and sharing stories from her life.

This year is special for L`Arche Liverpool, because they are celebrating their 30th birthday. My JVC community joined L`Arche for these celebrations and took part in them. Mariana helped me with a presentation of the drama group (she played part in a fairy tale) and Sigita helped in the prayer of Pentecost. Alan decided to join L`Arche next year as a house assistant.

Some time ago I asked myself the question “What is the Christian community?” but I lacked the necessary experience needed to truly answer it. After a year spent living and working as part of a community I feel that I have gained a basic knowledge of Christian community living although my experiences continue to shape and deepen my understanding all the time. The opportunity to write an article on these experiences has been a wonderful chance for me to reflect on the past year and on how these experiences have culminated in me receiving so much more than I anticipated.

Lucie was a JVC volunteer 2006-7. She volunteered at L’arche’s Liverpool workshops.

A Community Somewhere Else by ALAN SMITH

While all JVC volunteers are expected to experience and come to understand the value of community through the community in which they live in, I am perhaps in an unusual situation since I also have the opportunity to experience it through one of my two placements. I spend three days of my week working in a rather unusual Methodist church which is entitled ‘Somewhere Else’, situated above a radical bookshop called ‘News from Nowhere’. Set up around six years ago by the Reverend Barbara Glasson to provide a Methodist presence in Liverpool city centre, it has aimed at creating a fresh expression of church: worship is primarily based around the making of bread with whoever turns up. A very simple and rather odd idea, but having been there for two months now I have found that it does provide a genuine alternative form of worship, and has given me insight into a different expression of community.

My role at Somewhere Else is primarily as a facilitator for the bread-making: in between making rolls for lunch and loaves for orders and extra bread to take home to my first community, I have to welcome people when they start coming in; whether just a handful trickle in, or a couple dozen descend upon us en masse – whoever God sends that day – and try to guide them through the process of making bread through to them receiving the finished product. As well as this, I and the other volunteers and workers attempt to keep the group moving along smoothly. We try to make sure everyone is included, and to look out for any potential conflicts arising, as in any community there can be some more volatile personalities, or people who do not understand social cues – and there certainly some of these at Somewhere Else.

Bread-makers – our congregation – start arriving at 10:30. They can include people with learning disabilities and their helpers, homeless people, lonely people, people on the fringes of the church, abused people, young adults with problems, and those who are simply curious. The dynamics are constantly changing, which adds to the interest and the challenge of my role. Maybe after a quick cup of tea they will come to the table – we all work around the same table together– with their ingredients. They put honey, yeast and water in their jug, and have flour, oil and salt in their bowl. Waiting for the yeast to activate provides one of the convenient moments of calm when people can begin to see who is around them. Then they add the yeast mixture to the flour, and after mixing in some more water, can start kneading their dough. The interesting thing at this stage is that while you concentrate and put effort into such an activity with your hands, you feel comfortable to talk to whoever is working next to you at the table, or opposite you. It takes the pressure off. Working with your hands is in itself therapeutic (and receiving the fruits of one’s labours also gives satisfaction at the end), but it also seems to take your mind off worries or nerves you might otherwise have, and so frees you to interact. If I were just thrown into a room with all these completely random people, who I would be unlikely to meet elsewhere, I myself would cower away in a corner. I suspect many people who are apparently more confident would stick to more superficial conversation. But in such an environment you don’t have to say anything, and that too is fine – if you don’t feel like talking, if you just want to concentrate on your dough alone, you do not feel like you are standing alone in the middle of a room full of people. At the same time you are not invisible: you are still there, and part of the group.
After kneading the dough for a while it is ready for the proving oven so that it can rise. This provides another break often necessary after the exertion, then it is back to kneading before the dough is moulded into the desired shape, is put in the proving oven for a second time, and then baked. I can feel a little tense when I have to keep track of what is where, and for how long, so our bread-makers have another break. Those who wish to can go to prayers, which I have led on a few occasions now, and can be quite touching at times, but it is entirely optional. After prayers we all have lunch together. Often a few extra people who turn up for the lunch rolls that have been made along with a bowl of home-made soup. By 2 o’clock everyone has collected their bread and left.

So at Somewhere Else I am part of a community, and a very enjoyable one. It is a Eucharistic Christian community in that we share the bread and worship together. While highly unusual, in many ways it is a far more authentic realisation of church than many “normal” churches. It is certainly far more welcoming, especially compared to other churches in Britain, which can quite often seem cold, and have little community to speak of in spite of the fact the model of early church was precisely a communal one. It is also very inclusive and non-judgemental.

It is, however, a transient community: everyone leaves at the end of the day; people are merely passing through. I will be gone in eight months time. At this level it is obviously a lot less demanding than being in a JVC community, but it wouldn’t work if we were always together – to some extent coerced – vulnerable people simply wouldn’t risk taking part. However, the transient nature is part of the purpose of Somewhere Else: people can spiritually re-charge there to the extent they need before moving on with their lives. We do not want to mould people to the bread-church model; rather, it is moulded by those who visit and does not make any claim to being the one true model of church.

So how can Somewhere Else help us to understand community? In its essence what goes on there is incredibly simple: it is about being together in a safe environment. Whether one chooses to talk to others or not, one is there, and is acknowledged. You help constitute the collective, but are not sub-ordinate to it – you genuinely own it. Somehow – I don’t think I could explain it, or it could be explained – in the middle of the madness of the bread-making, and calms during its pauses, you start to see people as they really are – as valuable, as loved by God, in spite of whatever “disabilities” they may have, or how different from you they are.

Of course, while I have heard other people talk of the energy they gain from our community, I come from a particular position of working there. But this can tell us more, I think. While I might be considered to have authority, and I have the knowledge which others do not – I do not feel myself to be above anyone there; I feel like a member of the community at the same level as everyone else. I probably gain as much from being there as a member of the community as anyone else does. This egalitarian nature of Somewhere Else is especially clear to me in comparison to my work with asylum seekers: while there I am far less important, and can feel like a small cog in the machine, I also feel that I am in some respect set apart from the clients. So my work in the bread-church is very much as servant ministry, and I think this is a sign of a true church.
And at the same time as having said it is so enjoyable, it is not something which comes without effort: it is a constant effort on everyone’s behalf. There are many conflicts and challenges to be surmounted. A safe environment must be maintained, and we need to stop people from over-stepping lines which they might not even have noticed. However, at the same time, even when this is done, the eventual outcome is not something one could predict would be achieved. Perhaps this can be taken as a sign that God is in our presence, leading us on our way.

While I hope I have given a good impression of Somewhere Else, I don’t think that I could ever do it justice, so I hope JVC volunteers can all have the opportunity to come to Liverpool and visit it at some stage, and see what an amazing community it is.

Alan Smith volunteered at Somewhere Else from September 2006 till July 2007 and went on to live in a L’arche community in Liverpool

A Reflection On Two Daily Works by SANDRA POVEDA & PAULINA RUBIO

Considering the meaning of life in community and of ‘simple lifestyle’ and what that means for us has not been an easy task. Because each person’s experience and each community involves different aspects that make them unique. Each one of us, with our different personalities, cultures, interests, feelings and ways of perceiving the world, enrich the experience of community and individual reflection whilst all trying to live a simple lifestyle. We have tried to overcome the difficult discussions in attempting to find an answer and in the end have found that we in community all have a common purpose – to foment by love and respect for one other – and we find it is one of the most important works in our daily life. We are going to say something about starting life in community, what values need to be shared by the people in it and about some of those values we share, including that of living ‘simply’.

Starting with Yourself
In order to have a good relationship with the other members of the community it is important that you are happy and at peace with yourself. This is because if you are not comfortable with yourself, you will not be able to give the best or even a little part of you. So begin by understanding how it is or what you need to feel these things. There may be a danger, you might think, of starting life in community concentrating too much on yourself when the focus should be on others, or that it may lead to becoming a selfish person. But give real importance to these things first and think how they will change and how you will cope with the changes and what you really need or can live without. A large aspect of a comfortable environment in your community is each member of the community having their own time and space. In this way we can feel free and not obliged to be ‘in’ the community every hour of every day and because of this, we value our time together.

Shared Values
The respect, responsibility, honesty, dignity, independence and effort of every member is basic to starting to have a good relationship with the community. Maybe your community can become a second family, but if it does not have one of these values shared between its individuals, it’s going to be tricky for the people to become close until a common value is found. We know that we live in a world of deep inequalities and social injustices, where poverty, social exclusion, war and environmental deterioration affect the lives of thousands of peoples. There are men and women of different nationalities, ages, races and religions who have been caught in economic marginalisation and who have suffered the costs of war and the subsequent economic alienation.

As young people we keep the hope of living in a more human and more fraternal world for all. We have hope of living in a more human and more fraternal world. We have hope that wars will no longer be made against the poor but against poverty and the conditions of life of those displaced refugees, poor and homeless who need decent homes. We have hope that people place more value on your ideas than your skin colour, your nationality, your religion or your social condition and affirm that humanity is a single family and that we inhabit a single country called earth and when humanity suffers we all suffer for each one of our siblings, parents, friends and relatives.

Motivations Toward Simplicity
Living a Simple Lifestyle was a voluntary choice, motivated by spiritual, ecological and health reasons. When we hear “Simple Lifestyle” we always think that it’s about our money or material things, but it is not always that. It also applies to the way of being of each one of us and, in other words, we are also talking about Humility. But… do we know what humility means? The meaning depends on each person, but for us it is very simple. It means rejecting as much as possible whatever creates division between you, me, us, and everyone. If we are people living by humility we will be more able to be a real family without caring about material things. Our experience as volunteers and living a simple lifestyle as one of the principal values of our community has enabled us to value more our lives in general, starting from small and simple things like the daily exercise simple living entails to being two important instruments for reflection, helping us to take conscience on as our lifestyle as it impacts on our social environment (and that includes all people in all places).

Because the value of human life and human dignity is paramount and equal, the hope and the love we have experienced in our communities aspires toward all in the world and it is all our responsibility to promote this.
Sandra and Paulina were JVC volunteers 2006-. Sandra worked with Refugees, Paulina in a school and with visitors to Manchester Prison

Spirituality and JVC – Communal Prayer by STEPHEN HOYLAND

One of the most difficult parts of the JVC year is communal prayer. There are many reasons for this. It might be that one person finds personal prayer difficult or never prays. Perhaps a common way cannot be found which suits all house members with their diverse religious cultures. There is often a reticence around the kind of sharing, which prayer together involves, so that it is easy to let it slip. The absence of communal prayer does not spoil the JVC ethos because the presence of God does not depend entirely upon explicit religious practice, yet if ways of praying together can be found, the community’s life is enhanced and everyone’s JVC experience enriched.

Prayer in common may respond to all of the challenges listed above. Often prayer with others is easier than prayer on one’s own. The community supports the individual. This is not unlike the experience of being unable to study except in a library when surrounded by other people engaged in the same project. The person finding prayer difficult might be pleasantly surprised by how much more it flows in company.

If a JVC member does not really see the point of prayer but is committed to community then so long as the models used are appropriate it can still work.

This brings me on to a discussion of models or ways or praying together which allow people of different traditions to find common ground in a way which is not irksome and awkward. Let’s invent a hypothetical household that might find it difficult to pray together: Martha is a traditional Spanish Catholic who has never heard of Anglicans let alone Evangelicals and is rather shy.
Lucy is an English Evangelical who just loves to share.
Hans is a lapsed Lutheran agnostic hippy with poor English.
Benedict is an English conservative Catholic who changed his name by deed pole after the last papal election and prays the Divine Office in Latin.

OK, the prospects for the kind of communal prayer that is going to last more than one sitting for this spiritually dysfunctional JVC family might be bleak. What are the prospects?

Each person could take their turn at leading a way of praying that suits them individually. This is likely to be embarrassing and unappealing. “Now then, Lucy”, says Benedict, “This is a rosary. . . ” Or imagine Lucy’s face as Hans reaches for the incense sticks and rolls up a ‘peace pipe’. Lucy takes her revenge with her prayer of exorcism as she sings in tongues, hands raised. Martha wonders how quickly she can get back to Spain.

My suggestion, or one possibility, would be different. Each person takes a turn to lead. Music is played, choosing something to which no one objects. You might have a bank of CDs, which everyone can live with. This helps towards stillness. There could follow a period of silence for personal reflection or prayer, but together, in the same space. Then a short reading: something from the leader’s religious tradition or a favorite poem perhaps, but accessible and inoffensive to everyone. Another period of silence in which to reflect or pray follows. Then the leader could formally end the time of prayer/reflection in a suitable way, perhaps by playing some more music for a few minutes and fading it out gently, after which the prayer is over, or with a prayer said by that leader, or the whole group if appropriate. The whole process could take between 30 minutes or an hour. The length should be agreed beforehand. There might be a little sharing on how that was for people. It is a very good way of further building up the community.

Of course, groups might want some prayer aloud, choose to sing, or to do things differently in all sorts of ways, if that suits them. It might be that a community decides to share each other’s traditions. This can be one of the growth points of the JVC year in that different approaches to prayer are shared within the community and each person learns again that God is bigger than one tradition and can come to us in more than one kind of way.

The strength of the model described above is that it could work with any community and perhaps even in extreme cases where there is little common ground yet there remains a desire to be a fully functioning Jesuit Volunteer Community.

Stephen Hoyland is currently on the team at Loyola Hall Spirituality Centre, a Jesuit retreat centre near Liverpool. He is interested in an approach to spirituality that is truly nourishing for individuals and communities and supports the commitment to social justice and simple living. This is one reason why he likes JVC. The other is the joy of contact with the volunteers who embody those core values, and also play football with him