ABOUT Life Giving Spring
Case Study
Behold, I make all things new. - Revelation 21:5
The case study presented here for establishment of Ancient Faith intentional community is based on an actual place in the southeast Central Texas countryside. The study is presented in hopes of attracting other like minds and kindred spirits for transfiguration of modern living through participation in . . .
Sacramental Living Rooted In Ancient Faith.
Ancestry is imperative for evangelization of Ancient Faith, because until identity is formed in divine image and likeness, ethnicity is the ‘default’ human identity (unless otherwise perverted by way of ‘passions’ to addictive identification with food, drugs, ‘sex’, fame, fortune, fashion, career, social status, etc.). Personal ancestry is the connection to Christian ‘family’ (saints), which can be found in some way for every ethnic group, so that those with western European, Asian, African, and Latin American ancestry need not ‘convert’ to a foreign (Greek, Arabic, or Slavic) culture in order to embrace Ancient Faith. The plurality of all the ancestral Christian ‘cultures’ then becomes the basis for American Orthodox Christian culture.
Alaskan Orthodox Christianity and Celtic Orthodox Christianity are models for restoration of Christianity in the lower 48 states, for establishment of genuine American Orthodoxy in North America that is unity in diversity of all ancestral cultures, true ‘multiculturalism’. Both forms of Orthodox Christianity embody ‘Cosmic’ Chrisitianity, the interconnectivity of God, humanity and All Creation. In addition, Celtic spirituality offers American Orthodoxy its distinctive western European cultural flavor, since America is after all, culturally ‘British’, English is the language of America, and England and Ireland were part of the pre-Schism Orthodox Church of Rome. Celtic spiritual connection to ancient Christian desert fathers is evident in the Celtic knot (as seen in the dogwood flower logo for Life Giving Spring), which is influenced by the knot-work styles from Middle Eastern Syrian and Coptic manuscripts. By basing American connection to Orthodoxy on Celtic spirituality which is Orthodox in its theology (unlike Frankish 'Roman' Anselmian-Augustinianism), Christianity in America can be reclaimed, transfigured from its ‘Roman’, Anglican and Calvinist Puritan distortions.
Culturally, it should be remembered that western Europeans are ‘Germanic’ one and all, to one degree or another, so it is important to address the western European distortion of Christianity with St. Boniface, patron saint of Germany and Holland, especially seeing how the largest ancestral group in America is 'German'. The Germanic ‘tribes’ were historical ‘neighbors’ of the Celts, eventually occupying most of the lands in which the Celts once resided. These same tribes, most of whom were Arian at best, ended up overthrowing Rome, misunderstanding Ancient Faith, and distorting western European Christianity into Anselmian-Augustinianism. Ostragoths and Visigoths invaded all of western Europe, including Spain, Italy and France. From Angles and Saxons in the ‘British’ Isles to Franks in France, Lombards in Italy, and Aleman in ‘Germany’, Germanic DNA is mixed with that of Greeks, Celts and other indigineous peoples who comprised western European Roman citizenry prior to the barbarian invasion and overthrow.
Such genetic mixing is common to conquering overlords, as can be seen in Aztec, Mayan, Incan and Spaniard mixing in Mexico and Latin America. In western Europe, the genetic mixing is evident in blonde hair, blue eyed Spaniards (which was transferred also to Latin Americans), and even the ‘Germans’ of traditionallly Germanic countries, such as Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, no longer fit the description of Roman historian Tacitus indicating Germanic barbarians as all posessing blue eyes, red hair, and huge frames. In other words, there are no more of these ‘barbarians’ to blame, ostracize, or retaliate against for what is simply a historical occurence.
In southeast Central Texas, the existing culture is predominantly of German and Czech ancestry mixed with Anglo-American, with an African-American minority, and an increasing Latin-American minority. Those of German heritage are probably unaware of its deeper root in the Ancient Faith of St. Boniface as opposed to Luther, other Protestant reformers, or modern Popes of Rome. While there are at least three Roman Catholic parishes in the area dedicated to Ss. Cyril & Methodius, those of Czech heritage are probably unaware of the significance of these Saints to Ancient Faith. African Americans may not be aware of the historic presence of Ancient Faith in Africa, or the fact that such faith is not “white man's religion” as Malcolm X claimed. Likewise, Latin-Americans may not be familiar with pre-Schism Saints of Spain, or know that the plundering of indigeous cultures in the name of Christ (as they were by Catholic Spain, and as evident in the martyrdom of St. Peter the Aleut) does not constitute Ancient Faith. And Asian-Americans may be surprised to find that Ancient Faith arrived in China as long ago as 1685.
For social outreach, festivals of intentional community could be held featuring something prominent for which each of these cultural ancestries is known, in conjuntion with a patron saint of Ancient Faith. For instance, a winter German Weinachten (Christmas) celebration could be dedicated to St. Boniface. In this manner, festivals could be held as outreach throughout the year featuring an array of ethnic cultural heritage, including African, Anglo/English, Asian, German, Greek, Jewish, Arabic, Mexican/Latin-American, Native/Indigenous, and Czech/Slavic.
Initial social outreach featuring German heritage could be wise considering this includes nearly 20% of Americans as visually reported in American Ancestry [See Stahlfamilie Festlichkeit for example], and equally Latin-American heritage, as it currently seems to be the fastest growing ethnicity and possibly destined to be the majority for America’s future.
If interested in Ancient Faith intentional community, you’re invited to Contact - D. Stall, Life Giving Spring, and contribute to the Forum virtual community for furthering cultural creativity of Ancient Faith toward sacramental living for transfiguration of modern life.
More Info about the Case Study
Simple Gospel Life
More on community and culture:
Bibliography - Coming Soon! TOPICS | Culture ... of various ancestries
Culture
Militarism
Why agrarian? intentional community?
The Dialectic of Russian History
Dr. Matthew Johnson
What, then, is the new synthesis?...It can only be the reintroduction of some of the key ideas of Old Russia. ...Parishes and monasteries should be kept as small as possible (though multiplied in number), so as to preserve the atmosphere of the family, headed by the priest, the “patriarch of the family” offering up the sacrifice as a unit, rather than as an institution. The extended family should be promoted as a restoration of the old patriarchal understanding of both church life and the economy. Not as a relation of institutional power, but of familial and ritual authority. Such [decentralized] institutions should run their own lives, educational institutions, parishes and sketes, rendering the state irrelevant except for national defense.
Why? Theotokos - Life Giving Spring?
Icons of the Theotokos
Dr. Vivian Olender
Mary is the typos (type) of the Church, the expression of the fulfillment of the church’s mission. She is the example of the new people of God in whom and among whom God dwells:
2 Cor. 6:16, “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God.” Christians are temples of the living God. I Cor. 3:16. The Epistles of St. Paul emphasize the indwelling Christ. He uses the expression “in Christ” in his letters one hundred and sixty-four times! Galatians 4:19: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.”
The Treasure of the...Church
[T]he Church is the guardian of a treasury of great price. The treasure consists of the saving words and actions of Christ, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, and of the life and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as manifested in the lives of the Saints, and in their writings. ...Anybody who has touched this treasure, who has drunk from its springs of living water, can only thirst for more. I have known people who...were very zealous and well established in their denominations. So magnificent is this great treasure of the Church, that upon finding it, upon reading the lives of the Saints and the writings of the Fathers, upon participating in the divine services, these people did everything they could (this sometimes included angering one’s friends and family, quitting well-paid jobs in the ministry, and most often changing one’s life) to be able to drink further from its living waters. Seeing these people, one cannot but be reminded of the parable of the man who sold everything he had in order to buy the field under which a treasure was buried (Matthew 13:44).
The Restoration of the Orthodox Way of Life
When Archbishop Andrew [founder of New-Diveyevo Convent in Spring Valley, New York] tells of his lifelong—and successful—search to find and even create the lost “quietness” of his Orthodox childhood, he expresses the desire of everyone who has drunk deeply of Holy Orthodoxy to find the place, create the conditions, and acquire the state of soul wherein to live the full and authentic Orthodox life, one in mind and soul with other similar strugglers. Even if this ideal is seldom attained in practice, it still remains the Orthodox ideal.
Dubina TX
“Oak Grove” (in English), the first Czech-Moravian settlement in Texas, listed on the National Register and the location of the “Russian House”, a one of a kind creation in TX and possibly the nation by Ukrainian immigrant Simon Pytlovany that combines the old and new
Painted Churches of TX
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and visited by ethnicities and nationalities from all over the Earth
An objective of Life Giving Spring is to build the first Byzantine “painted” church in this southeast Central Texas region
On Earth As It Is In Heaven
Form And Meaning In Orthodox Architecture
Transfiguring Matter
The Icon as Paradigm of Christian Ecology
Principles of Orthodox Church Architecture
Sacred Icons
Who Do You Think You Are?
Originating in the UK, and now being broadcast in the USA, this tv program testifies to ancestry as the ‘default’ human identity in the absence of identification in Divine Image and Likeness, unless through inflammation of passions, perverted into identification with fame, fortune, fashion, profession, and the like.
A Celtic model of ministry: the reawakening of community spirituality
Chapter Three: Celtic Spirituality and Community
(beginning at p 44 -)
Celtic Christianity received much of its Christian theology from the Desert Fathers and Mothers. The spirituality of the desert of St. Anthony of Egypt traveled from Egypt with John Casssian (d. 435 c.e) and was taken by St. Martin of Tours when he established his community in Gaul in the fourth century c.e. The ascetical, penitential practices of the desert appealed to Celtic Christians. Their spirit of contemplation, solitude, and spiritual journeys were similar. They both lived outside of the cities and urban Greco-Roman influence. They shared the same type of mystical wisdom. Desert spirituality was also monastic and Celtic spirituality was monastic too. It was centered in monastic community.
People in early Celtic times lived in an extended family or clan called the tuath. At the head of each tuath was a king or ri whose stature came from the fine, the larger extended family or tribe. Ranked below the ri were the noble kinspeople, the learned class, the lawmakers, the bards who guarded the traditions, stories, or genealogies of the tribe, and the druids, the priests of the pagan Celts. Finally, the family contained warriors, laborers, tradesmen, and slaves. A high king or ruir, great king, ruled over all the extended families. Each family unit lived in a circular hill fort, surrounded by a circle of banks and ditches, an a wall called a dun or rath, a hill fort.
Monasticism formed the core of the Irish church when Christianity came to Ireland and to other areas of Britain. It centered around the family. When you became a Christian you became part of a monastic family, monastic in name only, because you were set apart from greater society. You were part of the family of the founding saint and often the monastic community was built on tribal land. These communities were surrounded by symbolic circular walls and ditched like the raths or duns. But this circle was different. It was a spiritual community, part of the interconnected relationship of all things in Christ. This Christian community was sacred ground. It carried with it all the circular elements of Celtic spirituality but most importantly the early Celtic Christian communities were thin spots, in the circle the sacred world and the material world were one. The kingdom of God, or the fulfillment of God, was present in community; in fact God was present in their midst.
It is this theology of the presence of God in the world and interconnectedness of all things that we need in our time. We especially need to know that our activities make a difference in bringing about what God wants in the world. The idea of the community as dwelling place of God is the model we need to bring to our congregations today. We need to celebrate congregations' communities where God is truly present. Our churches are 'thin spots' where people acutely feel and see the presence of God. Celtic Christian communities are a model for us to follow in ministry as we respond to our individualistic culture....
The vision Christians have of a world where everything is as God intends for it to be is often called the kingdom of God, a world where God reigns. In this kingdom every person is included. This was the case in Celtic Christian communities. Some monks lived with their families in the enclosure. other people live in the enclosure or just outside of it and did chores or were skilled workers for the community. Some communities had both men and women in monastic orders. The abbot could be either a man or a woman. St. Bridget and St. Hilda of Whitby are notable examples. Inside the walls the people joined together in their words as “familia”.
Because the presence of God is here on earth and especially represented by the community in the sacred enclosure, the people living there [weren’t isolated but] had constant business with the world outside the walls. The circular walls were most often only symbolic; they were not designed like later monastic communities to keep the world outside. There was often a creative tension between the “desire for seclusion and the wish to be accessible and open to society at large.” ...
When a person became a committed member of a Christian community they left their genealogical clan for a Christian one: they left the family circular dun or hill fort for the sacred circular enclosure. In some cases the ring fort and the sacred enclosure coexisted on the same site.
It seems that everyone in the area of the sacred enclosure was connected with the monastic community....
Celtic monastic communities were more like modern day congregations than the monasteries that became dominate in Europe during the Middle Ages. ...
Both sexes were considered “monks” even though they may have lived a normal family life.
Most important Celtic monastic communities were places of vision where a different world, the world intended by God, could be lived out.... All people were asked to be part of the monastic community. They were attempts at living in true community with God present in their midst.
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