ABOUT Life Giving Spring
Case Study
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.
See links in left sidebar.
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 proclaimed. 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.
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.
See Bibliography - TOPICS on Culture of various ancestries
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 for furthering cultural creativity of Ancient Faith toward Sacramental Living for transfiguration of modern life.
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).
NEXT - D. Stall
