A Radical
Call to Ecumenical Covenant Community
.
by
Laura McAllister
For
over 10 years now I have been actively
involved in Charis
Community in Belfast, Northern
Ireland, and in the Sword
of the Spirit, the wider network
of covenant communities worldwide. But
my journey of faith really began from
the beginning of my life, as I was
blessed to be raised in a loving and
committed Catholic family. We went to
Church together on Sunday, and we prayed
together each night.
Some key
decision-making points in my life
Throughout my life thus far, there have
been key points of decision-making where
I have had to make a choice for God over
something else. I'm very grateful for
these choices and for choosing to be
part of Sword of the Spirit.
When I was a young teenager I joined Youth
Initiatives (YI)
a Christian youth organisation in
Northern Ireland. YI is where my
personal relationship with God really
began to grow and flourish. Thanks to
the wonderful leaders in YI and the
support, encouragement, example, and
advice they gave me.
As my faith began to grow I was
desperate for more of God. God blessed
me in sending my way a woman named Ann
Schaefer/Beirlant. Ann had recently come
to Belfast to do a Gap year with Youth
initiatives. When she saw my eagerness
to develop my relationship with God and
grow in my faith she invited me to
Charis Community and to the University
Christian Outreach (UCO) in
Belfast. Even though I was only 16 at
the time, she made me a welcome and
frequent guest at the household of
single Christian women where she was
living that year. Thanks to her and to
the other women in that household, my
faith really came alive and I felt like
I really belonged.
The joy of
serving in Christian community
Another key part of my journey of faith
was the call I sensed to go and serve
the Lord in other places. I went to the
United States to join the Detroit
Summer Outreach and I also served
for a year in the Work
of Christ Community in Lansing,
Michigan and in its University
Christian Outreach at Michigan
State University. At the end of my year
of service in the US, I returned to
Belfast and resumed my involvement with
Charis.
As I think about each of these phases of
my spiritual journey, hundreds of people
come to mind, each of whom played a role
in shaping me and my faith to where it
is now and, influencing how it will
develop in the future That to me is the
joy of Christian community.
I can think of many reasons why I
have continued to be involve in
Community for so many years and why I
chose to make my covenant commitment to
Charis and to the wider network of
communities, called the Sword if the
Spirit - And not least, the blessing of
being able to find a place to stand
together with people who are constant in
faith, hope and love, having a vision to
be a bulwark and a place of refuge, and
a desire to make Jesus known in this
generation.
A prophetic expression of God's
love for his people
There is one thing, I believe, that
makes Charis, though a small community
within Sword of the Spirit, a
significant, unique and prophetic
expression of God's love for His people,
and that's our ecumenical call - a call
to live out Christian unity with
integrity. Members of Charis come from a
number of different churches and
traditions, including Anglicans,
Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, and
Free Church. This expression of
ecumenical life shared in community is
very important to me.
Living in community has been a rich
experience of joy and blessing for me.
It has been an opportunity for personal
growth, learning how to live a common
way of life with my fellow brothers and
sisters in Christ, and sharing a common
mission to be "Jesus with visible skin
on" in the world today. I know that this
isn't easy and I don't think most of the
brothers and sisters here think it is.
It's a challenge almost every day - to
walk faithfully with God. But I'm
pleased to be traveling this road with
all of my brothers and sisters in Charis
and I am grateful that the Lord has
invited us to this life together as a
people.
Stepping in to the Lord's grace and
blessing at this stage in my life has
meant making a very important decision
to be a fully committed member of
Charis. This commitment involves a
radical call to live as a disciple of
Christ in a community of fellow
disciples who want to follow the Lord
and to serve in a common mission
together. I know this is where the Lord
has called me to love, serve and live as
a member of Charis and the wider Sword
of the Spirit – to be part of, as our
vision states, “a community of disciples
on mission.”
I need ecumenism – I need a daily shared
life of faith with brothers and sisters
in Christ who come from many different
churches and Christian traditions. My
life is so much richer and stronger and
my faith is built up by the amazing gift
of shared life in ecumenical community.
I also need the charismatic gifts of the
Holy Spirit to inspire, guide, and
strengthen me to live each day as a
disciple of Christ in all that I do.
It's clear to me that I need to be fully
committed to God - to be in a personal
covenant relationship first and foremost
with God. And it is also clear that God
wants me to be a covenanted member of
this community - a group of imperfect
Christians like myself who want to
dedicate their lives together to the
Lord and to his work. I need this kind
of mutual encouragement and personal
support to live my life wholeheartedly
for God - now and for the rest of my
life.
I am
very grateful - to the Lord and to my
brothers and sisters in Charis - for the
opportunity to live out this call of
radical discipleship in an ecumenical,
charismatic, trans-generational covenant
community.
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