Christian Unity by Ryan Thomas CSP;

Author:Ryan, Thomas CSP; [Ryan, CSP, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL025000
ISBN: 4716913
Publisher: Paulist Press
Published: 2015-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

L’Arche Federation

L’Arche was born in Trosly-Breuil, France, in 1964, when Jean Vanier and Fr. Thomas Philippe, both Roman Catholics, began living with a few people with mental disabilities. Its name, L’Arche (English: ark), refers to Noah’s ark, which provided security for the endangered. Within a short time, those belonging to other Christian traditions came and were welcomed as assistants. The people with disabilities were also welcomed regardless of religious affiliation.

In 1970, a L’Arche community called Daybreak was opened in Canada near Toronto by two Anglicans, Steve and Ann Newroth. Later that same year, in Bangalore, India, Gabrielle Einsle, a Roman Catholic, welcomed Hindus and Muslims to begin with her the first community in India. Today, there are 145 member communities of L’Arche across 40 countries on 5 continents—independent entities united by a common vision and a shared mission. In terms of religious belonging, some communities are more homogeneous than others, but there is no uniform religious affiliation. That surprises and disconcerts certain groups and institutions, and it complicates dialogue with particular churches.

Strictly speaking, L’Arche is not a movement but a federation. The Federation seeks to foster solidarity among communities, ensure unity in diversity, establish the conditions for membership, and create conditions for trust, service, dialogue, and mutual support. L’Arche USA and L’Arche Canada are part of this International Federation of L’Arche communities across the world.

At the heart of L’Arche communities are relationships between people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. The former are identified as “core members” and the latter as “assistants.” A respectful relationship between people who treat each other as an equal provides security and allows for growth, personal development, and freedom.

The spirituality of L’Arche is grounded in the belief that each person is unique and of sacred value, and that we experience God’s love through mutual friendships in which the gifts and weaknesses of each person are recognized and accepted. Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, through their own vulnerability, often have a special gift for touching hearts and revealing to us our own humanness. L’Arche seeks to live the Beatitudes—Jesus’ call in the Sermon on the Mount to be people of simplicity, gentleness, compassion, justice, and peace.35

Worship is an important moment in which the community members celebrate their unity; it nurtures their desire to live together. During the 1980s, I served as an ecumenical advisor to the L’Arche communities in North America as they struggled with questions like the following: How can we, as members of different churches, pray together in our daily life? How might our house chapels reflect the diversity of backgrounds from which our members come? Living together with members of diverse religious backgrounds opened their eyes as never before to the reality of our divided church.

The differing practices of the churches with reference to eucharistic hospitality has been a source of deep pain and suffering, both for the assistants and the core members, the latter having no possibility of understanding reasons of history and theology. It makes them yearn for the divisions among Christians to be healed.

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