I will never forget January, 1975. I was in Melbourne as the representative of a youth prayer group to attend a national conference on charismatic renewal. It was a time when the charismatic renewal was riding on the crest of a wave. Thousands of people had gathered from across the country as well as overseas to hear a line up of exciting speakers. They represented many denominations and the gatherings were marked by an incredible sense of joy and freedom. It was during this conference that Fr Vince Hobbs, Brian Smith and John Carroll, three leaders from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Brisbane, began to meet and share a vision of developing covenant community (1). They also took the opportunity to speak with Ralph Martin, one of the conference speakers who was also leader of a charismatic, covenant community in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
I can still remember Brian Smith coming up to me at the conference saying, "I really believe now is the time to build community." The idea of charismatic communities was not new. We had been in contact with them from as early as 1972 when Brian Smith first went to the United States. The hesitation about moving towards community was always a question of timing and maturity. Until now, no one was ready to step out and make that first move. That was about to change.
On their return to Brisbane, Brian Smith and John Carroll along with their wives (Lorraine and Penny) and families began to meet with two other couples and a single woman, (Al and Elsa Fletcher, Syd and Marian Johnson and Marj Clappison) to pursue this sense of call. In February of 1975, the group washed each others feet as a sign of their commitment and as an expression of their service to one another, not just in spiritual matters but in the whole of their life circumstances. A new foundation was being laid which others would soon be invited to join. As these couples shared their vision with the people of the prayer group at Bardon (2), there were a variety of responses. Some were excited at the new initiative because they had been looking for an opportunity to be more committed and also for a way of including their children in this charismatic experience. Others were cautious and questioned this new experience.
After some weeks, the community had its first intake. Thirteen families expressed a desire to be part of this new move of the Spirit. In the first year, the community grew to nearly 200 members. I had observed the community from the beginning, preferring to remain part of the youth prayer group that had also begun to develop a strong sense of community. In some ways, I would have to admit to a certain suspicion about how this Brisbane Covenant Community (3) was going to develop. Would it begin well and simply become another prayer meeting or would it actually begin to achieve the goal of building a Christian way of life? By the end of the first year, it was obvious that the community was not only talking about a way of life, it was actually living it.
Early in 1976, our youth group of around 30 young people decided that our call was a call to community and it was better to join with the Brisbane Covenant Community than attempt to go in our own direction. After a few months formation, the group made covenant (4), committing ourselves to follow the Lord in the context of this people called the Brisbane Covenant Community.
A Time to Build Up
The first years of the community were like the beginning of a great adventure. It was the time of laying the foundation stones. There was a consciousness that this Christian community lifestyle was important both for the church and for the world. Cardinal Suenens had already begun to articulate the need for the Church "to offer pilot projects as a prefiguration of the kind of human community for which the world is searching so painfully", (5) if it was to fulfill its mission. Communities which demonstrated the Christian way of life were an integral part of the Church's mission to the world. He went on to say, "From a human point of view, it might seem paradoxical to make the future of the Church dependent upon small Christian communities which, no matter how fervent are but a drop in the ocean … But if we consider the spiritual energy released by every group which allows Christ to fill it with the life of his Holy Spirit, then the perspective changes, for we are putting ourselves in the strength and power of God." (6)
In 1986, a study conducted by Fusion, a Christian organization committed to evangelization in the Australian context, spoke of Australians as "people who think in terms of the concrete rather than the abstract, and very often thought forms that are used to express the Christian message are alien to them … What an Australian needs is a model. Once it's seen in action they are quite capable of recognizing its meaning." (7) This challenge to be a Christian community for the Church and for the world was somehow at the heart of our mission.
One of the other hopes which was born out of this community life was a longing for reconciliation between Christians. While the founding members were predominantly Catholic, there were also two Anglicans among them. This experience of sharing life together, coupled with the general enthusiasm of the 70's with regard to ecumenism caused the community to hope that through the charismatic experience and a committed way of life it might find a way through the problems and divisions of a separated Christianity.
In late 1976, the name of the community was changed to the Emmanuel Covenant community and with the change of name was a growing confidence that God really was with us and leading us in building this way of life. From the point of view of structure, the Community lifestyle encompassed four main expressions (8):
- The General Community Gathering which is a meeting of the whole community to worship, to receive teaching and to maintain a common vision and fellowship;
- Small Group Meetings are opportunities to share the Christian journey and receive encouragement and support;
- Formation teaching courses are conducted to provide teaching on the spiritual life, everyday living as well as giving a clear orientation on the life of the community, and
- Social Life in the community plays an important role in developing a genuine and balanced Christian lifestyle.
While these basic structures were important, the community had to offer more if it was to be a model to the church and to the world. One of the most important developments in this area was the formation of clusters. In 1978, members of the community began to move geographically closer together so that the community dimension would take more concrete expression. Community had to be demonstrated in practice not just in theory. As families and single people moved closer together, more and more opportunities presented themselves (e.g. traveling to work together, sharing mowers, supporting people when they were sick, providing practical care for widows etc.) for the building of authentic Christian community. Localised community expressions also enabled Emmanuel to be more effective in its local outreach and to contribute something to the wider community. Taking initiative at the local level to hold football games, Australia day celebrations, picnics in the park and Christmas carols were but a few ways that we endeavoured to share our lifestyle and contribute to our local community. These were bridges of friendship which were built in local neighbourhoods to let others know we were ordinary human beings and not aliens from another planet ready to capture them in our space ship and take them with us. Time and good will helped to break down some of the initial fears that were encountered when developing clusters.
A Time to Reach Out
While the initial concentration of energy in Emmanuel was in trying to become that which we claimed to be - a Christian community - we didn't cease to outreach to others in local parishes, at national conferences and in assisting other groups both in Australia and New Zealand in their desire to develop community. 1980 was to be a significant year for me within the community. While on outreach to Townsville, I received a call from Brian Smith inviting me to be an elder in the community. Apart from being a little shocked, I experienced an incredible awareness of the responsibility in leading and caring for this people that God had called into being. The prophet, Jeremiah came to mind and his exclamation to the Lord when he protested that he was too young, "Say not, 'I am too young.' To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak." (9) I was 25 years old at the time, married for three years with one small daughter. In the days ahead that scripture gave me a lot of strength.
In November of 1980, the Emmanuel Community was to initiate its most ambitious missionary outreach. In a response to requests for assistance, three teams of five people were to travel to six South East Asian countries to conduct leadership and training programmes for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Ray Stewart (a full time elder of Emmanuel) would lead a team to Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as parts of the Philippines, John Carroll (a senior elder of Emmanuel) would lead a team to the Philippines and to West Malaysia as well as Singapore. I was to lead the team which would travel to West Malaysia and Indonesia. For each one of us who participated on those outreaches, our lives would never be the same. Asia and her people had taken deep root in our hearts and in the coming years God would give some of us many opportunities to return, to live amongst the people and assist them in the development of their own covenant communities. Today, there are at least eight covenant communities in Malaysia with new groups forming year after year.
Our outreach to Asia was not just a matter of going to Asia and giving out. We received more then we could ever hope or imagine. This was true for Emmanuel as a whole when Malaysian brothers and sisters would visit us. In sharing life together, we were changed by their humility, love and commitment to Christ. Through our contact with them, we became aware of our own poverty.
This experience of our own poverty was to be relived over and over again as future teams would go to Papua New Guinea and Fiji sharing life with the people and growing in love and understanding of their culture and way of life. For Emmanuel, the key to outreach is living the life. The people who participated in these outreaches were not experts but ordinary people who gave up their own holidays and paid their own way. What they had to share was not so much what they had read in books but what they had experienced in trying to live the Christian life, day by day in the context of a community. These were things that people could relate to, whether they lived in the highlands of Papua New Guinea or in the coastal villages of Fiji. It was through outreaches like these that the community grew to realize the importance of being faithful to the challenge of living the Christian life day by day.
A Time to Die
The first ten years of the community were a little bit like the public ministry of Jesus. Although there were many challenges during those years, Emmanuel was still pretty much like the apostles who walked with Jesus and never ceased to be amazed at what he could do. Just as the apostles were called to a baptism of suffering, so too would this community that bore the name Emmanuel. When we took the name Emmanuel, we knew that the Holy Spirit would work not just in our lives as individuals but in our lives as a community to conform us to the image of Jesus, but I don't think we really anticipated what we were about to experience.
Our baptism into Christ encompasses his life, death and resurrection. All of these elements are important. What is it like for a community to be baptized into the death of Christ? For Emmanuel, there was no single event but rather a series of them which brought about a real sense of dying in the community. At a very human level, people were tired of living such a committed life year after year. It was demanding and the cost was high. People struggled with their commitment, and asked the question - "is it worth it?" At around the same time ecumenical tensions arose as well. We found ourselves struggling with the same ecclesiological problems that the wider Church was experiencing. Despite our early hopes and many years of hard work, we had to admit our own limitations and faced the fact that it was not possible to build the ecumenical community we had once dreamed about. Added to this was the breakdown of international relationships amongst covenant communities resulting in divisiveness and resentments. Just as the healthy body of a young Jewish man was whipped and tortured then thrust upon a tree for crucifixion, so too did it seem that this once young and healthy community was slowly being tortured and killed not by external forces but through its own sin and human limitation.
I can remember praying often the prayer of the Psalmist, "From the depths of my despair I call to you, Lord. Hear my cry, O Lord; listen to my call for help! If you kept a record of our sins, who could escape being condemned? But you forgive us, so that we should stand in awe of you." (10) In all of this, it seemed to me that God was calling us to trust in him for if he called the community into being, he was also the one who would sustain it.
Perhaps the greatest test of trust was to come on February 1st, 1988. We had just celebrated Eucharist at our community office when we received word that there was an urgent phone call for Brian Smith. As he emerged from his office, no one could have anticipated his words- "My daughter Teresa has passed away." The next twenty four hours would reveal the truth of Teresa's brutal rape and murder. The question on everyone's lips was how could God allow this to happen. Like many other people in the community, I had known Teresa since she was a little girl. She was a real character full of fun, life and faith. That evening, as Brian and Lorraine Smith were interviewed on national television, they spoke of their forgiveness for Teresa's murderer. As the community Emmanuel attempted to comfort Brian and Lorraine, so too did they comfort the community by continuing to speak of forgiveness and the need to surrender to God's will. While Teresa's life had a wonderful impact on the lives of many, I would dare to say that her death had a greater impact. There is no doubt that she was a servant of God both in her life and in her death. As we trusted in God to raise Teresa, his servant, from death into fullness of life with Him, it somehow gave us all a little more courage to believe that God would raise Emmanuel from its despair and bring it to new life. Karl Rahner, a famous Catholic theologian, argues that it is in the non-experience of God, and the loneliness of the Cross that the path is paved for man to move forward with God and gives him the grace of faith. "Have we ever tried to love God when we seemed to be calling out into emptiness and our cry seemed to fall on deaf ears, when it looked as if we were taking a terrifying jump into a bottomless abyss, when everything seemed to become incomprehensible and apparently senseless?" (11) This was the experience of Jesus while He hung upon the cross. This is also the privilege He gives to those who follow Him. Brian and Lorraine Smith, through their response to God, gave the community the confidence that if they could surrender to God in their tragic circumstances then surely Emmanuel could do the same in the trials that it was experiencing.
A Time to Be Raised Up
The resurrection for which we hoped was not immediate but it did happen. Purely through the action of the Holy Spirit, members of the community were renewed in their commitment. This was especially evident amongst the young people in the community. While the community is now clearly Catholic and not ecumenical in its identity, the heart to work towards Christian unity still remains an important charism. One of the fruit that has come out of the difficulties between communities experienced at the international level has been the development of the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships. At a time when a number of communities from around the world were seeking a stronger relationship with the Holy Father, it just so happened that the Council for the Laity had recognised the potential of the covenant communities and were also seeking ways of building strong relations with Catholic covenant communities or with ecumenical communities who had a recognised body of Catholics within them. After a lengthy dialogue, the Catholic Fraternity was inaugurated in Rome in November, 1990 with Brian Smith as the President. While fewer than 40 delegates from 13 communities gathered for the inaugural meeting, we experienced a conviction that God intended great things from this small beginning. This has now grown to more than 43 Communities representing tens of thousands of men, women, and children who in turn have outreaches affecting the lives of millions. The Emmanuel Community in Brisbane was not only a founding member of the Fraternity but did much of the preliminary work which culminated in a formal recognition by Pope John Paul II. This was the first time a canonical approval had been given by the Vatican to any charismatic group.
A Continuing Pattern
Since the approval of the Catholic Fraternity, Emmanuel has spent the last 12 years living the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. We have come to embrace these dimensions of our life in a new way and understand them as the necessary pattern not only for communities but for every Christian. As we move into this new millennium, we are very conscious that this time of renewal for the whole Church must include a renewal for ourselves as a Community. Sometimes renewal groups can forget that they themselves must continue to remain open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Emmanuel is no different. We believe that the Holy Spirit renews us in both small and sometimes large ways. We believe that the Holy Spirit has been at work in us helping us to respond better to a world that looks very different to the 1970's when the community was first founded. To that end, we have seen significant changes to leadership structures and to our pattern of life. However, at the core of our call as a community what must remain constant for us is an ongoing call into a deeper conversion to Christ and an openness to the Holy Spirit who will equip us to share the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ with the whole world.
Conclusion
As I look back over my 26 years of involvement in the Emmanuel Covenant Community, some things are very clear to me. The contribution of covenant communities to the life of the Church and the world must come out of brokenness and humility rather than pride or arrogance. The path to humility is the way of the cross and whether we like it or not, Jesus calls us to embrace it, "Whoever does not take up his cross and follow in My steps is not fit to be my disciple." (12) We are not people who have it all together but people who are on a journey, people who experience the same trials and temptations as anyone else. Unlike our early years, when we thought we were going to save the whole world, we have come to find that our only boast is the cross of Christ. For the cross is our redemption and as we surrender to the cross, so too do we dare to hope in the resurrection.
NOTES
(1) A covenant community is a group of Christians who have been led by the Lord to express their love and commitment to him and to one another as part of a divine call or vocation. They do this through a public life-long commitment called a covenant. (Statement of Community Order Document, Section B.1.)
(2) The Bardon Prayer Group was the principal meeting place of Catholics involved in Charismatic Renewal. In 1975 there was a regular attendance of between 400-600 people.
(3) The Brisbane Covenant Community was the original name given to the Emmanuel Covenant community.
(4) See note (1)
(5) Cardinal Suenens, A New Pentecost, The Seabury Press, New York, 1974. (pp 151-152)
(6) ibid, p153
(7) Understanding and Reaching Australians. A Position Paper, 3. 1986 as quoted in Who Goes Where? Who Doesn't Care, Peter Kaldor, Lancer Books, 1987. (p43)
(8) Emmanuel Statement of Community Order Documents, Section B.5. p2
(9) Jeremiah 1:7
(10) Psalm 130: 1-4
(11) Karl Rahner, Ergahrung der Gnade (1954), In the Midst of the World, P.J. Cordes, Ignatius Press, Sanfrancisco. 1988 (p125)
(12) Matthew 10:38