Seven Sacred Spaces : 7 : Scriptorium

The scriptorium is the place where learning is passed on.  Traditionally, within a monastery, this is a library collection, with desks for study (and at one time, for copying manuscripts).  But in fact the principle applies to a wider sense of passing on knowledge and skills, within and for the wider community.  It may be possible to establish links with local schools: senior citizens going into classes or assemblies to share stories of how the community was when they were young, and has changed since; or to hear children read; or setting up a homework club; or coaching a sporting activity.  It may be more appropriate to offer some form of adult education, passing-on skills in computing, or cookery, or gardening, or parenting.  Or to take a role in informing the wider community about justice issues, such as human trafficking.  The scriptorium is a ‘space’ or activity belonging to the missional community as a whole, not the pet project of an individual.  Given other demands on people’s lives – and of course the need to keep the different sacred spaces in balance – a ‘scriptorium’ should be chosen which is not overly ambitious, not unsustainable (and here I would include the observation that there should be one scriptorium, not several).  But to lack any scriptorium is to be both inward-looking and short-sighted.

What experiences do you have of the scriptorium within missional community?

Introduction : Cell : Chapel : Chapter : Cloister : Garden : Refectory : Scriptorium

Seven Sacred Spaces : 6 : Refectory

Eating together plays an important role both in nurturing existing relationships and in welcoming the guest.  A missional community that does not live on the same site, but lives within a local geographic area, will need to establish a pattern that works for them: perhaps once a week, perhaps more.  Within the monastery, some meals were conversational, while others were eaten in silence, listening to one member of the community taking their turn to read aloud from the Bible.  This, too, may be worth exploring, as a way of engaging with Scripture together.  There is also something valuable about taking turns to cook for others, and about cooking together, that don’t quite translate into a bring-and-share meal.

What experiences do you have of the refectory within missional community?

Introduction : Cell : Chapel : Chapter : Cloister : Garden : Refectory : Scriptorium

Seven Sacred Spaces : 5 : Garden

Increasingly, this may be an actual garden, or allotment, worked together by the community to produce food for the table, and possibly the basis of a micro-business such as bee hives.  Alternatively, it may be some other form of micro-business (I recently heard of a missional community which has set up a cloth diaper collection/washing/delivery service), or regular act of practical service within the wider community (which will vary, depending on the needs of the wider community).

What experiences do you have of the garden within missional community?

Introduction : Cell : Chapel : Chapter : Cloister : Garden : Refectory : Scriptorium

Seven Sacred Spaces : 4 : Cloister

Cloisters are connecting-spaces.  Pavements (sidewalks) are obvious connecting-spaces, as are front lawns along a residential street.  Often, they are places of chance and passing encounters, though over time we might learn patterns of use whereby we might reasonably expect to meet the same person regularly – especially if you walk a dog.  They are places of creative opportunity, not only to touch the lives of others but also to allow others to touch our lives.  They are places where we are, at times, tempted to change course in order to avoid someone coming towards us.  They are places that are undervalued, but essential to the health of a neighbourhood (consider the negative cycle of pavements covered in litter and dog dirt, attracting more of the same, as a community does not value its connecting-spaces; and the positive impact of neighbours taking pride in and ownership of these spaces).  They may be passed-through alone or in contemplative, intentional (i.e. we are heading somewhere together) company.  They include cyber cloisters, such as the status-update feed page on Facebook, which connects the profile pages of friends.  Cloister activities may include picking litter/cleaning (or creating?) graffiti, carol singing at Christmas, cross walks/stations of the cross in Holy Week.

What experiences do you have of the cloister within missional community?

Introduction : Cell : Chapel : Chapter : Cloister : Garden : Refectory : Scriptorium

Seven Sacred Spaces : 3 : Chapter

Chapter is where decisions are made.  Chapter is a space where everyone can contribute their view, but it is the responsibility of the abbot (outside a monastery, the leader or vision-bearer) to determine a course of action.  Moreover, the abbot acts not on their own authority, but under the Rule of the particular Order the community belongs to.  Therefore the role of the abbot within the chapter is to ensure that decisions are taken that reflect the Rule.  For communities outside a monastery, these principles might translate as having a clearly-defined set of values and a particular vision, the leader of the missional community being responsible for ensuring that all decisions made reflect the values of the community and are consistent with its vision, rather than a distraction or diversion.

What experiences do you have of the chapter within missional community?

Introduction : Cell : Chapel : Chapter : Cloister : Garden : Refectory : Scriptorium

Seven Sacred Spaces : 2 : Chapel

A dispersed community, its members working in different contexts, will not be able to gather physically to pray at set times during the day.  However, it might be possible to set aside certain points through the week (for example, half-an-hour one morning and half-an-hour one evening).  Some missional communities set alarms on their phones as prompts to pray ‘together’ in time (e.g. at noon) if not space; perhaps with an agreed theme for different days or hours through the day.

What experiences do you have of the chapel within missional community?

Introduction : Cell : Chapel : Chapter : Cloister : Garden : Refectory : Scriptorium

Seven Sacred Spaces : 1 : Cell

The cell is the only space that is solitary, and silent, free from distraction.  I know extraverts who believe that solitude and silence is cruel and unnatural; but I believe it has a necessary place within a bigger picture – which includes places that introverts will find hard to inhabit.  Within a monastery, the cell is usually the simply-furnished bedroom.  For those who do not live in a monastery, the bedroom might not be a distraction-free place (for example, it has become normal to have a television in the bedroom); and for those who are not single, it is not a place of solitude, but shared.  Creativity is required to define a cell: perhaps a garden shed to retreat to, or a comfortable armchair in a secluded corner.  Key to the cell is taking enough time to enter into silence: clearly this is hard to do within busy lives with multiple demands on our time; it requires both the discipline to protect this space, and the grace to establish a sustainable pattern rather than take on an unsustainable demand.

What experiences do you have of the cell within missional community?

Introduction : Cell : Chapel : Chapter : Cloister : Garden : Refectory : Scriptorium

Seven Sacred Spaces : Introduction

George Lings, of The Sheffield Centre, has written on the various sacred spaces of (Christian) monastic community.  Although these are expressed in different ways across various monastic traditions, Lings identifies seven recurring spaces:

the Cell, where we meet God on our own, and must also come face-to-face with ourselves;

the Chapel, where we gather for corporate worship;

the Chapter, where we discuss issues facing the community, and make decisions;

the Cloister, where we meet others – both those we like and those we dislike – in passing encounters;

the Garden, where we engage in productive work, complementing liturgical worship and study;

the Refectory, where we eat together;

and the Scriptorium, where we pass knowledge on, from one to another.

Lings suggests that most churches are overly-focused on the chapel experience, and to greater or lesser extent neglect the other spaces which monastic communities have discovered it to be essential to balance if Christian community is to be healthy.

It is interesting to apply Lings’ seven sacred spaces to missional communities, not least because the development of such communities in Sheffield was recognised by the Church of England to be ‘New Monastic’ in character, leading to the invitation to establish a formally recognised Order – The Order of Mission – which was inaugurated in 2003.

[To Lings’ list, we might want to add the infirmary, where the sick were cared for, and the almonry, from where aid was distributed to the poor.  While these are not commonly recurring spaces for contemporary monastic communities, they were traditional features of at least larger monasteries.  They became obsolete, as the state first dissolved the monasteries and later took on responsibility for health and social care – but as the state increasingly struggles to meet this burden, the time may be ripe to reinvent these roles.]

Missional communities certainly can attend to all seven spaces, and some do in practice.  Clearly one cannot attend to multiple spaces simultaneously: to encounter God and other in the chapel necessitates that we are not encountering God and other in the scriptorium at that moment in the day.  These spaces are distinct, but connected – in both time and space, as members of the community move through their day and night.  Certain times are set aside for certain activities.  Different spaces are passed-through on different cycles: for example, within a monastery the chapel is passed-through up to nine times throughout the course of the night and day, but never remained in – rather, it gathers us from one activity and sends us out into another – whereas the community gather in the refectory three times a day.  Blurring the distinct nature and purpose of each space is discordant; viewing each space as unconnected to the others is equally discordant.

But how might these spaces look – how might these principles be applied – in a community that does not live and work together in a monastery?

Introduction : Cell : Chapel : Chapter : Cloister : Garden : Refectory : Scriptorium