Welcome

Welcome to a blog of life in the L'Arche Kent Community. Life in a L'Arche Community is in many ways inseperable from life more generally, so I apologise now if my blog overspills. But maybe it should. No man is an island etc., and that goes double for communities. Apart from Island communities I guess.

I've been in the community for about 20 months now. In some ways, like the Army, I was born into it - my brother used to live in Little Ewell house in Barfrestone (Kent) 17 years ago and my sister was in the L'Arche Bognor community about 10 years ago. Like the Army, my time also taught me to peel potatoes - lots of potatoes! As a house assistant in an international house you quickly learn to cook for many and potatoes are the United Nations of international cooking. Unlike the Army, I also learned to rattle a tambourine, bake a cake and blow up balloons. But more of that later.

Welcome anyway. I'm not entirely sure how to write this blog, so I guess I'll just focus on what happens today, yesterday and tomorrow and try to make sense of it as I can. Feedback always welcome, so long as you're kind.

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Tea and community

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Laurie is an assistant in Cana house in Eythorne. Here, she reflects on the role of tea in L'Arche, community and world peace:  "A lot can be said about a cup of tea. Since coming to England in May from Canada , I have shared more cups of tea then at any other time in my life. I am learning a lot about the power of a cup of tea. Tea brings people together. It calms, soothes and provides comfort at the end of a day and    provides a consistent, warming start to each morning (though personally    i still need to drink at least 2 cups of coffee to get going in the morning!). When everything else seems unclear, there is a profound kind of certainty that can be found in a cup of tea. I know that no matter how many mistakes I have made in the day, no matter how tired or distracted I am, if I put a tea bag in a cup and add hot water, it   will   become a tasty beverage!  Beyond the comfort and ordinariness of tea, I have also discovered that tea has magical powers. When interperson
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The God of washing up

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It is with great sadness that I have to announce that, in all likelihood, by the end of the financial year, Faith House will have a dishwasher. Over the years, first Cana and more recently Rainbow have succumbed. It seems inevitable that Faith House is only a few months away. Over the years, I’ve fought a losing battle against dishwashers - their clean silver lines, polishes surfaces and promises of beautifully clean crockery have beguiles and seduced all corners of the community. Jean Vanier often writes that the dinner table is at the centre of the community – the place where all are equal, where all have a place and where time can be ‘wasted’ in the company and service of others. Jean Vanier never washed up in Rainbow. My happiest memories and most complete experiences of community life in Rainbow are focused not around the dining table, but around the washing-up bowl. As a washer-upper often described as vigorous and enthusiastic if perhaps lacking some of the finer
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Christmas and change

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When I was little, one of the worst times for me was Christmas Day morning, just before opening a stocking full of presents. The anticipation of Christmas had built and built through November and December, school had ended for Christmas, Christmas shopping had been finished, as a family we’d done our ritual family-visiting on Christmas eve, Midnight Mass was over and now here I was, staring at my Christmas Stocking and knowing it would be 365 days before I’d wake up to find another one at the bottom of my bed. A couple of weeks ago, we said goodbye to Sebastien, an assistant in the house who returned to France and welcomed a new assistant, Jeremiah from Canada, to Rainbow. Community living is always a time of goodbyes and hellos – some assistants and core members have been members of the community for twenty or thirty years – Peter has been a member for 33 years – my age today! Others come and go in less than a year. Changes in Rainbow are always a slightly anxious time in the house –
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