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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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Thoughts from Jean Vanier

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Jean Vanier Some might say that L’Arche is “a haven of peace.” In many respect this is true, as at the core of our communities there is the desire to experience authentic relationships. Experiencing a relationship takes time: time to look into someone’s eyes, to listen to others with all your heart, mind and body. True relationship transcends time, stress and movement and it goes beyond the tyranny of normalcy and things to do. Yes, L’Arche can be a haven of peace where we take the time to eat together and celebrate life. We slow down to the pace of the slowest. We walk slowly together. All that is a marvellous ideal, but then there is the reality! There is housework, cooking, shopping, laundry, rules to follow, reports to write, a short- age of assistants, appointments with doctors and other professionals… and then the occasional fit of anger and conflicts in the home. There are visitors to welcome, neighbours to meet and of course, the ringing phone. In her journal, Etty Hill
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When TV comes to L'Arche!

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Caroline Caroline Bennett is studying for her Masters in Visual Anthropology at the local university. As part of her thesis, she is currently recording a set of interviews with members of the community on their motivations for joining and remaining in L'Arche.  After her first couple of months with the community, this is what she had to say: "I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started coming to L’Arche – how would people react to someone outside the community turning up with a camera wanting to make a film about them and the community?   Luckily everyone has been brilliant and I have been welcomed into L’Arche Kent with open arms and lovely smiles. Sal "The nicest thing I’ve found out about L’Arche is the appreciation that people are people no matter who you are, and that everyone is special in their own way.   I think it’s something we tend to forget, but being in L’Arche is teaching me that it is ok just to be sometimes and to appreciate the world a
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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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"These are a few of my favourite things"

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One morning Peter was listening to a song in his CD player. “That’s a nice song”, I said; and he answered: “Yes. It’s my favourite”. Two days later, when the radio played a Beatles’ song, Peter said: “Oh, do you hear that? It’s my favourite song”. Often, while we are tidying the DVD cupboard, he takes one of them and exclaims: “Look! my favourite movie”. Also different dishes are for him “my favourite food”, and likewise with beer etc. I envy that aspect of Peter’s character: most people have only one favourite song, one favourite movie, one favourite food, one favourite beer… (or else nothing classified as “favourite”); Peter has not only one “favourite” in each category, but many, many of them. A few days before Christmas, Peter received a can of a special beer from his “Christkind” (following the Christmas tradition of giving small presents without revealing your identity). When he unwrapped it, he exclaimed: “Oh, look… I’m happy!” (and he really looked happy!). Here, in “Rai
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Simple Life

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In the life of the house, there are trips and journeys which are necessary -  for example,  when assistants travel back to their home country to get a new visa or to see family. Recently, our house leader and one assistant took a holiday like this. At the same time, an assistant returning from holiday suddenly found they couldn’t get back for personal reasons and, at the same time, we had a number of new assistants who were just learning their roles. Suddenly we were short of assistants. So from one day to another we had to change all our weekly plans, the daily routines of the house, outings and everything else. We laboured harder, longer and progressively became more and more tired and exhausted. Then, we asked for help from the Community. We just hoped for a little bit support to help with busy times in the house, but we got so many offers of help, even from assistants from other houses who didn't know our house routines. They came to help late in the evening, early in the mor
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Point of view

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 I remember going to Church one Sunday morning with some members of our house when I first started as an assistant. I sat next to Annie, one of our core members at church. Annie is a warm, loving lady who enjoys company though she needs quite a bit of support to stay focused on where she is and what shes doing. I was nervous. Sometimes she isn’t aware that people are praying around her or sitting in silence and will ask many many qestions repeatedly. We’ve tried many ways to support her with this – answering her questions very clearly and simply, encouraging her to enjoy the peaceful service, explaining the importance of a prayer and the Mass for other people, but sometimes Annie doesn't understand other peoples needs when she has one. If I’m honest, I didn't want people looking at us or her when she is speaking during prayer and lacked confidence in finding good ways to encourage her to allow others to pray in silence. I thought about different ways to help her be calm an
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