Bloomington Catholic Worker
A reconciling community extending hospitality to the unhoused in Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
Thanks to a widening circle of connections (thank you Tim O. !) I was blessed to be orientated toward the Nurturing Communities Network - a network of intentional Christian communities in the US which seeks to nurture, support and resource each other and others interested in intentional Christian community.
A few months back I attended one of their Zooms where I heard someone mention that they now primarily describe themselves as a reconciling community - intentionally addressing conflict within the community - and only secondarily as a community which extends hospitality to the unhoused, in recognition that the work of reconciliation is the harder task!
I was gripped at hearing these words, delighted to hear that the community was only a 2hr drive away, and all the more excited when Andrea reached out via email with an open invitation to come and visit. And last weekend I finally made it (a big shout out to Demarius who drove me all the way despite feeling so ill)!
Overview
Bloomington Catholic Worker is an ecumenical intentional Christian community in southern Indiana, USA founded in 2008 by husband-and-wife team, Ross and Andrea. Built upon the tradition of the Catholic Worker movement, the community lives a life of prayer, voluntary poverty, pacifism and living out the Works of Mercy (fourteen biblically rooted guide points for spiritual and practical action as summarized and used by the Roman Catholic church).
History: In the absence of finding a Catholic Worker nearby, Ross and Andrea sent out flyers to local churches and Christian groups asking anyone interested in the idea of supporting a new Catholic Worker to meet at the named restaurant at the named date and time. They booked a table for no more than 8, and remarkably 35 people turned up!
This conversation led to the Bloomington Catholic Worker starting in a 3-storey home which someone volunteered. The community later moved to a bungalow in a impoverished neighborhood (though now gentrified), and with time the three adjacnt houses were also bought and done up. The community therefore now stands as a row of four bungalows with connected back yards, with an additional long-term supported living in a 5th house just opposite.
Ministry: As part of living deeply into the Catholic Worker ethic of love, the community extends hospitality to the unhoused and others who are interested in being guests. In its 16-year history, Bloomington CW has welcomed over 200 separate guests! The community additionally collects unwanted supermarket food which is then left outside the community houses for the local community to help themselves to, free of charge.
Overtime, the community has come to increasingly recognise and name its commitment to internal reconciliation as a foundational and fundamental component of its ministry.
Membership: Bloomington CW is held and guided by husband-and-wife team Andrea and Ross who are the founders and longest-standing members of the community. Throughout its 16 year history, the community has been home to other long-term families known as ‘covenant members’.
Anchored by covenant members who make a 7-year commitment at a time, the community welcomes a whole host of people of varying degrees of commitment. For example guests who stay for a short time, young adult interns who commit for 6-months to a year, experiencing members who are interested in participating more fully in Bloomington Catholic Worker for a 1year+, and novices who are on the journey of discerning whether to become a covenant member.
Each of these ways of belonging to the community is understood as a different membership layer of the community ‘onion’ (borrowing language from David Jenzen’s The Intentional Christian Community Handbook) with each layer having varying levels of expectations of commitments e.g. experiencing, novice and covenant members participate in all the communal rhythms, whilst interns pick out a minimum of two communal rhythms to live into.
Community Rhythms:
Weekly Rhythms:6.45am morning prayer Mon-Fri in the truly gorgeous tiny house/chapel in the garden
community meals Mon-Fri, with Thursday being open to the wider community
Wednesday morning business and reconciliation meeting
Wednesday afternoon, communal work e.g. doing DIY or gardening together
Sunday evening, community check-in/reflection/activity, to start the upcoming week off together as a community
Annual Rhythms:
Meta-check-in: Novices and Covenanted members, in the month of their birthday, deliver a ‘state of the soul’ address to the rest of the community. This is a set-aside time of 2.5hrs for the member in question to share in depth how they are feeling e.g. about community life, relationships, family, health, spiritual health, to name some suggested areas of consideration. The member is encouraged to go on retreat prior to their meta check-in and is expected to prepare for and use this time in a way beneficial to them e.g. some might use props or create artwork to accompany their sharing. The role of the wider community is to listen.
Intention Setting service: an opportunity to liturgically review and commit to the community’s covenant.
Finances: Community members work part-time outside of the community and donate 30-50% of their income to the community pot depending on their membership ‘layer’. Food staples, household essentials and maintenance are paid out of the community pot. By working part-time, members are freed to up commit and be present to the community.
Whilst some Catholic Workers do have non-profit status, Bloomington CW holds onto Dorothy Day’s original vision of operating within society without charitable status - the idea being that they model a way of living which is within the realm of the ordinary and possible for all. Functionally, the Bloomington CW bungalows belong to the community and are maintained by the community pot. Legally, the houses are under the names of the covenant members.Reflections:
Community Reconciliation
I was initially drawn to Bloomington Catholic Worker for their commitment to reconciliation, and indeed, I feel blessed to have learnt about their reconciling practices and processes. I have just finished writing a paper using Bloomington Catholic Worker as a case study for reconciliation in intentional Christian community so I will refrain from excess detail here - but look out for more later!
The Community Onion!
The community was quite suprised to find me sat at the picnic bench pouring over their community handbook (colloquially known as “the onion”). I was deeply impressed by the clarity, spirituality, and wisdom of their community handbook, with it clearly outlining the different ‘layers’ of community membership and what each layer can expect to give and receive. I would highly recommend their community handbook as a starting point and guide for other communities feeling the need to set community expectations/ develop a community handbook.
Hospitable Work
I was very touched by Andrea’s and Ross’ wisdom and perception in hosting me, both of them catching on that I was the kind of person who would appreciate, and feel more welcome, with a job to do! As such, Ross very kindly guided me through using power tools to help fix up the porch and I had a wonderful conversation with Andrea over heaps of dishes. In both instances, I was definitely slowing down the job at hand (!), but they’re the kind of people who embody the grace and wisdom to know that efficiency is not the point, and that fellowship is.
The Wisdom Born of Commitment
On a similar vein, I felt very blessed to be in the midst of Ross and Andrea’s wisdom - of the likes which can only be born through long-term commitment to a lifestyle and place. Whilst beneficial for certain things, hopping around communities does not confer the true power of intentional Christian community living, with long-term commitment to a given community being where the true and stretching growth happens. Andrea and Ross have clearly been weathered by their sixteen years of sticking with Bloomington Catholic Worker, nurturing in them a beautiful and profound wisdom.Part-Time Work and Part-Income Sharing
For communities embedded into mainstream life and for whom work outside of the community is part of the model, there can exist the problem of balancing priorities and difficulties in upholding significant communal commitments. I had yet to come across the model of members working part-time and putting 30-50% of their income into a communal pot - this strikes me as a particularly interesting model with a lot of potential.Children in Community
It is worth noting that Bloomington Catholic Worker is upheld by a family with 4 children, and in the past has been home to other long-term families, demonstrating that their model of community is compatible with family life.
I hope to share more of Bloomington Catholic Worker’s emphasis on reconciliation in a future post :).