Background and Vision for Emmaus House
We are Anabaptists whose vision is to facilitate intentional community for 10 university students. The community will provide support academically, spiritually, in lives of service, healthy living, and wholesome relationships. As coordinators, we live on site as part of the community. The Emmaus House is located near downtown Winnipeg with good bus routes to all the post-secondary institutions. Three double rooms and four single rooms are available for Summer occupancy or for the Academic Year starting in September. Together, the community shares common spaces and meals as part of the cost and experience of living together as a 'family'. The house has been purchased and set-up through personal financing. It is non-profit and is sustainable through room and board set at competitive ‘dorm rates’ and paid by each student.
This vision is also inspired by:
“Paradoxically, in their pursuit of radical autonomy, young adults long for a community where they feel they have a place...Individualism is an idea, but longing for community is our nature.”
- Steve K “Hemorrhaging Faith”, Apologetics Canada, November 16, 2012
“The power of community is that it helps us understand ourselves. In a healthy community, we come to know ourselves and find strength in that knowledge. In community, we learn how to live a life beyond ourselves, we begin to discover our potential and our strengths, and we are best positioned to make our greatest contribution. When community happens the way God designed us to live, it is always inclusive and never exclusive....Healthy communities are always permeable. You are never forced in, but you’re always welcome.”
- Soul Cravings (entry 18)
"In our world full of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture, and country, from their neighbours, friends, and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found."
- Henry Nouwen
"Solitude greeting solitude, that's what community is all about. Community is not the place where we are no longer alone but the place where we respect, protect, and reverently greet one another's aloneness. When we allow our aloneness to lead us into solitude, our solitude will enable us to rejoice in the solitude of others. Our solitude roots us in our own hearts. Instead of making us yearn for company that will offer us immediate satisfaction, solitude makes us claim our center and empowers us to call others to claim theirs. Our various solitudes are like strong, straight pillars that hold up the roof of our communal house. Thus, solitude always strengthens community."
- Henry Nouwen
To read more about an Anabaptist Christian Perspective, go to: https://www.mennonitemission.net/Downloads/DL.MissioDei18.E.pdf
This vision is also inspired by:
- Menno Simons Centre, Vancouver: http://pcda.bc.ca/msc-residence/
- Discussions in Mennonite Church Alberta about intentional communities for students
- Writings about Community:
“Paradoxically, in their pursuit of radical autonomy, young adults long for a community where they feel they have a place...Individualism is an idea, but longing for community is our nature.”
- Steve K “Hemorrhaging Faith”, Apologetics Canada, November 16, 2012
“The power of community is that it helps us understand ourselves. In a healthy community, we come to know ourselves and find strength in that knowledge. In community, we learn how to live a life beyond ourselves, we begin to discover our potential and our strengths, and we are best positioned to make our greatest contribution. When community happens the way God designed us to live, it is always inclusive and never exclusive....Healthy communities are always permeable. You are never forced in, but you’re always welcome.”
- Soul Cravings (entry 18)
"In our world full of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture, and country, from their neighbours, friends, and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found."
- Henry Nouwen
"Solitude greeting solitude, that's what community is all about. Community is not the place where we are no longer alone but the place where we respect, protect, and reverently greet one another's aloneness. When we allow our aloneness to lead us into solitude, our solitude will enable us to rejoice in the solitude of others. Our solitude roots us in our own hearts. Instead of making us yearn for company that will offer us immediate satisfaction, solitude makes us claim our center and empowers us to call others to claim theirs. Our various solitudes are like strong, straight pillars that hold up the roof of our communal house. Thus, solitude always strengthens community."
- Henry Nouwen
To read more about an Anabaptist Christian Perspective, go to: https://www.mennonitemission.net/Downloads/DL.MissioDei18.E.pdf