The Community
of Celebration
The origins of the Community of Celebration lie in a movement of
the Holy Spirit at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Houston,
Texas, beginning in the mid-1960s.
Contemporaries in the church at large spoke of it as “a new way of living.”
Christians across the world were captivated and inspired, both by the
extraordinary power of worship
and by the “extended family” life-style which had been adopted by hundreds of
people as a means of serving God. Those involved experienced the risen Christ
as a palpable presence among them.
In 1972 the
Bishop of
Coventry
invited an
extended
household to
move to his
diocese and
see if this new
way of living
might catch
on in the
Church of
England.
A year later we had outgrown our Coventry property
and moved to Yeldall Manor in Berkshire.
After 2 years at Yeldall, the Community moved to the Isle of Cumbrae off the
west coast of Scotland.
In 1985, the Community heard God call us to leave our island home of
10 years and to move back to our urban roots,
and we decided to relocate to the USA. We exchanged this…
…for this.
Aliquippa was a town devastated by the recent closure of its steel mill.
The streetscape resembled a ghost town. It was a place dominated
by unemployment, poverty and social problems.
The Community bought a disused funeral home and renovated
it for office and chapel space.
Next to the office we also bought the 12 rowhouses which had fallen into decay.
They required an enormous amount of renovation work.
Just down the street from the rowhouses, All Saints Episcopal Church was in
great need after 80% of the congregation had left 6 months before to plant an
Episcopal church in a new suburb. The Community joined with the remnant
congregation to be a Christian presence in the neighborhood.
Soon we were involved in supporting local people protesting the mill closure and
loss of pensions and medical benefits. This march on Palm Sunday 1987
had great historical significance as it was exactly 50 years after the Wagner Act
was upheld by the Supreme Court giving the workers at the Aliquippa mill the
right to organize into a union.
The closing of All Saints Church in 1999 gave us the green light to pursue our
dream of building a chapel more suitable for the needs of a Benedictine
community. This signaled a new direction:
We would invite individuals and groups to experience our life and
mission first hand rather than our traveling to them. The chapel is
nestled between the office and rowhouses.
Everything is movable, so we can accommodate many different
arrangements. This is the setting for the Morning, Noon, and Evening
Prayer offices.
In 2003 we dedicated the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in a joyous celebration
that began with a procession reminiscent of our time in Scotland.
We gave thanks to God for providing such a gracious space in which to worship,
and to gather with friends.
The following year the Salvation Army moved out of their facility next to our office,
and in partnership with a former member of the Community, we purchased and
renovated the building
thus providing additional accommodation for retreats and conferences.
Now we can host conferences at home
where conferees can enjoy the beauty of our common areas
and cooking and dining facilities.
Our monthly Taizé service draws a variety of worshippers from the area.
Our complex is very suitable for youth pilgrimages, such as this Journey to
Adulthood group from Michigan.
Young people and their leaders can experience Christian community while they
study, work, recreate, worship,
and share common meals.
As part of our ministry of presence, we offer safe, affordable housing to the public.
The common backyard provides the only green space in the neighborhood.
Our new facility made it possible to offer a program to the women in the county
jail. Women on work release came two mornings a week for workshops in
wellness, cooking, and creative writing as well as learning crafts such as making
jewelry and scrap booking, sewing, knitting, and quilting.
The repeat offender rate is above 80%, and our prayer is that the seeds of hope,
self-esteem, and practical knowledge will bear fruit in these women’s lives and
encourage them on a life-changing path.
Steven McKeown serves as chaplain to Aliquippa Police, Fire Department, City
Council, Civil Air Patrol, Air Marshalls, and the FBI of Western PA.
The Community has a long history of a commitment to peacemaking and
reconciliation. A recent conference theme was “Waging Peace.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be called
the children of God.”
And “You have heard that it was
said, ‘You shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.’ But I say to
you, love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you…”
In early 2003, every afternoon before Evening Prayer, we demonstrated in
front of our houses—right on Aliquippa’s main street--to protest the
proposed invasion of Iraq.
We joined with thousands of others in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC
on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to prayerfully ask President Bush to make a Faithbased Initiative and give international inspectors more time.
Afterwards we marched to Lafayette Square across from the White House
where we led the singing as ecumenical leaders led the prayers for peace and
held a candlelight vigil.
However, our life and mission is rooted locally, not at a national level. This is
what downtown Aliquippa looks like today.
Remember what it looked like 25 years ago?
And our property has been transformed from a derelict hovel…
to gracious living spaces.
The undergirding principle of our life:
We seek to find Jesus present
in worship, in our common life,
and in ministries that
concentrate on responding to
the needs of the times
The Community of Celebration is recognized under the Canons of the Episcopal
Church as a Christian Community and we take Benedictine Vows:
Stability
Conversion of character
Obedience
Ever since landing in Aliquippa we have prayed that God would send someone
with gifts for evangelism. In 2001 God answered that prayer by sending the
Stanley family all the way from Sydney, Australia. They are part of the Church
Army, an evangelistic ministry in the Anglican Communion, and they live in one of
the rowhouses.
When John Stanley arrived in Aliquippa, he immediately set out to locate a
building that could serve as a hospitality center–where any and all would be
welcomed into an environment free from oppression and drugs–right in the
middle of Aliquippa’s blighted main street.
The building he chose had
been officially condemned,
and the Church Army
bought it for back taxes.
The first miracle was that John was able to attract volunteer labor from churches,
youth groups, retirees, and young men in drug rehab to accomplish the enormous
task of renovating the building into usable space.
Almost finished…
Today the Café serves breakfast and lunch 5 days a week, hosts open mic night and a
movie night, provides space for AA groups, art classes, and special occasions.
It is all about rebuilding Aliquippa through creativity, imagination, community service,
recovery, great food, and fellowship
Besides providing good food, good coffee and conversation, the Café acts as the home
for an Aliquippa church, hosts Bible studies,
features local music on its stage and local art on its walls.
Uncommon Grounds is a healthy, diverse community where people of all ages, races,
and income levels freely gather.
Five years ago God planted the seeds of another ministry alongside the
Community of Celebration. Aliquippa Impact began as a summer outreach to atrisk kids in Aliquippa’s most challenging housing estate, staffed by students from
a Christian college who donate their time to provide tutoring in basic subjects,
build self-esteem, and to take the kids on field trips.
In preparation for the summer programs, they use our facilities for group study,
for team building exercises,
for worship and teaching,
and joint work projects
In partnership with Family Guidance, Aliquippa Impact offers a one-to-one mentoring
program for youth ages 6 to 15. Currently, their program has matched nearly 30
students with mentors.
Their City Camp program serves approximately 35 students from the 3rd to 6th grades.
They believe in access to the arts for marginalized youth—that every child in every town,
including Aliquippa, should have the opportunity to see and to create beautiful things.
The Community of Celebration’s 45 year history in common life and worship
provides a solid base for other ministries which share a vision for Aliquippa’s
revitalization.
Uncommon Grounds Café offers radical hospitality that draws in all sorts and
conditions of men, women, and children to ways of relating that are transformational.
Aliquippa Impact instills hope in youth to live with purpose and become catalysts for
change in Aliquippa and beyond.
By God’s grace we are all a sign of hope and healing to a hurting town.
The Community
of Celebration