'New Monasticism' on the increase

From Ekklesia - 21/03/06

The number of 'monastic' Christian communities is on the increase, suggests new research. With the power, influence and privilege of Christendom crumbling, George Lings, Director of Church Army’s research unit The Sheffield Centre has claimed that the number of emerging monastic Christian communities is growing. His comments come in the latest edition of the magazine 'Encounters on the Edge' where he also speculates that the church may be entering a new 'dark age', with many Christians feeling there is an increasingly hostile environment around them.

His suggestions come ahead of a book to be published at the end of June by Ekklesia's director Jonathan Bartley, which looks at the phenomena of 'Post-Christendom' which will suggest that not all Christians lament the passing of Christendom. It will also critically assess the responses of those Christians who feel that they are being increasingly marginalized and excluded, sometimes even persecuted.

The 'new monasticism' has been identified as one type of fresh expression of church in the best-selling “Mission-shaped Church” report, is challenging the church to re-examine those areas of congregational life where there is a “weak sense of community, narrow attitude of enquiry, anaemic worship style and disconnection from issues of life.” Lings thinks it could even be of greater significance than most other fresh expressions because it invites us into a deeper spiritual life. Lings observes that most Anglican liturgies do little to nurture the calling of pioneers and evangelists and is not surprised by a stronger drive amongst the scores of fresh expressions of church being established which feed the calling and identity of hundreds of people who have discovered new and distinct ways of being church.

The Northumbria Community (a case study Lings examines in depth in the booklet) is “unusual and noteworthy in that both mission and community are deep in its DNA, and profoundly well-balanced. The danger for many fresh expressions is the reverse. Their temptations are to activism and to seek results in order to justify their existence before the watching church.”