As I mentioned last night, I am beginning a series of reflections on the 12 Marks of New Monasticism. The 12 Marks come out of a collection of essays edited by the Rutba House, an intentional community in Durham, N.C. (Eugene, O.R.: Wipf & Stock, 2004). The 12 Marks as I see them offer a guide to understanding the intentional Christian communities that have sprung up throughout North America under the guise of New Monasticism, or NM. Though certain Hyaets members dislike labels, I have found the NM and the 12 Marks beyond helpful in understanding the mentality and practice of our community.
With that said, I shall turn my attention to the first mark, Relocation to Abandoned Places of Empire. In her essay of the same title, Sr. Margaret McKenna offers an interesting theology of relocation based on the ethos of desert retreat and reflection found in Isaiah 35, Hosea 2:5-7, and various Gospel accounts of Jesus heading into the desert for extended periods of spiritual renewal. I encourage you to read and reflect on these passages if you are interested.
I would like to focus here on how Hyaets embodies a relocation to an abandoned place of Empire. According to a 2006 Quality of Life study commissioned by the City of Charlotte, our Enderly Park neighborhood besides being very poor had a violent crime rate 4.5 times higher than the city average, a 29% teenage pregnancy rate, and a meager one-third rate of students passing End-of-Grade Examinations. Signs of social and economic depression are visible to those walking our streets. Many houses are boarded up, some from the inside so as to appear to be occupied. The former Freedom Mall, long shuttered, recently reopened as a massive social services office hub. Running eastward on Freedom Drive some mornings, I reflect on the city skyline as the sun rises behind it. The crowned-topped tower of the Bank of America Corporate Center and handle-topped tower of the former Wachovia headquarters along with their shorter companions seem to cast mile long shadows over our neighborhood. These skyscrapers are symbols of failure as much as they are symbols of wealth. The second-largest banking center in North America, Charlotte and its star banker Hugh McColl pioneered the cross-regional consolidation of banks that ultimately led to the 2008 financial crisis' "too-big-to-fail" conundrum. As a result, our country and our neighborhood especially are still in the throws of the Great Recession.
Despite its troubles, our neighborhood seems like it won't remain abandoned for long. Money is encroaching on the hood with HUD- funded revitalization popping up all over the place. A giant new condo complex on Tuck just across the railroad tracks is filling up with white people. West Morehead Street, about half a mile away and formerly pretty hood, is now an up-and-coming area of the city. So, the Question of the Day is as follows: what will come of Hyaets if and when Enderly Park becomes the next NoDa or South End? Will Hyaets minister to the loneliness and need for community of the noveau-riche bourgeois? Or will the community relocate in order to wallow in the misery of another poor neighborhood? My instinct tells me that Hyaets partners would try their very hardest to find another poor neighborhood, because for one reason or another it seems like people in our community seem to enjoy being around poor people by virtue of their being poor, or abandoned as such. In that case, my concern would be that the community would become more devoted to abandoned places and people than to God or any sense of purpose in staying and bettering a place. This problem is probably a common pitfall amongst intentional communities.
Why so serious? Perhaps my next post will get back to making light of heavy topics. Its just that its easy to become so glooooooooomy when you are living in the ghetto.
That's all for today! You can check back Monday for Mark 2. Tomorrow is SABBATH, which means its time to rest, which Hyaets people take VERY seriously.
So, until Monday folks, you're going to have to read something else. Like the Sunday New York Times, for all you white folk out there.
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