Newsletter - 30 June
10th ANNIVERSARY
This Sunday we are celebrating 10 years of Chemin Neuf Community’s presence in Christ the King parish. What does that mean exactly?
In 2014 Cardinal Vincent Nichols invited Chemin Neuf to take responsibility for Christ the King Parish. Christ the King Parish was started in 1936 by a Benedictine community from the Netherlands who felt a special calling to ecumenism. It eventually became a centre for Christian meditation and the charismatic renewal. While the parish was always officially called “Christ the King,” it became known as Vita et Pax, the name of the Benedictine community. When the Benedictines’ declining numbers prompted the decision to leave the parish in 2012, inviting another religious community seemed an ideal fit.
Chemin Neuf Community was started in France in 1973 from a charismatic prayer group. A group of seven young people, including a Jesuit priest, were given a house in Lyon with the address 59 Montée de Chemin Neuf (“new way”). From that small beginning grew a community of more than 2000 people in 30 countries – single and married, Catholic and Christians from other churches. Some members live a common life in community houses and others live in their own homes, have their own jobs, live our Ignatian spirituality, and help with the missions of the community. Missions include the Cana mission for married couples, sessions for young people, and spiritual retreats. The series of roll-up posters set up this weekend gives you a flavour of the international community.
Another mission of the community is parish ministry. A bishop will invite the community to be responsible for a particular parish and the community will send a small group. Here we are blessed with two priests and a couple who live in the parish presbytery, Manus Domini. There are also eight community members who live in their own homes, some who moved here because of the community, others coming from the parish.
While not the same, Chemin Neuf has continued in many ways the legacy of Vita et Pax. The parish is served not by a lone priest, but a community, including lay people. The attention to ecumenism, charismatic prayer and spiritual formation begun by the Benedictines has corresponded with Chemin Neuf’s own charisms. Benedictine spirituality and Ignatian spirituality are not all that different – prayer, work, commitment, discernment, fraternal obedience and above all, a focus on Christ as the centre.
The logo for Chemin Neuf is Christ washing his disciples’ feet. It is with this attitude, and in partnership with all of you that we seek to serve this parish.
Nancy Wood ccn