THE MOVEMENTAL ORDER



ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE: CHICAGO

An ecumenical family order serves the church through experiments in local church renewal, social reformulation and forms of a new religious mode for the post­modern age.

THE MOVEMENTAL ORDER

RADICAL

SERVANTS

The religious orders of the church historically have understood themselves to be the radical servants of the established church, obedient and under assignment to it. They have constituted a catalyzing force within the historical church, dedicated to continual renewal so that the mission of the church in the world might effectively be carried out. At the same time, it has always been the historical church which has invested and authorized the orders, thereby deciding the direction of its own renewal and of its impact upon civilization itself.
ECUMENICAL

ORDER

Within this tradition of religious orders of the church, the staff of the Ecumenical Institute has come to grasp itself as an experiment in being a 20th century ecumenical order. The beginnings of the experiment may be traced back to 1952 in Austin, Texas, where individuals committed to the renewal of the church initiated the Christian Faith and Life Community. It began with an emphasis on the campus ministry but quickly broadened its thrust to include lay training, clergy consultations and the development of new methodologies for the church to be mission in the world. In 1962, seven families from this community accepted the invitation of The Church Federation of Greater Chicago to become the staff of the Ecumenical Institute, a research and training center created in response to a resolution of the World Council of Churches. Situating itself in Fifth City, a Black inner­city neighborhood on Chicago's West Side, the Institute staff began a major experiment in the methods of community reformulation.
SPIRIT

MOVEMENT

As the corporate staff expanded and focused its under-standing of the role of the church in the 20th century, it continued to experiment with ways of structuring its common life to sustain the body in the face of the overwhelming tasks. As it became more aware of the actual dynamics of its corporate life, it began to recognize their similarity to those of historical religious orders. The staff found itself in fact engaged in an experiment with a new form of religious order: one which was ecumenical, composed of family units, and in mission to the secular and global revolutions of its time. At the same time, as it offered courses and training programs and participated in local renewal efforts, it found itself the center of a growing movement of churchmen from across the globe who participated in the shaping of its methodologies and operated in a growing colleagueship with the Institute staff. Formal establishment of this body of colleagues came in 1966 when, in their first annual council in Chicago, they adopted the name of The Spirit Movement. Today, perhaps 50,000 persons throughout the world see themselves as colleagues in the Spirit Movement, while the corporate order of the Institute itself has become a body in excess of 1300 members drawn from every area of the globe.

CORPORATE

EXPERIMENTATION

The community is a family order, including single persons, married couples, and families with children. It is ecumenical, including a wide­ranging representation of the rich traditions of historical Christianity. It is composed of laymen and clergymen. It is global, with a network of outposts spanning seven geo­social areas of the world. It is a secular­religious order, engaged in shaping the new forms of secular spirituality needed for post­modern man to recover the meaning of Christian vocation in every station of life.
MISSIONAL

THRUSTS

The order has embodied its understanding of the church as mission in the traditional arenas of teaching, service and contemplation. In its teaching role, it has developed religious and cultural curricula and pedagogical methodologies designed to awaken churchmen to the radical possibilities of faith and to equip them to participate creatively in shaping the times in which they live. The service aspect of the order may be seen in its current work with over a hundred Roman Catholic and Protestant local congregations through the Local Church Experiment, and in its research and demonstration projects in the area of social reformulation. The order's work in contemplation is designed to allow post­modern man to experience his own spirit deeps and is exemplified by new methodologies for the recovery of the Scriptures and a major attempt to articulate authentic forms of such classical categories as meditation, contemplation and prayer.
NEW

RELATIONSHIPS

Approximately one fourth of the order resides at the base house in Chicago while the rest live in the religious houses and outposts across the globe. Those wishing to join the order spend a year of internship at either the base house or one of the religious houses, and then are assigned to any house as the mission demands. In each house the common daily time design of the order enables the carrying out of the common mission. In the morning and evening the total community gathers for corporate worship, research, reflection, planning, and spirit nurture while, during the day, the members disperse to their various assigned stations. Approximately one half of the adults work in the secular structures of society and enable the order to be totally self­supporting. Their earnings are pooled to provide living stipends for order families, based on the size of the family. Thus, in both its external thrust and its internal organization, the order sees itself to be an experiment in reappropriating the meaning of poverty, chastity and obedience on behalf of a new age.
COMMON

LIFE

Our age has seen the decline of the historic religious orders of the church. It has seen their numbers diminish and their missional purpose become obscured. But in the midst of this crisis, the order dynamic of historical Christianity is emerging in new forms, forms

which embody the global ecumenism and secular spirituality to which the church is called in the post­modern world. The emerging form of the order dynamic raises anew the question of the relationship of a contemporary order to the established church: how will a global and ecumenical body of people formalize its loyalty and servanthood to. the historical church? How will the established church, in its present denominational richness, invest and authorize the movemental order? The movement of the spirit in our time calls the church to reflect seriously upon its response to these questions.

REGIONAL AND METROPOLITAN CENTERS

Amarillo Detroit Milwaukee Rockford

Apia Hong Kong Minneapolis San Francisco

Atlanta Houston Montreal Seattle

Billings Indianapolis New Orleans Sendai

Bombay Kansas City New York City Singapore

Boston Kuala Lumpur Oklahoma City Sydney

Brisbane London Osaka Tainan

Caracus Los Angeles Peoria Tokyo

Champaign­Urbana Madison Perth Toronto

Chicago Majuro Philadelphia Tulsa

Cincinnati Manchester Pittsburgh Washington

Cleveland Manila Portland Winnipeg

Denver Melbourne Rapid City

Derby Miami Rochester

A Publication of

THE ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE

3444 Congress Parkway

Chicago, Illinois 60624