Sunday, May 17, 2015

Harnessing the Power of Community

There were two particular conversations with young people that stood out to me over the past week. This was the week when the clocks had just changed, the sun was shining and they had two whole weeks free from the demands of school life. The Easter holidays were upon us and I was dying to know what they had planned. One young man explained to me that he rarely goes out, choosing instead to socialise through the medium of online gaming. Another young lady explained how she gets cranky if she doesn't get her quiet time. When I delved a little deeper I found that in the holidays, this quiet time consists of several hours of sitcoms while scanning social media on her phone. As I reflected on my pre-Facebook, pre-mobile phone, prehistoric adolescence, I was struck by how different life is for the technological savvy teen living in the modern i-world.

At face value, the average teenager of today is far more connected than their counterpart 20 years ago. When we scratch at the surface, we see that all is not as it seems. While we may be more connected, the truth is that loneliness has become an epidemic in Britain. In a 2014 study, the Office of National Statistics labelled Britain as the loneliness capital of Europe. The consequences of loneliness are significant. Loneliness is strongly linked to mental health issues and for older people, loneliness is believed to be twice as harmful as obesityJohann Hari argues for a fresh look at the nature and causes of addiction, proposing that the root of all addiction is a lack of human connection.

While more aware, our self-medicating techniques only compound the issue. We upgrade the TV package and jump on the next social networking fad to combat the overwhelming feelings of disconnection. We seek solutions to numb the feeling but they only seem to make the problem worse. We have created a culture that mimics connection, packaging and sugar-coating it in the latest consumer fad. Community is the great spectator activity that we watch from behind a glass screen rather like a child at the zoo. We long to break through the glass and experience it but we find ourselves trapped, unsatisfied and disempowered by insufficient alternatives. It is time to break through the glass and rediscover the power of community. It’s time to meet the historical figure of Basil the Great.

St. Basil was born in Caesarea in 330 to a relatively prosperous and prominent family. He was the beneficiary of a good education against a backdrop of what he eventually adjudged to be a morally bankrupt society. This morality had infiltrated the life of the church, which led Basil to believe that its practices was out of kilter with biblical teaching. Basil’s dissatisfaction drove him to explore the aestheticism of the monks who rejected all civilisation in favour of a radical lifestyle in the solitude of the desert. He also had a rocking hipster beard!

The root of the asthetic life was a set of rules that were the means of living a pure life. While Basil was impressed with the endeavour of the desert monks, he believed that their enthusiasm sidestepped the most significant of resources. For Basil, being in community is both the basis on and the place in which the perfect life is lived. The life of virtue requires both a love for God and a love for our friends and neighbours. The key to a fulfilled life is connection, which is housed within community.

Basil’s love of the aesthetics and his belief in the power of community led him to pioneer a new expression of faith in community. This community was not based on isolation but connection. It was not found in the far reaches of the desert but in the hubbub of urban life. Not disinterested in issues of the ordinary people but driven by a mission to transform the city to how God intended it to be. He took the ordered life of prayer modelled by the desert fathers and coupled it with the power of community and connection. Urban monasticism was born.

Basil’s new community was based on the idea that authentic community can enable transformation in every area of human life. He believed that only through living side by side could we truly identify each one’s strengths and weaknesses. Members of the community were not to hide their inadequacies and failings, but to regularly confess them to one another. The community had a strong ethic of mentoring, with the superior being known as a physician. The physician gave out punishments as remedies, seeking to enable a person to overcome individual failings. In this community it was acceptable to show weakness, to share fears and struggles. The community shared one another’s burdens and help was available as each person to live well. In this community, people were truly known.

The power of this community had an impact far beyond the individual members. As each person offered their time and energy to the community, humanitarian projects quickly developed. A distribution centre for donations to the poor was established. They became a shelter for the homeless and provided medical services for the sick. This radical community changed both the members and the wider society.

You might be wondering what St. Basil the Great and his urban monasticism might have to say to us. While most of us may find urban monasticism a stretch too far, the principles behind Basil’s community have something valuable to say. In this age of individualism and disconnection, we would do well to remember the power of real, vulnerable, authentic and committed community. The individualism of our time implores us to look inside of ourselves for the resources of a full life, but the consequences of the loneliness epidemic suggest that these resources are insufficient.

Basil reminds us that the extent in which an individual can flourish directly correlates to their connectivity within a wider community. What leads us to a full life is not self-connection but the quality of our relationships beyond ourselves. What if the power to change ourselves and our world is not within but is found in the life-giving, inspiring act of belonging? Basil’s community also reminds us of the relationship between good communities and a healthy society. When communities function well, they are capable of extraordinary achievements for the betterment of the wider world.

So how well are we truly known? What is the quality of our relationships? St. Basil teaches us that authentic community is powerful, relationships are life-changing and vulnerability is transforming. So step away from your devices and invest in your relationships. Release the power of connection.