The Lindisfarne Community

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The Lindisfarne Community An ecumenical religious order in apostolic succession practicing secular monasticism. We are committed to the "new (or secular) monasticism."

The Lindisfarne Community is an independent, ecumenical religious community in the Anglo-Celtic tradition. A friend of the community described us as "A religious order with apostolic succession." Our mother house, the home of our abbess and abbot, is in Ithaca, NY. We have professed members from a number of nations: the USA, the UK, New Zealand, Germany, Indonesia, and South Africa. Our spirituality is a balanced life of prayer, study, service and rest . . . . a new form of monasticism. We are relational, egalitarian, contemplative, sacramental and inclusive. We are part of the "emerging church" exploring new ways of being Christian in the twenty-first century. We have an annual retreat in the USA and occasionally in the UK. We are deeply rooted in historical Christianity, yet are open to insights from other traditions. Our prayer is "to be as Christ to those we meet, to find Christ within them." We have embraced emphases from, among others, the Celtic Christian communities of the fourth to ninth centuries in Northern Britain and Ireland; the desert fathers and mothers and the early monastic movement; the Christian mystics; the radicals of the sixteenth century; the charismatic, Christian feminist and home church movements of the twentieth century. Community members have received wisdom from Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, Jewish, and secular traditions, in the belief that "all truth is God's truth."

10/26/2026

I’m alone sitting at my kitchen table eating breakfast. The large, heavy table is crafted from reclaimed barn wood, and I marvel at its grain and the stories it could tell. I’m enjoying a simple breakfast: granola, oats and cold almond milk. I enjoy a piece of toast layered with Italian marmalad...

10/11/2026

In contemporary America public life, exulting in violence has markedly increased. I am mostly troubled that violent language is used by those who profess to be Christians. It jars that threats, calls for retribution, the demonization of opponents, gleeful talk of lethality, and the celebration of vi...

08/16/2026

Yesterday I was editing my latest book. It’s an introduction to philosophy organized around twenty-five questions. I had reached Question 23: What happens when we die? It’s one of those questions philosophers have been asking for a very long time. Religious traditions have been asking it even lo...

08/02/2026

For much of my adult life I thought spirituality belonged primarily in religious beliefs and practices. Spirituality was found in prayer, Scripture, silence, and worship. As an ordained Christian minister for more than forty years, those practices shaped and to some degree still shape my life. I con...

06/21/2026

What a hard text in the lectionary today! The gospel of Matthew (10.24-39) is all about violence, betrayal, disunity and death. As I read it...

06/07/2026

Recently, I had a brief thoughtful exchange on Instagram. In response to a reel I had posted about the existence of G*d, someone wrote: “G*d exists, but in a way that is hard for us to understand. Maybe if we use both our mind and soul, we can understand a little bit, but the mind alone is not eno...

05/31/2026

The lectionary reading for this Sunday is the closing passage of Matthew's Gospel (28.16-end). The disciples, now reduced to eleven, travell...

Ascension
05/17/2026

Ascension

05/03/2026

Today’s lectionary text is a rich and difficult passage (John 14;1-14). I think it is key to remember that this was penned to a community u...

04/26/2026

This morning I was taken by the freshness of a late April morning. The mourning doves called. Chickadees chattered in the trees. A tufted titmouse sang from somewhere I could not see. The grass was wet with dew. The pugs snuffled in the rhododendrons. The sky was bright with the new sun.T. S. Eliot....

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Ithaca, NY

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