Living in Community
Lee Abbey is not a monastic or traditional religious order, and its community members are male and female, of all ages, many countries and a variety of Christian backgrounds. A significant proportion, but not a majority, are single and in their 20s.
Members of the Lee Abbey communities are volunteers who receive their board, lodging and an allowance. In return they serve on one of the teams that make the centres run. The working teams at Lee Abbey Devon and London are:
- Kitchen (Devon and London)
- House (Devon and London)
- Office and administration (Devon and London)
- Maintenance (Devon and London)
- Estate (Devon only)
- Pastoral (Devon only)
- Conference (Devon only)
- Youth and children (Devon only)
- Beacon (Devon only)
- Pudox (Devon only)
In addition to their team responsibilities, community members also take full part in morning prayers, community worship and other activities. Those in Devon serve meals and tea and coffee to guests, take part in the guests' programme and every two to three months take turns to lead that programme. Those in London take part in activities organised for and with the resident students.
Many community members from all parts of the Lee Abbey movement describe the experience as life-changing, learning new skills or growing in confidence as they are given responsibilities in team leading, entertainment or working with children. Some discover gifts that enable them to go on to become leaders in the church or elsewhere.
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Famous quotes containing the words living in, living and/or community:
“Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable of living in this way. Therefore not only does the system alienate humanity, but at the same time alienated humanity supports this system as its own involuntary masterplan, as a degenerate image of its own degeneration, as a record of people’s own failure as individuals.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“I do believe that the outward and the inward life correspond; that if any should succeed to live a higher life, others would not know of it; that difference and distance are one. To set about living a true life is to go on a journey to a distant country, gradually to find ourselves surrounded by new scenes and men; and as long as the old are around me, I know that I am not in any true sense living a new or a better life.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The people needed to be rehoused, but I feel disgusted and depressed when I see how they have done it. It did not suit the planners to think how they might deal with the community, or the individuals that made up the community. All they could think was, “Sweep it away!” The bureaucrats put their heads together, and if anyone had told them, “A community is people,” they would not have known what they were on about.”
—May Hobbs (b. 1938)