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The Community of Celebration
The origins of the Community of Celebration lie in a movement of the Holy Spirit at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Houston,
Texas, beginning in the mid-1960s.
Christians across the world were captivated and inspired, both by the extraordinary power of worship
and by the “extended family” life‑style which had been adopted by hundreds of people as a means of serving God. Those involved experienced the risen Christ
as a palpable presence among them.
In 1972 the Bishop of Coventry invited an extended household to move to his diocese and see if this new way of living might catch on in the Church of England.
After 2 years at Yeldall, the Community moved to the Isle of Cumbrae off the west coast of Scotland.
In 1985, the Community heard God call us to leave our island home of
10 years and to move back to our urban roots.
The streetscape resembled a ghost town. It was a place dominated by unemployment, poverty and social problems.
Next to the office we also bought the 12 rowhouses which had fallen into decay. They required an enormous amount of renovation work.
Just down the street from the rowhouses, All Saints Episcopal Church was in great need after 80% of the congregation had left 6 months before to plant an Episcopal church in a new suburb. The Community joined with the remnant congregation to be a Christian presence in the neighborhood.
Soon we were involved in supporting local people protesting the mill closure and loss of pensions and medical benefits. This march on Palm Sunday 1987
had great historical significance as it was exactly 50 years after the Wagner Act was upheld by the Supreme Court giving the workers at the Aliquippa mill the
right to organize into a union.
The closing of All Saints Church in 1999 gave us the green light to pursue our dream of building a chapel more suitable for the needs of a Benedictine
community. This signaled a new direction:
We would invite individuals and groups to experience our life and mission first hand rather than our traveling to them. The chapel is
nestled between the office and rowhouses.
Everything is movable, so we can accommodate many different
arrangements. This is the setting for the Morning, Noon, and Evening Prayer offices.
In 2003 we dedicated the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in a joyous celebration that began with a procession reminiscent of our time in Scotland.
The following year the Salvation Army moved out of their facility next to our office, and in partnership with a former member of the Community, we purchased
and renovated the building
Our complex is very suitable for youth pilgrimages, such as this Journey to Adulthood group from Michigan.
Young people and their leaders can experience Christian community while they study, work, recreate, worship,
Our new facility made it possible to offer a program to the women in the county jail. Women on work release came two mornings a week for workshops in
wellness, cooking, and creative writing as well as learning crafts such as making jewelry and scrap booking, sewing, knitting, and quilting.
The repeat offender rate is above 80%, and our prayer is that the seeds of hope, self-esteem, and practical knowledge will bear fruit in these women’s lives and
encourage them on a life-changing path.
Steven McKeown serves as chaplain to Aliquippa Police, Fire Department, City Council, Civil Air Patrol, Air Marshalls, and the FBI of Western PA.
Ever since landing in Aliquippa we have prayed that God would send someone with gifts for evangelism. In 2001 God answered that prayer by sending the
Stanley family all the way from Sydney, Australia. They are part of the Church Army, an evangelistic ministry in the Anglican Communion, and they live in one of
the rowhouses.
When John Stanley arrived in Aliquippa, he immediately set out to locate a building that could serve as a hospitality center–where any and all would be welcomed into an environment free from oppression and drugs–right in the
middle of Aliquippa’s blighted main street.
The first miracle was that John was able to attract volunteer labor from churches, youth groups, retirees, and young men in drug rehab to accomplish the enormous
task of renovating the building into usable space.
Today the Café serves breakfast and lunch 5 days a week, hosts open mic night and a movie night, provides space for AA groups, art classes, and special occasions.
The Community has a long history of a commitment to peacemaking and reconciliation. A recent conference theme was “Waging Peace.”
And “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to
you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”
In early 2003, every afternoon before Evening Prayer, we demonstrated in front of our houses—right on Aliquippa’s main street--to protest the
proposed invasion of Iraq.
We joined with thousands of others in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to prayerfully ask President Bush to make a Faith-
based Initiative and give international inspectors more time.
where we led the singing as ecumenical leaders led the prayers for peace and held a candlelight vigil.
However, our life and mission is rooted locally, not at a national level. This is what downtown Aliquippa looks like today.
We seek to find Jesus present in worship, in our common life,
and in ministries that concentrate on responding to
the needs of the times
The undergirding principle of our life:
• Stability
• Conversion of Character
• Obedience
The Community of Celebration is recognized under the Canons of the Episcopal Church as a Christian
Community and we take Benedictine Vows of
Worship and common life are the anchors which allow us to be flexible in the ways we reach out.
By God’s grace we are a sign of hope and healing to a hurting town.
With the aging of Community members, we contemplate the future.
We have been in Aliquippa for 25 years. It has been 10 years since welcoming a new life-vowed member. We live in a time when the number of vocations to all
religious communities continues to be in steady decline.
What is the future? Like Elijah waiting to see a small cloud to signal the coming rain to end years of drought, we have waited and prayed to see the time when God
would stir young people as he stirred us years ago to come together, share our lives, and proclaim God’s love, healing, and mercy to a hurting world. Now we
believe we can see that cloud. Communities are springing up mainly in blighted urban areas and they are calling themselves a New Monasticism.
•Relocation to the abandoned places of our culture
•Sharing resources
•Hospitality to the stranger
•Reconciliation
•Submission to the Church
•Nurturing a common life
•Care for creation
•Peacemaking
•Commitment to a disciplined life of prayer and service
The principles that animate these communities include:
Five years ago God planted the seeds of such a community alongside the Community of Celebration. Aliquippa Impact began as a summer outreach to at-
risk kids in Aliquippa’s most challenging housing estate, staffed by students from a Christian college who donate their time to provide tutoring in basic subjects,
build self-esteem, and to take the kids on field trips.
As these college students graduated, some relocated to Aliquippa to pursue a calling to a corporate urban mission. Young people seeking to follow this new path now live in some of the rowhouses, and Aliquippa Impact uses one of our
buildings for their offices.
Although Celebration is not growing in numbers, God continues to bring these twenty-somethings into our midst to live alongside us and to make a positive
impact on our town. So, what is the future?
We are praying that God will grant us the blessing of eventually bequeathing our chapel, 14 houses, guest house, offices, and goodwill to new monastics who are
called to serve Aliquippa. That would please us very much.