Living in Community

Reflection at Morning Worship with the Community of Brendan the Navigator on Tuesday 14th April 2026

St Barnabas

‘Everything (the first Christian congregation in Jerusalem) owned was held in common’, we are told.

Does this mean that Christians today should practice some kind of primitive communism? I think not, because most Christians have never done so.

The first Christians in Jerusalem decided among themselves to live as a religious community, surrounding the apostles, and sharing all personal possessions. Their community must have been much like the monasteries that grew up in Ireland in the early days of the Irish church. Or much like the monasteries that developed in the high Middle Ages, following a ‘rule of life’ bound by vows of poverty, obedience and stability. Some few Christians today still decide to live together, sharing everything in community. While we may admire their lives of prayer and service, we are not all called to it.

In today’s reading (Acts 4:32-37), we heard the first mention of a Levite, Joseph, nicknamed Barnabas.

‘He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet’, we are told.

Later, the Christian community in Jerusalem sends Barnabas to oversee the growing church in Antioch. He seeks out St Paul to help him. After a year, the church in Antioch sends them back to Jerusalem with money for the relief of the poor Christians in Judea. Barnabas then travels with Paul on his first missionary journey. Together they visit the Jerusalem community again for discussions with the Christian community there, which we know as the Council of Jerusalem. The question they seek to answer is whether Gentiles who do not follow Jewish practices, such as circumcision, can be included in the church. The Council confirmed that Gentiles need not follow the Jewish law to be included, authorised Barnabas and Paul to continue their mission to Gentiles, and asked them to maintain contact with the Community at Jerusalem.

What a life Barnabas had, and how much we owe him! We celebrate him as a saint and example, a true hero of our faith! Sent out by the Community in Jerusalem, with Paul he founded churches across the Eastern Roman Empire. At first these were probably what we would call ‘house churches’, meeting to worship in each other’s homes, without holding possessions in common. They kept in touch with each other, and with the community in Jerusalem by exchanging letters in the hands of messengers.

We who are members of the Community of Brendan the Navigator are part of a dispersed religious community.

We are rooted in the Church of Ireland but with an ecumenical outlook. We welcome as members any who are interested in walking with us.

We do not ask members to live together or hold their personal possessions in common, but we do expect them to follow a simple rule of life: to be regular in prayer and contemplation, to support Community events, and to commit to a personal spiritual practice, which members must work out and apply for themselves.

Through the Community, we experience fellowship on our Christian life’s journey. We come together and walk together in the spirit of pilgrimage, sharing our personal faith and experience with others, and bringing back the gifts of faith we receive from them to our home places.

On Saturday this week the Community of Brendan will hold a 16km pilgrimage walk between the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow and St Lazerian’s Cathedral, Old Leighlin. I plan to attend a shortened walk of about 6km – my old legs would not carry me any further. I would be glad to give a lift to anyone who would like to join me.

 

We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses

Reflection at Compline in Killodiernan Church on the Wednesday in Holy Week, 1st April 2026

‘We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.’

So says the anonymous author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in the reading (Hebrews 12:1-3). But who are these witnesses?

For the author of Hebrews, it was all the Hebrew patriarchs and prophets who held to their faith in Yahweh, the God of Israel, as the one true God. He gives a long list of them in the previous chapter. As Christians, we still hold them in honour today as our ancestors in faith.

But to them we add all the named Christian apostles, saints, and martyrs. They are examples to us of people who held firm in their faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and his teaching, despite every discouragement. They are heroes of our faith.

But our cloud of witnesses is even bigger than that. It includes all those Christians whose names we have never heard of, but who died in the faith of Christ. 

And it also includes all those, living or dead, who have formed our own faith. We remember them with gratitude for their examples – may their names be a blessing to us!

How wonderful it is to be surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses!

We are not alone on our personal journeys of faith. Others have gone before us. Let us take inspiration from them. As Hebrews urges us, let us ‘lay aside every weight’ that holds us back. Let us lay aside ‘the sin that clings so closely’ to us. And ‘Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us’, the race to the kingdom of God, our promised land.

And in this Holy Week, let us focus our minds on Jesus, ‘the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’.

He endured the pain of the cross, and the mocking of hostile crowds, ‘so that (we) may not grow weary or lose heart’, as the author of Hebrews puts it.

It is Jesus who has inspired the cloud of witnesses who in turn inspire us. Jesus showed them, as he shows us, the way to defeat evil, the Way of the cross. He also promises us forgiveness when we fall out of the race, as we surely shall sometimes. Though we fall all too often, when we seek God’s forgiveness, Jesus gives us the strength to pick ourselves up, and continue the race. With his help we will win the ultimate prize, we will abide with our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in his eternal kingdom.