Elin Lundell from Sweden
“What will separate us from the love of Christ?” we read in the scripture during one of our daily morning prayers. “Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.” (Rom 8:35-37). I’ve read this scripture passage many times, assuming that what I am reading concerns me as well as every other Christian. Read more »
Patricia Guitti Polastri from Brazil
Imagine a place where a family opens their door’s house for those who need a shelter… This is true, and it happens in the Catholic Worker Farm. Maria and Scott are the reason for this beautiful dream comes true, a couple who have changed their lives to help other people. I am glad to have known these two special human beings, who believe the world is better when we transform our ideas into actions. One of the examples is the Farm, where peace is welcome! Some time ago I was wondering about being a volunteer at the Catholic Worker Farm. Read more »
Mirjam Johansson from Sweden
Each holding a bunch of red heart shaped balloons Christian Hunt and Alex Randall are walking the streets trying to convince people to join their campaign Cheatneutral.com.
The basic idea is about offsetting infidelity and is described on their website as follows: “When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain and jealousy in the atmosphere. Cheatneutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience.” Read more »
Herman van Veelen from Holland
In the beginning of December I went back to my home country for a week. I went there to celebrate the feast-day of St. Nicholas, which is very big in Holland, and to answer all sorts of difficult questions, like “What are you doiCatholic Worker Farm celebrationng living at some crazy Christian – hippy farm -commune?”, “What was wrong with going to university?” and “Why didn’t you write?” Though all of those questions are very good article-material, I chose here to restrict myself to the first question: “What are you doing at the Catholic Worker Farm?” Read more »
Anna Blomgren From Sweden
Thoughts from a Citizenship Class “…And when you’re a citizen in a European Union country, you have the right to travel and stay and work in any country throughout the union.” The women sitting in front of me are nodding in acceptation as I tell them this. They seem to be painfully aware of the fact. A mixture of anger and guilt rises in me; how can it be that our rights and opportunities are still so different depending on where we were born? Do I deserve to stay in England any more than these struggling asylum seekers who are with me in this room? Read more »
Whitney Roach from London School of Theology
My experience as an intern at the Catholic Worker Farm this summer has been nothing short of intense: emotionally, physically, relationally and of course spiritually. I have stepped into a community which is characterized by paradox: there is struggle and strife, yet peace and beauty; there is hopelessness in people’s situations, yet hopeful people; it is a refuge for the refugee, yet a home which is held captive to the extraordinary cost of living in England. I am not surrounded by people who look like me, who think like me, or even who have been raised like me. Read more »
Martha Hennessy from Vermont, USA
When searching for community we sometimes wonder in what direction this path will take us and whom we may meet along the way. I come to this Catholic Worker Farm from Weathersfield , Vermont as a supplicant, and a volunteer to help out for a few weeks. I find myself sharing a 12th century English farmhouse with a very dedicated couple who’s family includes two sons and a diverse mix of faces, languages, and spirits. I awake in the morning with a sense of confusion over what has led me here, my own impulse, or the hand of God. Perhaps both. Read more »
Shannon Hope Fisher from Kansas, USA
Tipping, Skipping, Dumpster Diving… I’d rather call it Gleaning At the Catholic Worker Farm we have a weekly ritual; this is a story of my first time participating in it: Last night was a very nice night. After we ate a delicious lasagna dinner I made myself a cup of tea and settled in with Scott, Maria and Tanya to watch Into the Wild on the projection screen. We laughed, we cried, and when it was over Scott told us it was time. Tanya made a tea flask and I grabbed a granola bar, because, as you know, you should never go to the grocery store on an empty stomach. Read more »
Ceri Owen from Wales
I thought I knew how messed up Britain’s asylum system is. I’ve been on protests about it, I’ve stood outside detention centres waving placards, I’ve signed petitions, I’d met a few asylum seekers at church and soup kitchens, I’ve done my bit for Stop The BNP. I thought I knew. But this is different. You can’t understand how dehumanising a system is until you fully understand the humanity of the people trapped in it. I thought I knew the situation for ‘asylum seekers’ was bad. When it’s a housemate and friend who has to formally prove risk to her life in a language she doesn’t speak… Read more »
