Chava Redonnet Livres

In fall of 1998, Corpus Christi Church in Rochester, N.Y. underwent the loss of its priest, its female pastoral assistant and most of its staff over the issues of the role of women in leadership, the blessing of homosexual unions, and an invitation to "anyone who loves the Lord" to share in communion at Mass. That winter, about a third of the parish formed a new church, Spiritus Christi. In February of 1999 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester announced that those who had joined the new parish had incurred automatic excommunication.Spiritus Christi is today a thriving community of about 1,500 people, renting space for services in three Protestant churches in downtown Rochester. The community runs a Prison Ministry, a Mental Health Outreach, and the Grace of God Recovery House. This is the story of a community that had to face profound spiritual questions about their relationship to the church and their responsibility as Christians to live the Gospel it's a story about the cost of discipleship.Proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to support the Spritus Christi Prison Ministry.

What does it mean to be community? Chava Redonnet explores many dimensions of her experience of community in this collection of twenty-four essays written for her parish, Spiritus Christi in Rochester, New York. Staying close to God, to nature and to each other are key, as well as some practical show up, hang in there, and share yourself. Offer your gifts, believe in each other, and always trust God. She writes, "I believe we have something precious here at Spiritus Christi. I believe community is the way for the church of the future. I believe we can serve as a model for that-one model-there must be lots of ways to be community. But some things are forgive seventy times seven, love one another, bear each other's burdens. And I believe that true community cannot happen without equality." These essays draw on two decades of rich experience of building community on the parish level, and are offered in hopes that they will help to carry out the work of the to nurture the spiritual growth of the people of God, and to build the world God dreams of. Proceeds will benefit Grace of God Recovery House.