Community at the Crossing

The Community at the Crossing is made up of young people from across the USA and across Christian denominations who choose to take a year out of their normal pathway…

in order to study

to dive into community life

to experience a radical rhythm of prayer

to serve the poor and the City of New York

and to be interrupted by God.

This year of deeply-shared community life is for any Christian between 20 – 30 years old, from any Christian denomination, from anywhere in the USA.

Through this experience, the Community at the Crossing will forge faith-filled leaders with the courage and moral core to transform the world by the way they practice their chosen vocations.

The Community at the Crossing is non-profit, funded by donations. It therefore needs the support of philanthropic individuals, foundations, and corporate partners in order to make this vision a reality.
Find out more about how you can be involved here.

ONE COMMUNITY, TWO WAYS OF BELONGING

Residential – study, prayer, service and residence onsite at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Working Life – community rhythms of study, prayer, and service integrated into current professional activity or study

Residential and Working Life members make up one community, and meet together regularly.
Between September 2023 and July 2024, a typical rhythm consists of meeting together one evening a week, one day a month, and one weekend a trimester.

PROGRAM

The daily routine of the community is based on 5 central pillars, with additional events and experiences spread throughout the year, such as retreats (based on silence, community life, working life), ecumenical events, experiment week in a monastery, internship in New York City businesses…

Study

• 2 days a week
• Speakers from across the world and across church traditions
• Themes such as Reconciliation and Bridge-building, Ecumenism, Environment and Integrated Ecology, Spirituality in the Ignatian, Benedictine, and Franciscan traditions, Christian Witness in the Business World, Communication and Self-Awareness)

Service to the poor

• 2 days a week
• Serving in groups of 2 or 3 in different charities across NYC
• Service sites ranging from homeless shelters to addiction centers to hospital chaplaincies to disability groups

Prayer

Prayer structures the day, with daily personal prayer, one weekly half-day of silence and meditation, daily communal prayer on site at the cathedral, Sunday celebrations, and different types of evening prayer

Community life

Jesus lived in community. By choosing to share life with other people profoundly different from ourselves, we encounter Jesus through life’s big adventures, as well as the small triumphs and trials of our everyday.

For the Community at the Crossing, daily life is…

• Shared spaces, meals, times of prayer
• Shared responsibility for house tasks and life of the Community
• Evenings and outings together, space for sharing and reconciliation

Unity of Christians

Unity is the overflow of community life. Jesus prayed for unity of Christians (John 17) – this starts with participating in what we can already do together, which in turn gives us hope and opens doors to navigating our differences.

The Community at the Crossing seeks and builds unity by…

• Allowing our different church heritages to inform how we worship together
• Visiting one another’s churches
• Pioneering and praying new ideas to reignite dialogue between different Christian confessions

Interested? Keep in touch with the Community at the Crossing.

TIMELINE

Applications open → January 5, 2023

Final admissions stage → April 2023

Announcement of the first cohort → May 2023

Community at the Crossing cohort launched → September 2023

NEWS and EVENTS

Find out more about upcoming events with the Community at the Crossing by following the Cathedral on Facebook and Instagram.

September 8, 2022

The Cathedral welcomed members of Chemin Neuf at a service in celebration of the Community at the Crossing on September 8. This special ecumenical service included video messages from The Most Reverend Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and His Holiness, Pope Francis, as well as a message from His All-Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch.

July 13, 2022

On July 13, the Episcopal Parish Network hosted an online discussion about the Community at the Crossing's origins and mission:

GET IN TOUCH

The Community at the Crossing is for any Christian between 20 – 30 years old, from any Christian denomination, from anywhere in the USA. Fill out this form to be kept in touch with about upcoming programs and ways to be involved.

PARTNERSHIP

The Community at the Crossing builds upon the model of intentional contemplative communities worldwide, drawing inspiration primarily from the Community of St. Anselm under the leadership of the Honorable Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and collaborating with the Chemin Neuf Community (a Roman Catholic community with an ecumenical vocation).