St. Irenaeus Retreat and Prayer House : Origins

The idea first started to formulate when I facilitated a Common Prayer Party in Toronto in 2010 with FreeChurch inside the beautiful liturgical space of St. Stephen's Anglican Church. I was inspired by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and their Common Prayer book of a 'liturgy for ordinary radicals'. This was the formative stages of the New Monastic Movement which is one of the expressions of the Emerging Church impetus. There have been many other influences not the least in Jacob Needleman's Lost Christianity and Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy for guiding me to explore a 'reMonk' spiritual lifestyle as aspiring to an intentional Christian Community focused on deeper forms of praxis discipleship and prayer

THE CHURCH IN MUCH OF THE WESTERN WORLD

is in exile, alien in a strange new
post-modern world. What spiritual
resources, patterns of community
and ways of living do we need
to sustain faith, inspire discipleship
and energise mission? We need
examples of those drawing on the
deeper contemplative prayer
traditions in creative life-affirming
ways in a new era.
New Monasticism is the term many
are using to explore these attempts
for a more profound search into
a genuine spirituality for today
that transforms and heals the
brokenness and woundedness
we find in ourselves and
in society...