Rhythms of Life

While each house organizes their life together differently there are some common threads that run through the houses.

Common Meals

The most basic and yet most important element in our life together is shared evening meals. Each resident usually takes a turn cooking and cleaning up after the meal. Common meals are a place where we can connect with others in the house on a regular basis and hear what's happening in each other's lives, not to mention where we get to sit down most nights to a hot, wholesome, and usually delightful meal that someone else prepared and cleans up after. We have found that when the common meal becomes less frequent and less of a priority it is usually a sign that things in the house are starting to crumble. While sharing several meals together does not necessarily build community, our varied schedules and commitments certainly makes it hard to build community without them.

Community Prayers

Members and Friends of Co:Here, along with others in the neighbourhood, are invited to gather weekly for breakfast and prayers for the community. This is a time where we ground our lives in the love of Christ, listen for the Spirit's leading, and bring our concerns for the neighbourhood and world to the throne of God. Some individual houses also have a joint rhythm of prayer into which residents are invited.

Hosting Guests

One of our core values is that of radical hospitality and as such part of our regular rhythms of life together includes hosting guests. This hosting may be simply sitting down for a cup of coffee with whomever stops in, making space in our guest room for someone in crisis or accompanying a guest in their housing search. Some of our guests come to dinner one night a week and have become extensions of our household, joining in on other house rhythms and celebrations.

Celebrations

Sharing life often means wading through difficult times together, but these difficult times are navigated in part by the enjoyment and trust fostered through taking time to celebrate together. The temptation in times of conflict especially is to hold back on communal celebration. Sometimes, however, celebration is exactly what is needed to ease the tension in a way that only shared laughter can do. Birthdays and holidays are celebrated together along with other momentous occasions such as obtaining citizenship, graduations, and holidays of other nations represented among us.

Retreats

Life together and radical hospitality can both be tiring at times and reveal our individual and communal brokenness. The longer we are together the more we recognize the need for reflection, rest, and healing in the midst of our active lives. Our community is grateful for Rivendell Retreat Centre on a nearby island, where we can get away for individual and group retreats.

House Gatherings

While many decisions and discussions are held during casual conversation or over dinner, there are decisions and discussions that need a more structured space and time. Regular house gatherings are times of making decisions about daily life together such as who's cooking when or what are we going to do for Thanksgiving this year. They are also times of intentional connecting and visioning.