We Left Our Community but Our Community Never Left Us

We Left Our Community but Our Community Never Left Us

By Daniel A. Brown Thirty years after the demise of the Renaissance Community (see Communities #184, Fall 2019: “Whatever Happened to the Renaissance Community?”), its hundreds of former members are still trying to figure out what happened. There is no unified...
Lessons on the Road to Community Stability

Lessons on the Road to Community Stability

By Kara Huntermoon We treated each new person as if they would be the answer to our problems. Our founder, Reba, begged the renters at every meeting to help figure out how to keep the land and community going. “I can’t do this!” she moaned. “It has got to be...
Dinosaurs, Asteroids, Gardening, and Community

Dinosaurs, Asteroids, Gardening, and Community

By Chris Roth In the past year alone, my tiny home caught fire, my laptop computer was flooded by hot water, a family member was hospitalized, a former community-mate had a stroke, I lost (temporarily) my sole source of income, the swath of older trees nearest to me...
What Does It Take to Break with H(er)story?

What Does It Take to Break with H(er)story?

By Joan McVilly More than ever I’m questioning the whole project of “intentional community.” What is the purpose? Maybe this is why I felt free to walk away from my community despite what I knew could be the consequence. Was I a lynch pin that now sees that community...
Communities #186: Picking Up the Pieces: New Beginnings

Communities #186: Picking Up the Pieces: New Beginnings

Communities #186 Spring 2020 Note: You can order a copy of this issue here. Following up on our Passing the Torch theme, our new issue highlights cases where intentional communities experience not so much generational shift as total or near-total collapse or...
Connecting through Generations at the Bruderhof

Connecting through Generations at the Bruderhof

By Marianne Wright June 2020 marks the centenary of the Bruderhof, a Christian communal movement that today is home to around 3000 people of many nationalities living on 26 communities in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Australia, Paraguay, and...