www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Building a Byzantine Catholic Village

Compared with Minn. or North Dakota it's probably mild. But I'd much prefer something further south. In any event houses run from 400,000 to a million. I suspect the lots alone are beyond our reach. Then there's the zoning. Suburbs aren't big on farms or villages. I'm afraid you'd have to travel a couple hundred miles west or south to find anything we could afford.

Although Kansas seems pretty isolated it still may be the best choice.

Dan L

Ok, Dan and everybody - close your eyes, start clicking your heels and repeat after me:

There's no place like home...there's no place like home!

Gordo

There's no place like Rome...there's no place like Rome!

Well, depends on which one you have in mind!

On a serious note, those interested in this topic may wish to read some of the threads on the OrthodoxVillage.com [orthodoxvillage.com] forum.

Σώσον, Κύριε, καί διαφύλαξον η�άς από τών Βασιλιάνικων τάξεων!

Wow, the old OrthodoxVillage site is still around? I think the last time I looked at that was three or four years ago - doesn't look like anything has changed.

Andrij, every good village needs a Kobzar to sing the stories...

This site hasn't been around that long - perhaps you are thinking of a different one? The site I mentioned above has been active a little over one year. I readily admit things are a bit slow at the moment, but should pick up once summer is over.

As well as a good Diak to sing the services and teach the kids.

Σώσον, Κύριε, καί διαφύλαξον η�άς από τών Βασιλιάνικων τάξεων!

Right again. That other site I was thinking about was an old Geocities or AOL one-pager basically about the same topic. There actually are others out there doing this... Don't tell my goat - they might get "organized" (ever see Chicken Run?)

Wow - what a great site.

As my charismatic friends used to say - "It must be the Holy Spirit!"

Gordo, who believes that it takes a monastery to create a village to house a family to raise a child

As was implied earlier I don't know much about farming. Here's what I know how to do, but not very well.

I know how to grow vegetables and flowers.

I did milk a cow once and I have cleaned out manure from a barn.

I do know how to stack hay and straw both on a wagon and in a barn.

Doesn't sound too promising.

Dan L

Dan, I once knew a doctor whose sister and brother-in-law ran a farm. He would go there at least one Saturday a month just to help clean out the waste in the barn. He said it was therapeutic after being totally obsessed with hygiene all the time in his profession.

The Greek Orthodox have a married/family style monastery/community living in NY state if I am to be remembering correctly.

And you must have been reading the ol' Society of St. John and their "vision" of a village up there in the Poconos...
until they got themselves into a WORLD of trouble.

Sometimes I wonder how much of a desire to build an Orthodox or Eastern Catholic village is based on idealized notions of what village life was like, rather than actual village life. (I'm not throwing stones or pointing fingers, here; I've had ideas like this once or twice! )

There was a recent National Geographic feature about an Iowa town that became a hub for Chasids and a kosher foods industry:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0506/feature7/index.html

Maybe this method would be easier than starting a village from scratch?

Dave

Actually haven't Russian old believers established such villages in the US, I believe there is one someplace in the Williamette Valley in Oregon and I ams sure there are some more in Canada and at least some Ukrainian settlements that verge on being Ukrainian villages. Maybe more practical to have a village-theme like the Bavarian village in Leavenworth, WA or the Swiss one in New Glarus, WI and some others with Danes, etc. Good tourist attatractions for otherwise impoverished towns. Should be some towns in PA with older churches to start out with. Something like a "skansen"

And also in the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, i.e. Nikolaevsk and environs.

Massasauga - I think the SSJ clergy had problems well before they started that business in PA. The end, not just the creation of a Catholic village, but the restoration of Christian culture itself, is a gradual process, involving multiple generations.

The idea is indeed a noble and worthwhile one, but has to be started from the ground up, by families united in cause and faith, a couple at a time. It doesn't happen overnight.

Like farming itself, you live with the rhythym of the animals, of the things you are growing, which requires patience, discipline, diligence, and flexibility. If you try to make things happen before their time, the consequences can be disastrous.

Students flock to campus organic farms
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/07/22/student.farmers.ap/index.html

I thought this article was interesting in light of our discussions around both evangelization and farming/village life. I think this represents something of a counter-cultural trend over and against the depersonalizing urbanization of existence in the US. Having a Byzantine family-based "village" farming effort might also have an appeal as an outreach to college age students.

I also remember driving a 98 year old neighbor of mine whose name was "Ace" to see his wife in a local nursing home. We were talkjing about the importance of family life, and he turned to me as said, "You wanna know how to keep a kid outta trouble? Give him a hoe and make him dig in the earth. Let him plant some seeds and watch 'em grow. Let him see the fruit of his own labor."

I thought about the summers where I would work on my grandparents city-farm (about 5 acres of peas, carrots, corn and stringbeans). Those were character building times, and a great opportunity to get close to my grandparents and my great-grandmother who was living with them. I have treasured memories I won't forget.

My two cents...

Gordo