Trinity Anglican Church in Old Ottawa South plans to create an intentional Christian community of five or six students and young adults, who will live together in the house next door to the church.
Presenting the plan to Diocesan Council in late March, Archdeacon Mark Whittall explained that the house has been used for student housing since the 1980s. “That’s a good use, it provides reasonable accommodation for students and that’s badly needed, but it doesn’t really have a lot of synergy with the ministry of the parish. We would like to go more in the direction that we originally wanted to go in, and in some cases have been going in, and that is to use Trinity House as part of our student and young adult ministry.”
The house has been known as Mabel Gordon house, but it is being renamed Trinity House.
Whittall described the parish’s hope for the community. Residents would apply to the intentional community program and would be selected by an oversight committee. “We would like them to form an intentional Christian community to support one another in their faith journey for a period of 12 months, to support one another in their either academic or work life, depending on whether they are working or at school,” he said.
There is a convenant to guide their communal life. “We would assist them in the fall in establishing rules of life both communally and individually, for the year that they would spend in the house, we would hope those rules of life would include things like prayer, worship, some retreats, meetings, meals—things that would help them to grow in their spiritual and faith journey over the course of the year and provide a rhythm for life together,” said Whittall.
The parish would provide mentors for the residents, and Whittall will serve as a Spiritual Director for the residents, meeting with each of them monthly.
Diocesan Council approved the plan as well as an application for a $15,000 grant from the Anglican Foundation. “The house is a little bit worn, so it needs some renovations and also we want to establish better communal space in the house that would facilitate that communal living,” said Whittall.
The program will begin, and rooms will be available, on Sept. 1 2022. It may be possible for some residents to move in during July and August. Rooms are not furnished. The program cost is $750 per month for a 12-month period, which includes spiritual direction, retreat(s), mentoring, programming and resources, accommodation, utilities and Wi-Fi. The cost does not include meals. For more information, see Trinity’s website trinityottawa.ca.
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