Something to Think About

45 years of L’Arche ClintonI attended L’Arche Clinton’s 45th Anniversary dinner last month, along with a handful of other St. Paul people, including Gregg Petersen. L’Arche is well over 100 intentional Christian communities around the world, home to people with and without intellectual disabilities. L’Arche Clinton is one of the oldest such communities in the U.S.
The anniversary program was quite moving. Former L’Arche directors told stories. St. Paul was celebrated more than once. Lois and Mert Schmidt and Pastor Last were remembered. Do you know the date when L’Arche started using its first office at St. Paul? July 1, 1989. Thirty years ago, this month.
At first, the L’Arche office was just a small, single room, just to the south of the downstairs kitchen. Now, L’Arche offices occupy nearly the whole south wing downstairs! L’Arche has grown—both in terms of numbers of core members and houses and the administrative complexity of the organization.
And with the gains, also losses. As new core members joined the community, so also many have died. Including Johnny Olson, whose funeral was at St. Paul last year. Maybe in the loss is when the faith of L’Arche matters most