EarthAbbey – a prophetic community

Many people have said, so what exactly are you? Are you a church? Is EarthAbbey only for Christians? What does it mean to be a member? After a couple of years learning by experience, and consultation with existing members, today we publish a set of Frequently Asked Questions about EarthAbbey. They include the idea that EarthAbbey aspires to be a prophetic community.

We draw our understanding of a prophetic community from the ideas of Walter Brueggemann (The Prophetic Imagination) and Tom Wright (Jesus and the victory of God). Both these scholars agree that Jesus understood his own life and mission to be the fulfilment of the work of the prophets like Amos, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

There were common features in the stories of the prophets including an awareness that:

• Massive changes in society are approaching:
• There is a need for divinely led reform:

In the face of this the prophet presents as a person:

• on the edge who sees clearly what is happening
• who speaks out against injustice
• who feels the coming grief
• who presents the anguish of God
• contends with the establishment
• who dares to say that the end is coming
• who opens up a space for the re-imagination of society

One way to understand the story of Jesus is to see him as the divine fulfillment of the life of these prophets. These people were willing to face the traumatic and deep transition that their society was about to go through, seek divine wisdom, enter into the grief of the poorest and even bear suffering themselves for the sake of living an authentic life. In doing this, says Brueggemann, they opened up a space for the re-imagination of society.

Jesus can be seen as acting out a life similar to the prophets who had gone before, but taking it all to a new level as the incarnate one (see the story of the tenants in the vineyard Luke 20 v 9ff), and calling into being a community of people who would share the work and help create the new society. EarthAbbey aspires to be such a prophetic community.

For more of the core understanding of EarthAbbey go to Frequently asked questions about EarthAbbey

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