I don’t generally use my access here (a great privilege!) to promote my blog, but I hope I’ll be excused this once. Joel has posted a really interesting piece about building community in the church, using a mental institution as a “jumping off point”.

In the hospital, we formed community because the option of being isolated was both discouraged by the staff and rather impractical anyway. The hospital orderly was my roommate. He was about 22, I think, and I was in my 30’s. Speaking honestly, I don’t think we would have ever given each other more than a passing hello outside the walls. Inside, though, we talked with each other at length. We were Spades partners during recreation time. We played on the same volleyball team.

If you think about it, the church as asylum image has a lot going for it, though even as I write that I realise its ambiguitity!