1. "moving into close geographical proximity to one another"

Joshua's perspective on "moving into close geographical proximity to one another": We believe deeper connections form in geographic communities where incidental contact on the sidewalk or in shops is common. Our family is actively seeking appropriate housing in or very near South Lake Union. In the long run we would like to take a further step and develop a cohousing intentional community with both shared community space and small private units. (If you are unfamiliar with cohousing, you might start at http://www.daybreakcohousing.org/ .)

----------------------------------

Molly's perspective on "moving into close geographical proximity to one another":

Being geographically based is at the heart of what we're thinking.
It's non-negotiable. We love the implications of close geographical
proximity. With a courageous commitment to close geographical
proximity, a lot of things just fall into place. And...we're just not nourished by commuting.

We believe that close geographical proximity is one of those things
that, in Peter Maurin's words, can "help people to be good." When
people live close together, life must be more integrated. Hiding and
avoiding isn't as easy. An awareness of what friends and strangers
need and how we can help comes more naturally and is more obvious.

In very practical terms, getting together is just so much easier. Loving our neighbor can actually mean our neighbors, and we get to see what it's like to stop being so picky about what we plug ourselves into.

Essentially, it's because God is earthy; God made us as bodily people. If we are to really know one another, we need to be there, in person. We want the bulk of our relational interactions to be Real Life, knowing one another as holistically as possible, in turn being available to the people around us as holistically as possible.

So, what do we really mean by "close?" No, we don't need to all share the same bed and the same toilet. But equally importantly, we can't live more than a mile apart, either. Maybe not even half a mile apart.

Ideally, we'd love to have a huge old house (as a sort of tribute to
the original neighborhood) or an old car dealership (a way of making
swords into plowshares) renovated into several small apartments with
central community space. The idea is to set up the space so that lots of incidental interactions happen, and everyone can be together, but for there to also be room for people to have personal space at any time.

But lets' get real: South Lake Union is one of the hottest places for real estate in the whole country. There's no need to forget about the stated dream of an awesome co-housing setup. But while holding it in the back of our minds, we're very open to just finding an apartment here and an apartment there--to being in the same neighborhood and needing to place a bit more emphasis on "daily community practices that help us follow Jesus," to make up for the bit of distance between our living quarters. But...that is the topic of the next post.

(We are heading up a South Lake Union based group seeking to be intentional about: 1. moving into close geographical proximity to one another 2. supporting one another through daily community practices that help us follow Jesus 3. connecting ourselves and our resources to the people of South Lake Union 4. maintaining "one foot in, one foot out" of Union Church)