Kingdom Action
“The deepest motive for mission is simply the desire to be with Jesus where he is, on the frontier between the reign of God and the usurped dominion of the devil.” – Lesslie Newbigin
Reconciliation & Justice
Jesus modeled diving into great pain to bring great healing, and this inspires us to be agents of healing where there is brokenness, reconciliation where there is division, and justice where there is injustice. The wounds inflicted by centuries of racial injustice are deep and persist in pervasive ways throughout America, and it falls especially to Christians to be reconcilers, following the example of Jesus. We seek to be agents of reconciliation and healing through the work of the Corhaven Graveyard and the Repentance Project, hosting many events and discussions, and building real relationships across racial divides.
Peacemaking
Peacemaking–bringing God’s shalom to the peoples of the world and especially in places of conflict–is both daunting and necessary in our time. It also comes with a great promise, as Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Our heart for peace manifests itself in regular opportunities for pilgrimage and engagement in Israel and Palestine in partnership with The Telos Group, offering seminars on peacemaking and discipleship with special attention to the Holy Land, as well as between divided peoples in our own contexts.
Vocation
All the vocations of humankind are meant for making of God’s shalom and cultivating the common good – lawyers, folks in business, farmers, builders, mothers and fathers, engineers, priests, doctors and nurses, politicians, teachers, creators, artists… the list is long. When people in any vocation apply their best skill and knowledge and effort to do things for the benefit of others, God’s purposes march forward. God’s Kingdom comes not just through the work of the church, but also through the work of our work. We express this conviction through our ‘business as ministry” of Common Good Things, as well as offering seminars, retreats, and ‘in office’ teaching series focused on vocation and how God’s mission is carried out in our places of work and in the home.
Creation Care
Creation care is an opportunity and a mandate from God, an integral aspect of our human vocation and a vital form of kingdom action today. The call to “exercise dominion” (Gen. 1.26-28) is best understood as a call to careful and loving, stewardship– to responsibly cultivating the land and its resources so that all of creation, human and non-human, can experience the flourishing for which it was made. Because God created everything, all of creation has inherent worth, and when we partner with God in the good work of creation care, we bear witness to this truth. At Coracle, we put these principles into action at Corhaven, where we engage in sustainable agriculture practices and ethical animal care in order to supply guests with delicious organic produce as part of the retreat experience.
Church Unity
The Christian Church is one in the Spirit but too rarely in expression, to the detriment of each Christian tradition that is separated from another. This breaks the heart of Jesus, who desires unity in his body, and leads to our diminished experience of the richness of the body of Christ. We are committed to church unity between the Great Traditions of Christianity – Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant – for the sake of clearer witness to Christ as well as for our own spiritual growth and experience. We do this through partnerships, relationships, and seminars on themes of Christian Unity and how we can learn from other Christian traditions that may be different than our own.
For the World
Partnering for the Gospel and the Kingdom around the world is part of what we believe in and do. We have established connections and partnerships with the Anglican Church in Nepal, Christians in Israel-Palestine, and ministry to those on the margins in Guatemala. We’ve been privileged to assist several major faith-based NGOs with spiritual formation training for their executive leadership and staff including World Relief, World Vision, International Justice Mission, Food for the Hungry, the Anglican Relief and Development Fund, and others.