EVENTS
Community Background
Newsletter
Ashram Press
Branches
Sheffield Projects
Study and Research
Links
Contact
Welcome to
the website of Ashram Christian Community in the UK
Charity No: 1099164 * Company No: 477991 
Vacancies arise from time to time in the Ashram houses in Sheffield.
Please see the Events page for updated information.
Please see the Events page for updated information.
The
Ashram Trust
The
Ashram Community is spread around Britain; people who have joined
together committing to the radical Jesus today. We create our
Community as a way whereby Christians of any Church and none, plus
others interested, can develop and support activities, projects, and
experimental “plants” (presently in Sheffield) to embody our
ideas. We are an ecumenical intentional community, formed and changed
from within – at present around eighty of us, Members and
Associates. We are also a Registered Charity, and function doing
charitable work that is recognisably for public benefit.
Life together
Our life together leads us to practical action. We support each other’s initiatives, often in new ventures in faith. We search for appropriate lifestyles, to take account of a divided world and a divided Britain. We try to make our life decisions about jobs, vocations, use of money, the place we live or work, and political action, in relation to the Gospels. We establish Houses and Projects to embody and further our mission, and work with our Community Houses and Projects as they further our Community aims. For mutual support, all are at present in Sheffield.Click here to read a Proposal which was presented by a resident of one of the Sheffield Community Houses, to the Association of Building Bridges between Churches (ABBC) on 'Building Christian Communities Alongside Church'.
We are a joyful community in a humdrum, secular kind of way. We prepare and share food together, we enact simple liturgies with bread and wine. We share our homes and form walking distance communities. Many of us are vegetarian. We aim to be non-sexist, non-racist, and non-hierarchical. We seek our own modest lifestyles and sometimes “journey downwards” to reflect the way followed by many Christians throughout the ages.
Community occasions
The
whole Community – Members, Associates and new friends, meet for a
weekend in May and October and for a day General Meeting in February
and July. We share community worship and concerns, and work at a
particular theme. The weekends are held in centres in Derbyshire and
Lancashire with shared community self-catering. Branches take it in
turn to organise the programme and catering. There are periodic
retreats and weekends for people interested in Ashram-style
discipleship and theology.
There is an annual holiday in July/August arranged by members desiring a relaxing self-catering break together in different parts of the country each year.
We also have a bi-annual journal ‘Act Together’ to share our stories and Community commitments, and an Annual Prayer Cycle, listing all Members and Associates.
An annual Day’s Pay Appeal is sent to a selected non-Ashram project overseas.
National projects
Members of the Community at the four meetings annually work together in Tasks & Visions Groups:1. Action - Campaigns, Local Witness, Rule of Life, Political witness.
2. Spirituality - Prayer Manual, Worship, Retreats.
3. Lifestyle – Membership, Mutual Support, Branches, Pastoral concerns.
4. Roots - Research, Writing, Publications, Study Groups.
An Annual Report is sent to all Members and Associates giving details of our charitable work as a Community and in Sheffield.
We
commit ourselves:
To follow the Way revealed in Jesus;
To support each other in good and ill;
To challenge evil with the power of love;
To offer the Kingdom in political and economic witness
To work for the new community of all creation;
And to risk ourselves in a lifestyle of sharing.
To follow the Way revealed in Jesus;
To support each other in good and ill;
To challenge evil with the power of love;
To offer the Kingdom in political and economic witness
To work for the new community of all creation;
And to risk ourselves in a lifestyle of sharing.
Our Invitation
People anywhere who wish to support us are invited to become Associates. Associates receive the bi-annual newsletter ACT Together, Community Information, and any Ashram Press publications issued, as do members. They are free to join in Branch, Regional and National Ashram Community events. They pay an annual Associate Member fee of £20 (unwaged £15).
When people have had some experience of the Community, and have attended a local branch and/or Community weekend, they decide whether or not to become a Member. If they decide to join they are welcomed at a Membership Liturgy.
Membership Commitment is renewed each year, when the member is invited to complete two forms - the annual membership Commitment form, which includes any financial commitment to the General Fund and other Community funds, plus a Personal Discipleship commitment form, which invites decisions on the six areas of the Ashram Commitment.
People anywhere who wish to support us are invited to become Associates. Associates receive the bi-annual newsletter ACT Together, Community Information, and any Ashram Press publications issued, as do members. They are free to join in Branch, Regional and National Ashram Community events. They pay an annual Associate Member fee of £20 (unwaged £15).
When people have had some experience of the Community, and have attended a local branch and/or Community weekend, they decide whether or not to become a Member. If they decide to join they are welcomed at a Membership Liturgy.
Membership Commitment is renewed each year, when the member is invited to complete two forms - the annual membership Commitment form, which includes any financial commitment to the General Fund and other Community funds, plus a Personal Discipleship commitment form, which invites decisions on the six areas of the Ashram Commitment.