The Christian community at Scargill lives and works together for the benefit of others. We try to model a life of self-giving, love, prayer, service and hospitality.
It is, after all, the sort of life Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and in the ‘greatest commandment’: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… [and] love your neighbour as yourself.”
The Scargill Pathway
Many of those who visit and live in the Yorkshire Dales are very familiar with thousands of pathways criss-crossing this part of the world.
Some are testing and dangerous; others involve gentle, meandering strolls across level ground. Some walks include both extremes and everything in between. They provide a vivid metaphor for the Scargill Pathway of Life, usually known as the Pathway. When people arrive on Community they take their first stage promises:
You can find your promises here:
Why live in community?
In sharing our lives like this, we hope to be transformed and help our guests be transformed. We believe this way of life reflects the heart of the Holy Trinity of God.
Community is where humility and glory touch. However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another. Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own.
Henri Nouwen
What’s it like to live in community?
Community life is as messy as it is rewarding. We call it ‘chaordic’; where chaos meets order. It can be intimate but also difficult; it involves laughter and tears.
It’s a place of warmth and acceptance, but also where people who have nothing in common must learn to rub along together. Every day is a lesson in grace.
Members work hard to seek the fulfilment, peace, happiness of every other member within the Community at Scargill, as well as of our guests. Together we learn to be forgiven and to forgive, to celebrate life, to share our troubles and joys, and to live as Jesus asked us to.
What’s a typical day in community like?
We begin our day with prayers at 8.00 am, followed by breakfast. Then we begin work around the house or the estate at 9.00 am. At 11.00 am we have a break shared with our guests and work again until lunch at 1.00 pm. We pray again at 1.45 pm, returning to work until 4.00 pm when we share afternoon tea with our guests. At 4:30 pm we pray our evening prayer, then it’s back to work until 5.30 pm. At 6.30 pm we serve our guests supper and share our meal with them.
We also participate in evening entertainment laid on for our guests, and there is a commitment that we will spend at least two of our evenings joining in with our guests.