Word: communing
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...after Easter at a commune near Orléans, France. Inside a warehouse, an altar has been set up on a kitchen table. Surrounding it are a coat rack jammed with secondhand clothing, rows of used appliances and abandoned furniture, and assorted bric-a-brac. All in all, an appropriate setting for the annual get-together of the "Emmaus movement," which has shown thousands of people in 23 countries around the world how to rebuild their self-esteem by recycling the junk of the consumer society...
...began renovating a large, ramshackle house in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-Plaisance as a hostel for needy people. Soon ex-cons, destitute families and vagrants joined him, and the abbe and his growing family of followers started building new residences nearby, using salvaged materials. He called his commune Emmaus, after the New Testament town (Luke 24:13-32) where two disciples, despondent after the Crucifixion, met the risen Christ and were filled with new hope. As it happened, the Emmaus movement was to grow out of personal travail...
That came in 1951, when the abbé lost his assembly seat and with it his only income. But just when the commune seemed imperiled, a chiffonier (ragpicker) at Emmaus devised a new source of money: he taught his colleagues how to rummage through trash for useful objects. Scrap paper was sold, broken furniture and appliances were repaired and marketed. The commune became self-supporting and earned enough to add new centers elsewhere. A credo evolved: "Give instant help to those nearest and in need. Show them how to help themselves. Afterward let them help others...
Today Abbé Pierre lives quietly in one of the 8,000 low-rent apartments that his organization has built in the Paris area. Though the movement runs summer camps and ships supplies and cash to 32 countries, the main focus remains self-sustaining communes. Besides the 52 in France (membership 1,500), there are 100 abroad. While the communes are secular, there is a heavy emphasis on community. The communards get room, board and a stipend, but their main reward is in self-respect. A sign in the Orléans commune reads: "We will never agree to accept...
...they became too prosperous and insensitive, and he fears the same thing will happen to his movement. To prevent this he uses every opportunity to expound his philosophy, and last week's celebration at Orléans was no exception. "The next friend who will come to this commune is somewhere right now," he told his followers. "We know nothing about him, but he exists at this very minute. While we are here and happy, he is crying somewhere in pain. When he comes to us here he will not find a paradise but he will find the time...