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HandleyCross

Another world is possible

THE VIBE COMMUNITY @

Chapter 1

Handley CrossThe intersection of the community, the arts, spirituality and care for the environment.

A community of ordinary people living radical lives and showing that another world is not only possible but is already here.

1.Ingleby Barwick is the biggest private housing estate in Europe with a population of close to 20,000 people. The socio economic demography of the community (and I use that word community loosely) is professional managerial. Over the last 10 years it has shown itself to be worryingly insular. There is an over-riding sense that people have everything they need and they live

independent existences achieving their life goals. To suggest you have some good news and a different way of living that can benefit them tugs on pride and can challenge their ability to cope with and understand life. However if you scratch the surface of Ingleby Barwick you find an epidemic of broken families, debt, loneliness, lack of purpose and addiction. An estate where the ‘gospel’ of consumption holds sway where people are defined largely by what they have and what they earn. The only real and obvious community that exists on the estate is among the young people who gather each night in groups on the streets forming their identity, trying to break out of the little boxes they are being shoe horned into. Before these young people are sucked onto the conveyer belt of debt, the nuclear family, the smart car and having ‘stuff’ we see glimmers of

Section 1

OVERVIEW

1. The setting

2. The community

3. The difficulties

4. The Realisation

5. The Vision

Handley Cross

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hope and dreams of freedom. However, reality soon kicks in and the necessity to conform takes hold.

2. After a number of years of community building on the estate we have gathered a group, a family of committed people who love people and are seriously trying to live by the words of Jesus. (the red letter words) Living lives of love, lives where hope invades every area and changes us. We want to show

our estate that another world is possible. A world not subject to market forces and attaining wealth, possessions and status.

3. However, on such a large estate with little or no community, it is difficult for a group of people who live in detached houses with cars and 'stuff' to be seen making a difference to the world and living alternatively. We believe a

radical shift is needed in the structure of our life style to make the difference obvious. We need to 'show' the change we are talking

about, talk is cheap. For example: We are keen to help people on the the estate to make a smaller footprint on the worlds resources and so WE need to make a smaller footprint first...We are hoping the estate will become a community that love and care for each other and so we must be doing that first...We want the estate to hear/see the beautiful story of new life, re-creation, reconciliation and fulness of life in the kingdom of God and find their part in it. We therefore need to be demonstrating the outworking of that good news in our lives.

4.

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We have come to realise that in order to demonstrate that commitment to the co-creation of this world we need to engage on some level with a communal expression of whole life Christianity that involves both journeying together to a deeper

understanding of God, combining our resources to look after the earth we have been given and at the same time serving the community of Ingleby Barwick and the wider Teesside area by offering a place of renewal and re-

alignment alongside other people of peace. A community that is living and working together to sustain an ecologically self sufficient spiritual/creative/community space open to the wider community to engage in worship,

learning, healing and being helped through life struggles. A magical place on the edge of the estate where the treadmill doesn't operate and a new vision for life can be glimpsed. A space not reserved for people of a particular theology of even faith but for those engaged with making the world a more beautiful and just place.

5. Our vision is for a creative community. A community with a rhythm of life that has Jesus at its centre. Members of the vibe community would live either on site at Handley Cross or in homes on or near the estate .

We aim for the site to become a self sustaining environmentally intelligent centre. Generating green energy, recycling, salvaging, renewing, growing and rearing our own food, storing and up keeping equipment that can be shared by the whole community. (e.g. one lawnmower rather than one for each house) In time generating income and interest from eco-tourism, educational visits, well being courses and treatments, coding clubs and residential visits. Coffee house, ART studio rent

and gallery space, school visits and hosting events.

We also aim to build accommodation for community

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living at Handley Cross, planned and designed to maximise efficiency and togetherness, but with space for solitude and family space and apartment space for singles and young couples.

The site would also act as a venue for creative and performance arts as well as a centre for well being and retreat. Where people from the estate and all over Teesside can come to renew

perspective, work through issues, find space for solitude. The community would continue to work at growing smaller community groups on the estate in houses where people can meet regularly as a 'family'

to learn, worship, minister, party and do life together. Also organising larger gatherings at Handley Cross.

A regular input from students coming to spend time with the community will keep things fresh and vibrant and help us to achieve some of our self sufficiency aims. Another of our aims is to be a place particularly appropriate and magical for the young people of Ingleby.Working with school groups running experience days in both the arts and ecology to fit in to national curriculum

programs of study. Also putting on concerts, hacks, creative workshops, dry bar and skate facilities for local young people.

The hope is that they will become regular visitors which in turn allows them to experience what another world might look like before they become fully immersed in consumption

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6. Handley Cross is a large house in 8 1/2 acres of land just 5 minute walk from the estate. It is surrounded by woods and has a beautiful south facing vista across the Leven valley.

Details here: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-28619977.html?premiumA=true

Some helpful guidelines to help understand the communities' ethos:

*Affirming our potential is more important than condemning our brokenness.

*Reconciliation is valued over judgement.

*Gracious behaviour is more important than right belief.

*Inviting questions is to be valued more than supplying answers.

*Encouraging personal exploration is more important than communal uniformity.

*Meeting needs is more important than maintaining institutions.

*Peace is more important than power.

*Care more about love and less about sex.

*This life is more important than the life-after.

(Taken from 'If the church were christian' P Gulley.)

We will be providing an opportunity for people who want to to commit to living in the community a number of ways to sign up and invest financially to this new life change. However being part of this venture does not depend on you having money! We will also set about applying for housing and eco grants and pursuing opportunities to work with the housing association to investigate having some social housing available on site.

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