House 244 Community

2011 in the garden

Matt Freer — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:43:44 +0000

2011 has been a good year in the garden at house244. We had a good harvest of potatoes, tomatoes, chard, walking stick cabbages, runner beans, lettuces, rocket, borage and peas, but the borlotti beans, carrots and sweetcorn were a little disappointing. In three years though we’ve established the veg garden well, and next year we plan to expand the veg beds into the other side of the garden (left in photo above), which will all be aided by the new greenhouse… which after many hours has resulted in the picture below, just need to put in the glass now… yeah rather important but at least the structure is up!

My heart is filled with thankfulness.

Faith — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:24:19 +0000

This morning at my church the sermon was about being thankful to God, and how thankfulness is something that should spring from your faith. We read about the 10 lepers who were healed and only one returned to say thank you. In that context one finds oneself shocked at the behaviour of the 9 who didn’t. Jesus had just turned their lives around, they were no longer outcasts, how could they be so ungrateful…? “Yet how ungrateful am I?” I heard my conscience say, look at the way Jesus has turned my life around so that I can have a relationship with the most high God, and yet do I thank him enough?

Counting blessing is something I don’t often remember to do, I find that more often than not I am noticing the things that I do not have that others do. But I took a minute to start counting all the blessings that I have, I began with family; 4 immediate, include spouses and children and that leaps to 8, include uncles, aunts and grandparents and I had already given up using fingers and toes to count. I thought about friends; work friends, past and present, Am Dram friends past and present, Church friends, School friends, neighbours. Then I have a house, a bed, a bible, a job, freedom… the list was becoming so long. My cup overflows. Despite all that I long for, my heart is filled with thankfulness for what I have. Plus that cheesecake on Friday was phenomenal!

Creating third places and making award winning espresso – Friday 19th August

Matt Freer — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:57:49 +0000

We have Larry Bourgeois from the USA staying with us at House244 next week and have asked him to share with us a little about his work and projects on Friday night (19th).

Larry is into creating third places for spiritual renewal and his projects include award winning espresso bars, community coffeehouses, bookstores and community centres. He works for the Episcopal Diocese of S. Ohio around Fresh Expressions of church and by all accounts can make a mean espresso. You can find out more at: larrybourgeois.me

Join us for a relaxed drink and nibbles from 8pm on Friday 19th.

House244 in Oxford looking for new members

house244 — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:27:54 +0000

Are you are interested in community living? Would like to explore joining a small, open-minded, Christian, residential community in East Oxford? We aim to live by a flexible rhythm of life that is guided by our values (including: Hospitality; Creativity; Openness; Generosity; Graciousness; and being Globally aware and locally focused. Find out more

We are a small Christian community of adults and children, living together in a large house in East Oxford. The community was formed by CMS (Church Mission Society) in 2008 in line with their history of community living.

We have developed a rhythm of life, which we would share with you in more detail if you are interested in taking things further. This for example includes having identified a number of aspirational values to guide us as we live with one another and in our neighbourhood: Hospitality – sharing everyday life and using the space to be hospitable; Creativity – being innovative and willing to try new things; Openness – communicating with honesty; Generosity – choosing to go above and beyond; Graciousness- choosing to try to understand people as they are; and trying to be Globally aware and locally focused.

We share an evening meal together most evenings, and each take a turn in preparing a meal once a week. We share communal tasks and cleaning and each take responsibility for an area of life in the house. We also meet together once a week on a Tuesday evening, and spend time together once a week in prayer.

All food and bills are covered by a monthly payment into a house account of £210 per adult and £60+ per child according to their age. We also pay monthly rent to CMS who own the house (around £300 per person).

Each person has their own bedroom and families also has a small living room. Some rooms have their own bathroom and others share a bathroom.

There is a large living/dining space, garden, office and library, all of which are communal areas.
If you are interested in exploring joining us please get in touch using the form below. We’d welcome the chance to answer questions or arrange for you to come over for a chat.

[contact-form]