Religion: Hungry Men

Deep in Pennsylvania’s blue Pocono hills is a 350-acre tract of farm and wood land called Kirkridge. In Kirkridge’s ram shackle old farmhouse last week were gathered twelve Protestant ministers and laymen who described themselves as spiritually “hungry.” Kirkridge is a “retreat” of an unusual kind in the Protestant church. Three years ago a small group of ministers (inspired by Scotland’s famed Iona Community) met to plan a “dedicated order” in the Protestant ministry.

During the three days of their fourth retreat last week, they followed “a careful pattern of devotion,” manual work, discussion and meditation. In the mornings they went to the mountaintop to chop trees and work on their new Kirkridge Lodge, of modern design. Afternoons were spent discussing social problems and sharing “faith-building” experiences. In the evenings, after supper on long wooden tables, they met by the hearth for devotions and evening prayer, after which no body spoke until work time next day.

On the last morning, as they gathered for Communion at a bare table, a loaf of bread was passed around for each to break, an earthen Communion cup for all to drink from. The final prayer of the “hungry men” of Kirkridge: that they might achieve “a new, hardbitten, humble dedication to neglected but crucial tasks. . . .”