Walking on a Rolling Deck: Life on the Ark
L’Arche: a place of welcome, mystery, brokenness, and redemption

This program has already taken place this spring. We leave this information so you can see the kinds of programs we offer.

Replete with lessons about welcome, mystery, brokenness and redemption, over 135 L’Arche communities throughout the world bring together as a family persons with disabilities and others who care for them. L’Arche was founded in France in 1964, when Jean Vanier invited two men from a psychiatric institution to live in his modest home as a Christian community. Henri Nouwen, probably the best-known L'Arche “assistant,” once said of his years in the L’Arche community in Toronto, “I first thought I came to help you care for handicapped people, but now I feel as if you had accepted one more handicapped person among you. Indeed the facing of my own handicaps was the hardest battle of all.” Join us for Kathy Berken’s stories from L’Arche community life, stories of love, life-threatening illness, violence, peace, loneliness and community.

PRESENTER: Kathy Berken lived and worked in a L'Arche community in Clinton, Iowa, from 1999 to 2009 as an assistant and house coordinator. She prepared for this life by being married, raising children, and pursuing careers as a math teacher, a Catholic journalist, and a marketing manager. Her book, Walking on a Rolling Deck: Life on the Ark (Liturgical Press, 2008), will be available at this event.

WHEN: Tuesday, March 23, 6:30 pm-8:30 pm

COST: No charge, no registration necessary