{"id":711,"date":"2025-10-04T00:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T00:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/?page_id=711"},"modified":"2025-10-06T00:57:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T00:57:29","slug":"tml7","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/tml7\/","title":{"rendered":"Agape Community: Community-Building and Its Glorious Fruits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places\/ Third Place Stories<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Agape Community, co-founded in 1982, is an ecumenical para-church organization that faithfully serves as a \u201cthird place,\u201d where people come together, relationships form and deepen, and community grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This beautiful mural to your right was collaboratively produced by a group of nine college students, from Iona University and the College of the Holy Cross, during a four-day rural immersion retreat offered by the Agape Community in May of 2025, and the \u201cthird place\u201d story behind the mural\u2019s creation is a decidedly hopeful tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the interfaith, ecumenical retreat, participating students were introduced to life in a lay Catholic, sustainable, nonviolent community. Their activities included working in the community garden, engaging in personal and communal prayer, and taking shared walks to the beautiful Quabbin Reservoir. The students also — and perhaps most importantly– agreed to drastically limit their use of smartphones and social media during the retreat. Six of them even voluntarily left their phones in the Agape Chapel, a gesture that bore a very particular fruit. Doing daily Gospel readings in the chapel, with phones conspicuously perched on the
chapel ledge, contributed to the sense of stillness and peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Holy Cross student, Grace Perkins, described the experience this way: \u201cBefore the retreat, I would often unintentionally distract myself by scrolling on my phone.\u201d During the retreat, however, that all changed. Grace observed: \u201cInstead of turning to our devices as soon as there was a moment of quiet or nothing we needed to do, we turned to each other. I experienced tremendous growth when I learned to sit with my surroundings and just be. \u2026I believe that I am better able to be lovingly present to others, to work for justice, and to promote peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does the mural fit in? Well, the mural expresses the students\u2019 impressions of their immersion retreat, out of which sprang the notion and effort of collectively producing a work of art, i.e., the mural. The project is also a by-product of the mural designing exercises with students, initiated by Dr. Jim Robinson, a professor of Religious Studies and a member of Agape\u2019s Mission Council and Board of Directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In your viewing of the mural, we hope you will experience the deeply spiritual impulse that led to its creation. We also hope you will see images of Agape\u2019s Francis House, and its surroundings, including the impressive tree that is the center of Agape\u2019s circle of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Agape Community of Hardwick, MA is a marvelous (third) place of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places\/ Third Place Stories The Agape Community, co-founded in 1982, is an ecumenical para-church organization that faithfully serves as a \u201cthird place,\u201d where people come together, relationships form and deepen, and community grows. This beautiful mural to your right was collaboratively produced by a group of nine college students, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-711","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":908,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/711\/revisions\/908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}