Making community life accessible has always been an important value of ours – spiritual formation and discipleship, midwiving new communities, cross-pollinating existing communities, yep good stuff. And we are thankful for all the folks over the years that have invited us to “come and see” and to learn from their life together. As we have continually evolved how we host groups and visitors, we have tried to be careful to assure quality over quantity, and maintain a healthy rhythm of hospitality to folks inside our neighborhood with the hospitality we give to folks outside our neighborhood. We now have far more requests from people and groups that want to visit than we feel we are able to healthily accommodate, and the beautiful thing is that we don’t have to.  There are tons of communities in our little “Community of Communities” that we link up to here on the site, sprinkled across the country.  And we decided to formalize some of these visits in order to try and do the kind of spiritual formation that produces fruit that lasts and relationships that have strong roots.  Over the next year we will have Schools for Conversion hosted every other month by a different community.  We have all felt the Spirit moving in this direction and believe that giving exposure to the many beautiful expressions of community that are out there is one of the most important things we can do.  We, here at The Simple Way, will host one of those gatherings (in May), and encourage you to carefully consider the gifts, locality, and charism of each of the other communities hosting the Schools for Conversion as you prayerfully consider a visit.  [http://www.newmonasticism.org/sfc/index.html]   -- And there are other great ways to cross paths with us – keep an eye on the site here for convergences or places where we are traveling to speak, come to one of the public meetings for worship on Sundays such as Circle of Hope East or Sacred Heart in Camden… but please don’t hitchhike across the country and show up on our steps, you may be disappointed.  Thanks for your considerate understanding and for trusting our discernment in what is best for our community and neighborhood, and don’t let it take the wind out of your sails!  These are exciting times, incredible movement and stirrings among us… we are just one little cell of the Body.