HARDWICK, Mass. (RNS) — As fall shifts into winter in Hardwick, Massachusetts, temperatures are unseasonably high for November, and a 34-acre community built by a homesteading couple nearly four decades ago stands remarkably quiet.
“I’m finding it’s okay for me to say, well maybe this will not thrive,” Suzanne Shanley, co-founder of the Catholic residential Agape community, said. “It’s really left in the hands of God eventually, whatever that might mean.”
Lifelong teachers and peace activists, Catholics Suzanne and Brayton Shanley, age 79 and 77, have been on this land in central Massachusetts since 1987, when they cleared dense, rural New England forest to construct the buildings that would house an intentional lay community, anchored in the principles of nonviolence and sustainability. They named it Agape, inspired by the Greek word for selfless, unconditional love.
“I was a child of God, all for Jesus through Gandhi with a smile,” Brayton said. “That is how it started out.”
In the commune’s heyday, hundreds of volunteers and community members attended its annual events and work days, which entailed planting crops, chopping wood and helping prepare the land for the coming season. Centered on two sustainable houses, one large garden and a small heritage, it has functioned as a combination lay monastery, retreat center and commune. Most of the …