“We are companions on the journey / breaking bread and sharing life . . .”

These were the words of the song we sang at the end of two days of sharing the spirit of L’Arche at the 2007 L’Arche Western Canada Region General Assembly held at Star of the North Retreat Centre in St. Albert, Alberta Friday October 26 to Sunday October 28.

The gathering included delegates from the six L’Arche communities, visitors from the Saskatoon Project, Regional Coordinator Pat Favaro and Vice Regional Coordinator Landys Klyne. The event was hosted by L’Arche Edmonton, with additional members of the L’Arche Edmonton community joining the assembly participants on Saturday evening for a lively and fun-filled fiesta with an international flavour. We had a wonderful time together!

The overall theme for our weekend was “Belonging to an International Federation,” and much of our time was spent considering, in a variety of ways, what it means to be members of an international body.

In preparation for this reflection, delegates from each of the Western Canada Region L’Arche communities were given a mini-experience of the L’Arche federation by means of a two-day pre-assembly visit to one of the other communities in the region. By the time these visitor-delegates arrived for the assembly, they were eager to share their stories and many valuable insights about their experiences in other L’Arche communities.

During our time together in the assembly, we discussed a number of questions:

“What is the collective voice of L’Arche in the world?” and “How are we, as members of L’Arche, called to be a sign in the world today?”

Our reflections were greatly enhanced by a series of multimedia presentations sent to us from L’Arche communities and zones around the world—Europe, Africa, Asia and the West Pacific, and the Americas.

In addition, the presence of assistants from other parts of the world was an ongoing reminder of the international character of L’Arche, even within the individual L’Arche communities of the Western Canada Region.

Interspersed with the presentations and discussions, we participated in an activity which provided a symbolic underpinning to our reflections on L’Arche and its international character: Doug Wiebe of L’Arche Lethbridge and Sister Pat Desnoyers, fcJ of Edmonton helped us to make bread together!

Wyndham Thiessen of L’Arche Saskatoon Project kneads the bread dough, while Sister Pat Desnoyers, fcJ of Edmonton looks on.

Before we began, they reminded us that bread is a food found in all parts of the world -- and that bread in various forms would be shared in each of the L’Arche communities in our international federation. At their invitation, we all helped to grind the wheat into flour, add the ingredients of special grains, salt, sugar, water and yeast, stir and knead, let rise (giving it some “alone time,” Doug said), punch and shape the dough, and finally, bake the loaves.

In all these actions, we were drawn into reflecting on the many connections between bread-making and community-building. We were reminded of the challenges of living in community with our many differences and the need for each of us to be willing to let go of our shells like grains of wheat ground into flour, to let our lives be mixed together in giving and receiving, and to allow ourselves, both as individuals and as communities, to be changed into something new.

On Sunday morning, the themes of bread-making and the sharing of one another’s differences in joy and wonder and patience came together within the context of our gospel reflection and prayer. In a spirit of gratitude and mutual blessing, each community shared its loaf of bread with members of each of the other communities. It was a beautiful and rich (and delicious!) experience.

On Sunday, one by one, the groups from the various communities packed up our bags and headed for home, with the words of the song lingering in our heads and hearts:

“We are companions on the journey, breaking bread and sharing life. . . ”

The memory of our time together will serve as an ongoing reminder of our connectedness with so many other L’Arche communities -- in our own region of Western Canada, and throughout the world.