Inspired by the stories of communities such as the Northumbria Community in Ireland, the many evolutions of Church of the Savior in Washington DC and the Sabarmati Ashram founded by Mahatma Ghandi the Hawthorn House was established in late 2004. The founding contributors chose to find a living situation where people could share everyday life and resources together. The Hawthorn House consists of two craftsman homes built in the 1930’s, one with a loft above it, in the South Park neighborhood of metro San Diego, CA. Some of the housemates rent their portion but the property is co-owned by two of the families that live here.
We meet weekly with others in our surrounding neighborhood as a spiritual community. Our meeting is hosted, here at the Hawthorn House. We meet for two hours on a Sunday evening, sharing a simple meal, listening to Scriptures and discussing our lives as followers of Jesus.

Members of the Hawthorn House share evening meals throughout the week, work around the property together, garden together, carpool and generally attempt to do our best at sharing our lives with each other with the hopes of assisting each other in our journey as followers of Jesus Christ.

You can read a review of our meetings, by our friend Matt Casper on ChurchRater.com, and Matthew Lickona for the Sheep & Goats column in the Reader.

Our Manifesto

In our culture of deadbolts, drapes, and distance,
we desire community.

In a country where the common dream has driven many to dread their waking life,
we dream of a new way to live.

In a place where our originality is undermined and our path predetermined,
we seek a different way.

In an empire which demands the creativity, complacency and conformity of its subjects,
we pledge allegiance to the original revolution.

In order to live life out in a way that acknowledges the best in others and the best in ourselves we have found that it is necessary take a step forward into a new but also ancient way of living. The following covenant is a gathering of ideas that we all agree on and want to include in our lives. It is made between each of us and God, and is a step towards finding the life that God wants us to live.

Our Covenant

Contemplation

We realize the only way we can find any of the things we are seeking is by making sure that we are aligned with the One who is at the end of every mean. So, we commit ourselves to regular prayer and contemplation in order to seek God’s will for our lives.

Community

Taking into account the fact that relationships require effort to maintain, we desire to share life in the best way we know how, through meals and conversation. We commit ourselves to honest conversations about life and spirituality on a regular basis so that we will be held to the things we truly value. Convexly, we commit to valuing each other’s space and respecting that privacy.

Work

We are also aware that shared words and common times will not be enough and that this experiment will require a lot of plain old hard work. We commit to sharing the responsibility that comes with living in community as much as we are committed to reaping the benefits. We commit to work together on the household chores, tend the garden, cook food, and lend a hand in any way that we can in order to make each other’s lives easier.

Simplicity and Subversion

We commit ourselves to share as much as possible in order to keep cost down, and allow us to live as sustainably as possible. Along with that, we understand that our culture is overly concerned with consumption and often find ourselves putting resources towards things we don’t need or that have been produced at a severe cost to others. With that in mind we commit to being more conscious of where our money goes, and doing whatever we can to spend as little as possible. This commitment to simplicity is also fueled by our desire to reduce our impact on the environment. It goes beyond simple frugality, however, and requires us to radically alter our way of being in our communities. It will also require us to act, serving those who tend to fall into the cracks of this system we are trying to overcome. We will need to share our knowledge about the best courses of action then gather any abundance we have, whether it is time or money and, as a community, redistribute it to those who are in need.

Our Prayer

We realize that our words are lofty and our wills are not.

We realize that our minds are full of ideas that still might not be aligned with You.

But mostly we realize that You will meet us here and fill in the gaps in our wills and in our minds.

We ask you to bless this neighborhood, this church, these friends, and this covenant.

-Amen