You can see Abi's Terms here!
The Wikiklesia Project has released Volume One!
Go to Wikiklesia Project and check it out!
And see here, too: WikiBug
The Abbess has written a chapter on the founding of The Abbey in this book…it is a fine work, for a fine cause. Consider getting one or two and spreading the word!
[NOTE: an excerpt from my chapter can be found on the bottom of this page.]
And, check out the award that we won!
Blessings,
AbiSomeone
What does it mean to be Triadial?
Triadial is that which pertains to a triad - a group of three. Already a group of three, The Abbey is not open to more members. We believe that three is the perfect size for mentoring - small enough for each to engage fully with all, yet large enough to have significant diversity.
We believe that, God being a triad, this number has significance. The image of a learner's stool is ideal: there is no "right" way to sit down, for there is no front or back or side. It's three legs provide all the balance necessary, neither too much nor too little.
With traditional one-on-one mentoring, the flow of wisdom is usually from mentor to apprentice. The mentor may not always be available. But with a triad of peer mentors, there is wonderful interchange in all directions…and at least one of us is usually able to respond to the needs of another in a timely manner.
How can I get involved in Virtual Triadial Mentoring?
If this kind of experience sound interesting to you, we encourage you to use your own imagination and make your virtual meeting place something that is meaningful to you, just as The Abbey is especially meaningful to us! To help jump-start your thinking, consider the following:
Think about the persons who comment regularly on blogs you frequent. Consider whether there are two who are very like you but also very different from you. Try to include someone from the opposite gender, another culture, you get the idea. Think about the persons whose comments you look forward to reading, whose opinion you respect, and who you regularly "talk" with on-blog, who you sense would like to continue some threads of conversations off-blog.
If these persons have their own blog or website, go there and look around. If it seems like a comfortable thing to do, use their contact information to let them know you appreciate their virtual voice…and just see how it goes.
If they do not have their own blog, ask them if you could continue a comment off-blog. If they are willing, this may result in them requesting the blog owner to forward their e-mail address to you. Don't push it…virtual relationships are quirky and deserve respect for identify and privacy.
Virtual mentoring is a subtle art that depends on significant resonance with another. You have to really connect on many different levels, if you are going to commit to contributing to each other's life journey in this non-verbal, non-visual method of communication.
Our advice: don't wait; be patient. Don't wait to start thinking about whether this form of discipleship is right for you. Be patient with the process. It took months for us to find and bond with each other. There is no magic formula. Ask God to lead you to brothers or sisters who will journey with you in The Way. And then just see what happens!
"Neo-Monastic" makes The Abbey sounds religious. Is it?
We prefer to think of it as a quiet place where three incarnational-missional followers of Jesus Christ put aside the busy-ness of life and seek to allow the Holy Spirit to aid the process of spiritual formation in us through fostering attitudes of love, grace and mercy that enable mutual submission, service and leadership—with each other in our "virtual Abbey" and with those in our "real" environments.
Whatever your path, thanks for visiting The Abbey, and may the blessing of God go with you.
AbbE, AbbY, AbbI (yes, I know that makes four! AbbE tells me that this is a perfect four-sided triangle—like a pyramid….) and Abi
The Story of the Founding of The Abbey
[This copyrighted passage is excerpted from my chapter of Volume One of the Wikiklesia Project: Voices of the Virtual World, entitled "Virtual Mentoring at The Abbey"]
What is most overwhelming to me, however, is how the Holy Spirit used a blog to establish a trans-local, neo-monastic, mentoring triad—three persons from different geographical locations who would otherwise never have met. We call our “virtual” space The Abbey—a place for electronic mentoring between Abbot the Elder (AbbE), Abbot the Younger (AbbY), and me—the Abbess. But I’m getting ahead of the story.
We three “met” shortly after the launching of Alan’s blog. We found ourselves drawn to each other’s comments on the various threads—recognizing echoes of our own “eclectic” thoughts. We had little trouble tracking each other’s ideas when many seemed lost. For the three of us, this was uncanny. We were not used to encountering resonance; dissonance was so much more common! We began to “talk” with each other in the various threads, grateful for words of wisdom and confirmation from someone who understood.
A growing desire to connect off blog was finally realized. We acknowledged our fiery passion for God, our quirky senses of humor, and our acute awareness that most people just don’t “get” us. We agreed it felt like “coming home” and “finding lost-long kin.” Most importantly, we were able to finally feel “normal” somewhere.
We quickly discovered just how wonderfully “unusual” our little group was…so much so that I was reminded of one of my favorite scenes from Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein—the scene where Igor is trying to recall which brain he brought back from the university for the doctor’s grand experiment. Marty Feldman, eyes swirling, taps his chin as he tries to remember the name written on the glass container. Abi-someone… Abi… Abi… Normal! And it hit me—we should call our virtual space The Abbey. So we did.
Each of us, here at The Abbey, is actively involved in ministry. I (a wife and mother of sons) am busy visioning counter-cultural church planting. Brother AbbE (a single man) is involved in developing strategic missional analysis tools and other writing projects and church consultations. Brother AbbY (a husband and father of daughters) pastors a growing missional congregation.
While The Abbey doesn’t take the place of “local” relationships, its value is “virtually” priceless to us. It encourages our hearts, souls and “quirky” minds to love God with all our strength. And it helps us love our “local” neighbors when we are better able to understand and love ourselves.
For AbbE, a mentor is someone who sees God at work in you in ways others rarely ever see (and sometimes avoid), leaving you with a greater sense of what could be. This desire for the voice of experience placed in his heart the seed of willingness, or perhaps the will, to become for others the mentor he was not able to find for himself. AbbY and I have been encouraged by, and learned from, AbbE’s gift to see the potential in all God’s image-bearers.
For AbbY, a mentor is someone who helps refine your thinking through robust debate in an environment free from any fear related to competition or the threat of loss of power or influence. AbbE and I have been stretched and challenged and our “swords” have been sharpened by the wonderfully free and transparent environment AbbY fosters.
For the Abbess, a mentor is someone who listens to you long enough for you to figure out what you really think, asking just the right questions without trying to tell you what to think—and then helps clarify what it was that you actually said. AbbE and AbbY have both listened, and been listened to, as we take turns rambling about in our “abi-normal” way.
We treasure The Abbey because God speaks to us through us. We are the Church, unhindered by distance, connected by technology and empowered by the Spirit. Three isolated cords mercifully woven by God into what Alan calls communitas.
Life at The Abbey facilitates learning in solitude and implementation in community—simultaneously. It’s like we’re writing a book where the authors can respond to each living chapter as the readers raise questions….
So, there you have it…except that AbbI had not yet been tracked down to join us at the time, so that is why his story is not represented.