The Community at the Crossing is an ecumenical program for spiritual formation in the heart of New York City.
Our vision is to equip each member to serve Christ in their chosen path by providing the space and formation necessary to establish rhythms of life and to discern God’s call. Members spend a year in prayer and discernment, service and mission, biblical and theological formation, and intentional community, choosing as their sisters and brothers people who are radically different from themselves.
We believe that being ‘interrupted by God’ is the best thing that can happen to anyone. We believe as Christians that there is far more that unites us than divides us and that our world is in desperate need of people who can model authentic unity, which is born from reconciliation, truth, and the humility of shared life. This program will inspire peace and justice in the larger society, facilitate a space where Christians from different denominations can reignite the ecumenical dialogues that many believe have grown cold, and be an example of Christ-centered faith rooted in local community. Through this program, the lives of participants will be transformed, thereby transforming the lives of everyone they touch.
The Community is based at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Morningside Heights, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City.
There are 3 ways to get involved in the life of the Community.
Membership is open to any Christian between 21-33 years old, from all church backgrounds, and anywhere in the US. The program year runs from September to January, with a new intake every year.
Events are open to anybody of any age! Join Community members to pray and learn, or engage with them out and about.
Your support -- financial, spiritual, and relational -- enables individual participants to flourish and, in turn, enrich their wider communities. Support through one-off or regular giving, or by becoming a Friend or Companion.
"...We are creating a space where young people can dedicate a year of their lives to finding God. God has already found us. From all eternity, God knows us and loves us. For us, however, it takes work to know and feel God’s saving embrace, and then to welcome others to find it, too."
Building upon the model of intentional contemplative communities worldwide and drawing inspiration primarily from the Community of St. Anselm (Lambeth Palace, UK), the Community at the Crossing is a non-profit initiative of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in collaboration with the Chemin Neuf Community (a Roman Catholic community with an ecumenical vocation).
Over one hundred years ago, the trustees of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine conceived its mission to be a house of prayer for all people, an instrument of church unity, and a center of intellectual light and leading in the spirit of Jesus Christ. Today, as the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the seat of its bishop, the Cathedral serves the many diverse people of our diocese, city, nation, and world through the worship of God; pastoral, educational, and community outreach activities; cultural and civic events; international ecumenical initiatives; and the preservation of the great architectural and historic site that is its legacy.
The Chemin Neuf Community is a Roman Catholic Community with an ecumenical vocation, which grew out of a prayer group in Lyon, France, in 1973. It currently has approximately 2000 members in over 30 countries. Couples, families and celibates, and men and women have chosen the adventure of community life to follow Christ poor and humble, to serve the Church and the world. The spirituality of the Community is rooted both in the Ignatian tradition and in the experience of the Charismatic Renewal.
On September 8, 2022, the Cathedral held the official launch of the Community at the Crossing, bringing together new faith leaders and seekers in transformative communal life.
The gathering included special video messages from The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and His Holiness, Pope Francis.
- A Greeting from Pope Francis - watch on YouTube
- A Message from the Justin Welby, former Archbishop of Canterbury - watch on YouTube
- A Word of Blessing from His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew - watch on Instagram
Episcopal New Yorker, October 2023
'The Church cannot flourish without religious community' - Justin Welby in NYC. Watch the homily from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby from the commitment service of the first cohort (2023-24) or read it here
“What we would like to see and encourage you to aspire to, dear friends, is for your newly-planted community to become a door for the young men and women that it will shape through this initiative: a door to heaven and a door to the world; a door to the heart and a door to humankind and all creation; a door to the compassionate nature of God and a door to the communal nature of the Church.”
Read by the Very Reverend Archimandrite Nektarios Papazafiropoulos, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, representing His Eminence Elpidophoros, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America
Letter Read at the Cathedral's September 8, 2022 Service
Watch on Instagram
“At the Crossing means a place of crossing and meeting between young people of all Christian denominations. My hope is this community will offer an opportunity to revive the desire for unity of Christians and of society in New York and even in the United States. The future of faith in our world passes through Christian Unity. Yes, we do not agree on everything. Yes, we have convictions that sometimes seem incompatible, or are incompatible. But that is precisely why we choose to love each other. Love is stronger than all disagreements and divisions. It brings peace…let us not forget that At the Crossing evokes the Cross of Christ. Jesus Christ is a bond that is stronger and deeper than our cultures, our political options and even than our doctrines. The Lord! Jesus the Lord! Look at Him who gave his life for us!”
September 8, 2022
Watch the whole greeting on YouTube
“In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, at the birth of the Church, the followers of Christ committed themselves to prayer, to the breaking of bread and to the apostles’ teaching. Throughout the centuries groups of men and women have committed themselves to live in religious communities, to pursue these same principles in a huge diversity of ways. The religious life matters profoundly to the Church. It has always been the place where renewal begins - without communities of prayer of one kind or another, one doesn't see renewal. The Community at the Crossing is a sign of God's work of renewal in the world, in your city, in the Church.”
September 8, 2022
Watch the whole greeting on YouTube
Catholic New York, September 21, 2022
Vatican News, September 9, 2022
National Catholic Reporter, September 9, 2022