Rivendell is a Eucharistic community working and praying to renew and actualize the vision of the Church as
a holy priesthood (I Peter 2:5), in and on behalf of the world. We seek to live all life Eucharistically, offering
ourselves continually to God in thanksgiving, intercession and adoration, for the nourishment and healing of
the world, and to extend God’s hospitality to others.
Rivendell seeks to expand the Church’s capacity to provide skilled, well-educated, and holy priestly ministry,
particularly in smaller, less affluent, struggling churches, both directly, by forming, educating and providing
Community priests, and indirectly, by supporting those engaged in ordained and lay ministry through spiritual
and intellectual nourishment, retreat and Sabbath time. We seek, also, to create and serve places where the
beauty of holiness and the radical invitations of the Gospel may be more fully lived, "thin places" where a little
of the Kingdom of Heaven may be glimpsed.
The Community’s work of prayer and hospitality embody two facets of the Eucharistic pattern: Facing
Godward, the royal priesthood gather up the world and present it to God; this movement is embodied in
continual prayer, both liturgical and personal, intercession and oblation, willing identification with the poor
and needy, in union with the One who bears our sin and carries our sorrows. Facing toward the world, the
life-giving Body and Blood are given back to others – a taste and foretaste of the consecrated, transformed,
redeemed life of the Kingdom of God. This movement is embodied in parish ministry, social justice
concerns, offering retreats, opportunities for quiet, rest, reflection and challenge, spiritual direction and
education, and homely, routine tasks of hospitality.
All orders of ministry –laity, bishops, priests and deacons – participate in the royal priesthood we share with
Christ, our great high priest, while some are ordained to focus and embody this priestly ministry of the holy
people, enacting it in the Sacraments. The Rivendell Community is seeking members who are already
ordained or who feel they may be called to ordained ministry, as well as members who will contribute to the
Community’s priestly work as lay persons and deacons.
