| L'Arche began in 1964 when Jean Vanier
and Father Thomas Philippe, in response to a call from God, invited
RaphaÎl Simi and Philippe Seux, two men with mental handicaps, to
come and share their life in the spirit of the Gospel and the
Beatitudes that Jesus preached.
From this first community, born in
France and in the Roman Catholic tradition, many other communities
have developed in various cultural and religious traditions.
These communities, called into being by
God, are united by the same vision and the same spirit of welcome,
of sharing and simplicity.
AIMS
- The aim of L'Arche is to create
communities which welcome people with a mental handicap. By this
means, L'Arche seeks to respond to the distress of those who are
too often rejected, and to give them a valid place in society.
- L'Arche seeks to reveal the
particular gifts of people with a mental handicap who belong at
the very heart of their communities and who call others to share
their lives.
- L'Arche knows that it cannot welcome
everyone who has a mental handicap. It seeks to offer not a
solution but a sign, a sign that a society, to be truly human,
must be founded on welcome and respect for the weak and the
downtrodden.
- In a divided world, L'Arche wants to
be a sign of hope. Its communities, founded on covenant
relationships between people of differing intellectual capacity,
social origin, religion and culture, seek to be signs of unity,
faithfulness and reconciliation
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
- Whatever their gifts of their
limitations, people are all bound together in a common humanity.
Everyone is of unique and sacred
value, and everyone has the same dignity and the same rights.
The fundamental rights of each person include the right to life,
to care, to a home, to education and to work.
Also, since the deepest need of a
human being is to love and to be loved, each person has a right
to friendship, to communion and to a spiritual life.
- If human being are to develop their
abilities and talents to the full, realizing all their potential
as individuals, they need an environment that fosters personal
growth. They need to form relationships with others within
families and communities. They need to live in an atmosphere of
trust, security and mutual affection. They need to be valued,
accepted and supported in real and warm relationships.
- People with a mental handicap often
possess qualities of welcome, wonderment, spontaneity, and
directness. The are able to touch hearts and to call others to
unity through their simplicity and vulnerability. In this way
they are a living reminder to the wider world of the essential
values of the heart without which knowledge, power and action
lose their meaning and purpose.
- Weakness and vulnerability in a
person, far from being an obstacle to union with God, can foster
it. It is often through weakness, recognized and accepted, that
the liberating love of God is revealed.
- In order to develop the inner freedom
to which all people are called, and to grow in union with God,
each person needs to have the opportunity of being rooted and
nourished in a religious tradition.
THE COMMUNITIES
- Communities of faith
- L'Arche communities are communities
of faith, rooted in prayer and trust in God. They seek to be
guided by God and by their weakest members, through whom God's
presence is revealed. Each community member is encouraged to
discover and deepen his or her spiritual life and live it
according to his or her particular faith and tradition. Those
who have no religious affiliation are also welcomed and
respected in their freedom of conscience.
- Communities are either of one faith
or inter-religious. Those which are Christian are either of
one church on inter-denominational. Each community maintains
links with appropriate religious authorities and its members
are integrated with local churches and other places of
worship.
- Communities recognize that they
have an ecumenical vocation and a mission to work for unity.
- Called to unity
- Unity is founded on the covenant of
love to which God calls all the community members. This
implies welcome and respect for differences. Such unity
presupposes that the person with a handicap is at the center
of community life.
This unity is built up over time
and through faithfulness. Communities commit themselves to
accompany their members (once their membership is confirmed)
throughout their lives, if this is what those members want.
- Home life is at the heart of a
L'Arche community. The different members of a community are
called to be one body. They live, work, pray and celebrate
together, sharing their joys and their suffering and forgiving
each other, as in a family. They have a simple life-style
which gives priority to relationships.
- The same sense of communion unites
the various communities throughout the world. Bound together
by solidarity and mutual commitment, they form a worldwide
family.
- Called to growth
- L'Arche communities are places of
hope. Each person, according to his or her own vocation, is
encouraged to grow in love, self giving and wholeness, as well
as in independence, competence and the ability to make
choices.
- The communities wish to secure for
their members education, work and therapeutic activities which
will be a source of dignity, growth and fulfillment for them.
- The communities wish to provide
their members with the means to develop their spiritual life
and to deepen their union with and love of God and other
people.
- All community members are invited
to participate, as far as possible, in decisions concerning
them.
- Integrated in society
- L'Arche communities are open and
welcoming to the world around them. They form an integral part
of life in their localities and seek to foster relationships
with neighbors and friends.
- The communities seek to be
competent in all the tasks they are called to accomplish.
- The communities wish to enable
people with a handicap to work, believing work to be an
important means of integration.
- The communities seek to work
closely with :
- the families and guardians of
people who are handicapped
- professionals
- government authorities
- nd with all those who work in a
spirit of justice and peace for people who are
handicapped.
CONCLUSION
L'Arche is deeply concerned by the
distress of people who suffer injustice and rejection because they
are handicapped. This concern should impel the communities of
L'Arche to do all they can to defend the rights of people with a
mental handicap, to support the creation of places of welcome for
them and to call our society to become more just and respectful
towards them.
The communities of L'Arche want to be in
solidarity with the poor of the world, and with all those who take
part in the struggle for justice.
This Charter has been approved by the
General Assembly of the Federation,
Cap Rouge: Province of Quebec, Canada,
May 1993
art by Patsy Ramsey of
L'Arche Daybreak |
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