Our Approach

Togetherness

Being together is at the heart of L’Arche, we live and work together and at the heart of our togetherness, are relationships of mutuality and fidelity. Our mission is to create and maintain homes where each person (but especially the core members) will feel that their strengths and their weaknesses are accepted and loved but also to give our core-members a place of work where they can feel meaningful and that their gifts are valued and celebrated. This way of life is intense and calls us to be particularly attentive to each other. Together, we are called to discover how our community life with its celebrations, friendships, and emphasis on forgiveness, can help each of us grow towards wholeness.

Spirituality

Our faiths inspire us to be more open to people with different intellectual capacities, social origins, religions, races, and cultures. We try to appreciate the spirituality of each human being and to encourage them to live their faith journey more deeply for example visiting their local faith communities. Most L’Arche communities are ecumenical Christian communities – that is, they are open to all Christian churches – and they also welcome people of other faiths and people who have no religious affiliations. Spiritual life cannot be reduced to any particular activity within community life, but it inspires and permeates everything we do and are. It encourages us to live with each other more meaningfully.