We are out on the desert way, seeking the ever-burning bush. We are somewhere in the dark wood on the way to the Green Chapel. Woven into Farm Days and Dialogues, the path at The Local Academy is one that students undertake individually and as a fellowship, requiring from them a high level of discipline, attention, and care throughout, as we seek to cultivate a local, embodied love. During the year, we also do a number of other activities to nourish our fellowship, from retreats and days of work and story to“family dinners” and river excursions.

The fellowship is led by a guide, a shepherd who takes the journey alongside students.

Students gather on a local farm once a week, where the day is structured by a liturgy that, as we enter it, also shapes us. The work of our fellowship is a rhythm of prayer interwoven into various disciplines, all of which together help to cultivate an embodied, local love.

The love of God, neighbor, and creation is one. Learning as neighbors from local homesteaders, and as a discipline of love, we seek to practice a regenerative care for creation in our local place, from milking dairy cows and beekeeping to sustainable gardening, composting, and exploring the beauties and threats to local ecology.

As a discipline aiding love, our fellowship embarks on the learning of Koine (Biblical Greek), to move us outside of ourselves and foster postures of attention and care towards that which is difficult.

Our fellowship also practices an intentional time of honesty and humility with one another in smaller, Adelphotes (“Brotherhood”) groups, seeking prayer and encouragement from one another. This time merges with a time of solitude, as each students aims to be prayerfully alone and attentive in creation, and, if need be, to seek reconciliation with one another. All of this works towards fostering loving neighborliness.

Because our imaginations foster our love, our fellowship also practices the discipline of reading, listening to, and discussing powerful literature that helps us see afresh and so live more intently. At times, students also practice the discipline of conversation and enter into discussion on what is read, cultivating a deeper neighborliness. Students also prepare a baked good each week for one another as an effort of love. Our fellowship also occasionally welcomes guests and local leaders to share their own hearts for our place.

Because of its commitment to sustainable agriculture, The Local Academy is proud to participate as civic scientists in The Land Institute’s Perennial Atlas Project, a three-year project growing and researching perennial grain crops and their annual counterparts.