House of All Souls: One Monk’s Heart for Building a Home

Brother Ron Fender BSG, a brother in the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory the Great (a religious order in the Episcopal Church), has been tending and washing the feet of the homeless in Chattanooga for the past seven years as his ministry.  He is a case manager at the Community Kitchen, a Chattanooga refuge for the hungry and homeless.

Inspired by such projects as the Brother Bernard Fessenden House in Yonkers and Common Ground in New York City, Brother Ron sought to build an intentional community to house homeless men in the form of a monastic community.  He discovered that many who completed recovery programs and were eventually placed into apartments as a way to rebuild their lives, quickly fell back to street life.  Fender notes that, “putting a homeless person in an isolated room or apartment without supportive services, or even furniture or household goods makes no sense whatsoever… the most successful model for ending homelessness is to create community for the homeless.”  Brother Ron is seeking to do just that.

With a grant from The Rosewood Foundation, a new house has been constructed and nearly completed in Chattanooga.  Named the ‘House of All Souls,’ this home will bring together eight homeless men along with Brother Ron, who have been screened and agree to live in this intentional community.  The men will continue in their recovery programs while offering mutual support in the form of their own community. 

At the heart of the House of All Souls is a chapel where the men will worship God and keep Christ at the center of their lives.  The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) has donated copies of The Book of Common Prayer, Hymnals, and various books on spirituality to help further this new community.  Gifts of money, liturgical goods and resources (especially an altar) are greatly needed.  Ron hopes that the Bishop of East Tennessee will be able to come and bless the new chapel.      

Brother Ron was recently featured on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition which is chronicling stories from Main Street America.  You can listen to the archived story at http://tinyurl.com/fendernpr2009.