Our History
The Othona Community’s Beginnings
Othona began as an experiment in Christian community back in 1946. Our founder, Norman Motley, was a Church of England priest. He served as a young chaplain in the RAF during World War II.
His style was very unusual for that time. He made no distinction between officers and others. And he welcomed completely open discussion of ‘life, the universe and everything’.
He and his friends had found a comradeship in wartime that lowered many social and religious barriers. They wanted to preserve something of that in peacetime. So they began to gather as a community each summer.
They found a place with exciting Christian roots going back almost 13 centuries. This was the Chapel of St Peter’s near Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex. It’s a hauntingly simple little barn of a church on the edge of the Essex marshes, where Othona still has a centre in the next field.
Norman’s fledgling community took the name of an even older settlement on that site – the Roman fort of Othona. With permission to worship in St Peter’s, they spent each summer in tents and old huts.
It was all very basic – the nearest water source was a standpipe two fields away! But basic conditions seemed to help people explore fundamental issues together. Such as how we could try to avoid yet more terrible wars. And what Christians and other ‘people who care’ (as Norman put it) could contribute to a better world.
From these humble first steps the Othona journey began. For thousands of people over the years it has become a precious part of their own journey. The Othona Community is now a network of people stretching over the UK and beyond. It’s a bit like a big extended family in many ways – good and sometimes not so good, as families often are!
The original Othona site in Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex now boasts a permanent centre. And it was from there that pioneers came to open the West Dorset centre near Burton Bradstock in 1965.
Norman Motley, Founder of Othona
Norman was an Anglican priest who originally worked in the parish of Spitalfields in East London. At the start of the Second World War, he became an RAF chaplain in a training centre in Blackpool and there started up what became know as ‘Answer Back’ meetings where young men and women of any denomination could come and ask questions and challenge the received wisdom of the day. These meetings gave people the freedom to explore the issues of pain, suffering and disunity. This fellowship in Blackpool led to the formation of the Nails movement, which had the emblem of four small nails welded together in the shape of a cross.
After the end of the Second World War, Norman Motley set up the Othona Community in Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex starting from humble beginnings with a collection of tents and ageing army huts. He dreamed of establishing a brand new kind of community centre which offered more than the standard holiday experience. A place where all could come to gather and discuss questions about peace and reconciliation and how best to bring about positive change in the post-war era. Norman set up the centre under the mantra of work, worship, study and play with Norman being known to give lectures and encourage deep discussions on a variety of topics as well as making Othona somewhere to relax and enjoy community life together outdoors.
If you would like to learn more about Norman Motley, here are a couple of sources:
