Values and Beliefs of Othona
These are fundamental values which shape life at Othona Essex.
Our purpose, values and beliefs.
From our beginning in 1946 the purpose of Othona was through Community to find a way to bring greater understanding and trust between people. At that time, just post war the need for reconciliation between nations was paramount, as indeed it still is. There was also a need to bring harmony, though not uniformity between the various Christian traditions. Now that need urgently extends to all faiths and none. It was felt that the only way for this to be achieved was for people to live together for short periods of time and to share in every aspect of life. To work, worship, study and relax together. So that through greater understanding of each other, fear and hostility would be broken down and the whole person be nourished through community.
But Othona was never seen as an end in itself but as a means to an end, and that end was to bring greater peace and enhancement of life at all levels, to be taken back to our everyday life in the work place, our homes, places of worship or wherever life takes us in the world.
