Assistant Editor
Gilead House of Prayer in Unadilla just celebrated its 21st anniversary, but the inhabitants of the lay community and retreat house still aren't sure why they're there.
All they know, they say, is that God wants their haven to exist.
"If we were left to ourselves, we'd be gone long ago!" joked co-founder Peggy Land. "But God wants something, and we just keep saying yes to it. Gilead provides a place for people to come away from the world and find some support."
Going up
In 1980, the house's three founding families were all parishioners of St. Frances Cabrini parish on Long Island. With the common bonds of involvement in the charismatic renewal and Marriage Encounter, and with children in the same Catholic school, the three couples would gather monthly for wine-and-cheese parties and read Scripture together.
"A lot of the readings seemed to be, `Go to the mountains,'" Mrs. Land recalled. One night, someone in the group proposed what seemed at first to be a crazy idea: "Why don't we just go upstate and buy a place, and we'll all live there?"
The next day, all three families happened to attend the same Mass, which was so unusual that they decided it must be a sign: They were indeed intended to found a lay community in upstate New York.
Heading north
With only that belief to go on, each family sold their home, and the group found a 100-year-old schoolhouse and barn on 73 acres of land in rural Unadilla -- about 20 minutes from Oneonta -- and moved in together.
They weren't even sure what they were creating, just that they were supposed to be there. Each step made them more certain of that, from buying the land to easily finding jobs (three of the current group are pharmacists).
Mrs. Land called those early days "the hardest growth in my life." Six adults and nearly twice as many children packed themselves into what was then a tiny house, determined to "live a communal kind of life." Every morning, they would rise at six a.m. to pray together -- originally, the only focus of Gilead's ministry.
On the rise
The community survived -- and thrived. One couple eventually moved to Florida, but David and Peggy Land and Deacon Tom Luby and his wife, Noel, stayed on. They were joined by Janet Korwan and by Rev. Joseph Schuck, a retired priest, and his mother, Anna.
Each family set a mobile home near the schoolhouse to have some private space but still be able to come together for prayer. The group joined Sacred Heart parish in Sidney and became active volunteers there.
After two years, they wrote Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, announcing their existence and asking if there were any services they could offer the Albany Diocese.
The Bishop, they said, simply asked them to pray for the Diocese's priests. In return, he allowed them to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in a chapel they then built to house it.
Opening up
Gilead began offering weekly liturgies for their own and the surrounding community. Through the years, said Mrs. Land, "we just opened the place up and opened our mouths," and a host of ministries developed.
Although the house receives no funding from the Diocese, Bishop Hubbard did allow it to become tax-exempt, and the group began to hold Confirmation retreats, women's retreats and days of reflection. Covenant House of New York City uses the now-expanded house for retreats for its volunteers; Dominican sisters have stayed there, as well. Gilead also has a tiny hermitage.
The women living at Gilead all became interested in reiki and healing touch, and trained to become reiki masters. Today, their training courses for others are one of the house's most popular offerings.
"We come up with an idea, and it just kind of blossoms," said Ms. Korwan, shaking her head in amazement.
Gilead is also home to several varieties of labyrinths, an ancient aid to prayer regaining popularity among Catholics. Its huge barn sports a labyrinth painted on the floor that visitors can pace as they pray. Mr. Land told The Evangelist that although he has multiple sclerosis, he installed an outdoor labyrinth of white bricks on a hillside nearby.
Open-door policy
The children of the original community have grown up and moved away, but return for events like the house's recent anniversary celebration. The house is always open to them and any other visitors; in fact, it is never locked.
"It's total trust or total stupidity; I'm not sure," said Mrs. Land, laughing. Mrs. Korwan noted that when she stayed in the schoolhouse before building her own home, she often came downstairs during the night to find strangers praying in the chapel.
The Gilead community believes that's what God intends: Often, they noted, a stranger will meet the very person he or she needs to speak to most. The Gilead members also do spiritual direction.
In one instance, a young man with a learning disability poured his heart out to Mr. Land, who was able to speak to him about not being limited by disabilities.
"He's got a better self-image than before," Mr. Land stated.
Way of life
The entire group admitted that Gilead is difficult to define. Father Schuck remarked that he's done a lot of education among the townspeople of Unadilla, who once thought "we're just sitting out here praying like a lot of monks."
But "everybody does their own thing" at Gilead, he added, and everyone in the group works together to plan retreat days and other events for visitors. In addition, each person works outside the house in their chosen field to support it.
Ms. Korwan called the community "a way of life that's different than most people I talk to, but it's right for me. It's a very simple lifestyle."
On the other hand, she added, living with six people in a community is not unlike being married to all of them. The group, whose members spend Wednesdays together despite busy work schedules, have to work on their relationships with one another and practice patience.
She laughed as she recalled Mrs. Luby (away on vacation with her husband as The Evangelist went to print) having called her in a panic one night about a snake in the barn.
"I told her, `Stomp your feet and it'll go away!'" she groaned as the other community members laughed.
God is difference
Mrs. Land had the final word: "If God wanted us to do something personally to serve Him," like religious life, "He would have called us before we were married. Our thought was to have a house to come and commune in, and mobile homes all around, so the family unit could stay intact."
She concluded: "It's been a tough life, but the difference is God."
(The members of Gilead House of Prayer will launch a new website within a month: www.gilead.org. Call them at 607-563-3713.)