Children playing musical instruments outdoors at a sanctuary event.

Community of Peace

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Forming
  • Ecological
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2002

What we do

Community of Peace: A Monastic Forest Sanctuary
The Vision: Community of Peace is an ecumenical, Christ-centered intentional community on 250 acres of sacred forest in Louisa, Virginia. Our life is built on Radical Welcoming, Sung Prayer, and Land Stewardship. We offer a contemplative home for those seeking to live in a mindful rhythm with the land.
The Heart of our Work: Sanctuary of Sound. Our current focus is the creation of a professional outdoor musical forest park designed as a neuro-inclusive haven for children and families. We are currently preparing the land and utilizing fallen timber from our own woods for our installations.
The Daily Rhythm: Life follows a gentle monastic flow inspired by the Taize tradition. We gather 3 times daily (8am, 1pm, 7pm) for meditation and sung prayer. We observe daily periods of quiet and gather every evening for a shared community supper and dialogue.
Sacred Exchange: We invite volunteers into a 20-hour-per-week service rhythm. Current roles include Forest Stewardship (clearing trails), Animal Care (tending to our chickens and puppy), and Hearth-keeping (preparing community meals).

Our Mission

Our mission is to welcome people into a beautiful sung prayer for peace; to engage in meaningful dialogue for peacemaking; and to serve the most vulnerable in society.
Our Vision: To be a sacred sanctuary for all, where young people engage in song, silence, and dialogue to develop as resilient peacemakers, better prepared to serve the vulnerable and move into the world with joy and unity.
Core Values:
Nourishment: We feed the spirit through song and sacred space.
Harmony: We seek unity through the beauty of music and diversity.
Hospitality: We offer a judgment-free welcome to all people.
Reconciliation: We practice peace through listening and non-violent communication.
Service: We prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable.

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Community type
  • Coliving
  • Ecovillage
  • Commune
  • Activities
  • Farming
  • Experiences
  • Networking

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2002
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2022
  • Started living together
  • 0 Total member
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
8

How to join

The path into our community is a gradual unfolding:
The Visiting Server (Sacred Exchange): For those staying a week or more. By offering 20 hours of weekly service to the land, you receive the gift of the sanctuary in return.
The Discernment Residency: A three-month season of Mutual Discernment to see if our daily labors and silences harmonize into a shared life.
Committed Residency: By mutual agreement, one may be invited to stay as a permanent Resident, tending the land and the silence for the Long Song.
The Monastic Path: A sacred vocation recognized after an extended season of residency and spiritual maturity.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

How to Visit: We welcome seekers, volunteers, and those in need of retreat to experience the rhythm of our forest sanctuary. Because we maintain a monastic schedule of prayer and silence, we ask that all visits be coordinated in advance.
Explore Our Vision: Before reaching out, we invite you to visit our website at communityofpeace.org to learn more about our Sacred Exchange program and the Sanctuary of Sound project.
Reach Out: When you are ready to inquire, please navigate to our Inquiry Page (communityofpeace.org/inquire) to call or text us. This allows you to speak with Br. Stefan or the community to discuss your stay.
What to Expect: You will be invited into our daily life of three-fold sung prayer and communal meals. We look forward to welcoming you exactly as you are.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • Consent-Based (Sociocracy)

Decisions proceed unless someone has a reasoned objection.

Governance structure

  • Sociocratic/Circle-Based

Organized in circles or domains with distributed authority.

Conflict resolution approach

A Wide Welcome: We do not require a specific religious alignment—only a desire for joyful living and a sincere search for Something Greater.
Collaborative Voice: All residents and interns are invited to our weekly House Meetings. We believe in the power of the collective voice to shape our communal life.
Consensus and Guidance: Our first path is always toward shared agreement (Consensus). If a clear consensus cannot be reached, final direction is provided by the Council or Br. Stefan to ensure the health of our mission remains the priority.

Economic model

  • Partial Income-Sharing

Members contribute a percentage of income to community funds.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation

Additional economic information

Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Yes (20 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Vehicle Share, Library, Workshop, Swimming pond or pool, Large Scale Kitchen, Stage or Auditorium, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Waterfront access, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • Approximately all meals

Community activities and engagement

  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • Organization, Resource, or Network
  • WWOOF'ing, Guest Farming
  • Festivals, Conferences, Events

Substance use culture

  • Substance use occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies

Gender composition

  • Majority cis (over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Multi-generational (all ages well represented)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Community Land Trust or some other kind of nonprofit

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Coliving

    Shared living spaces with private bedrooms/bathrooms and communal
    kitchens, dining, and social areas.

  • Ecovillage

    Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.

  • Commune

    Communal living with shared resources, property, and often income or work responsibilities

  • Spiritual Retreat Centers

    Residential communities focused on providing space for meditation, spiritual practice, and personal growth retreats.

Self-produced energy

  • Up to 33%

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Livestock / poultry
  • Land area size
    250 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Virginia, United States

Community of Peace

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

Offer
Need
Need
  • Forming Communities
2 weeks ago

A call for pioneers, trade-builders, and the four Elemental Elders to construct our first cooperative village prototype.

Intake Open: Flagship WE Network Village in Clubb, MO Call for pioneers, trade-builders, and 4 Elemental Elders to construct our first cooperative village prototype. WE Network is opening ground zero in Clubb, Missouri—our living model to build trade shops and train leadership teams for nationwide village rollout. We are building a self-sustaining, salvaged homestead ecosystem operating as a parallel society alongside existing systems. Bring your own living setup (tents, micro-campers, trucks, schoolies, tiny homes) to secure your lot within the co-op village. The 3×3 Exchange: Mental, Physical, & Spiritual Maintain your lot via our 3×3 exchange (3 hours/day, 3 days/week = 9 hours total): Mental: Classroom teaching, strategy, skill-sharing, and village instruction. Physical: Hands-on labor building active land and shop projects. Spiritual: Participation in our weekly Friday Fellowship Fire Circle. Trade Shops & Lot Placement Every member contributes directly to our local micro-economy: Trade Holders: Set up your specific service shop for the co-op. Transitioning Members: Assigned a trade lot to focus on constructing the physical shop structure. Weekend Operations: Retail open Saturdays and Sundays. Mid-week is reserved for building and life. Priority Intake: The Four Elemental Elders We are recruiting four foundational Elders: Earth Elder: Land, soil, livestock, permaculture, and natural materials. Air Elder: Building structures and Eco Junk waste-to-material upcycling. Fire Elder: Spiritual health, Natural Law, body healing, and Fire Circles. Water Elder: Resource flow, food storage, bookkeeping, and services. How to Apply 👉 Visit fffc.wtf to submit your intake request today.
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
5 days ago

Co-housing Unit For Sale in Portland Oregon

Light-filled 976 sq ft, 3-bedroom, 1-bath end unit in Columbia Ecovillage, Portland’sestablished cohousing community in the Cully neighborhood. With windows onthree sides, this ground-floor home gets natural light all day, even onPortland’s grey ones. The open living and dining area has warm hardwood floors and flows into akitchen with solid wood cabinets and granite counters. The dining roomwindows look straight into a native vine maple — a wall of green from springthrough fall. There’s good storagein the unit, plus an extra storage space in the community storage building.A ductless mini-split provides efficient heating and air conditioning, andthe plumbing was fully replaced in 2026. The primary bedroom has a full-width closet behind a sliding barn door; thesecond bedroom’s closet sits behind a pair of French doors. The thirdbedroom has no closet, which makes it a flexible room — guest room, office,or playroom. Step out the sliding glass door onto your own covered patio, which opens onto the community grounds: organic gardens, personal garden plots,greenhouses, a grape arbor, a bamboo grove, native plantings throughout, andtrees everywhere — including a truly massive old black walnut. The orchard alone is a reason to live here — to name a few:apples, pears, plums, figs, mulberries, chestnuts, walnuts, grapes,blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, in several varieties each. A75,000-gallon rainwater catchment system keeps it all watered through thesummer. Kids have a playhouse, sandbox, small soccer field, a favorite climbingtree, and a parking loop where bikes can circle but cars can’t; adults havea workshop, garden shed, fire pit, quiet space and big community porches. The common hall is the heart of the village: a commercial kitchen anyresident can use, a kids’ play area, pool table and ping pong, and asoapstone stove that burns every winter evening. Residents can reserve it forevents for almost nothing. The historic farmhouse has guest rooms owners canbook for visiting family (about 30 nights a year). Shared laundry rooms(three washers and dryers) come with indoor drying racks and outdoorclotheslines, and there’s a craft room and a trade room where things you nolonger need find a new home next door. Potlucks, communitymeals, work parties, and acres of safe space for kids to roam makethis a rare chance to own a home and a neighborhood at the same time. Built in 1973 and fully remodeled in 2008–09 for energy efficiency and healthy indoor air — metal roof, HardiePlank siding, and standard community-built finishes throughout. Nothing to update, nothing deferred. The $522 monthly HOA coverswater, sewer, and garbage, plus the roof, siding, exterior paint, and allstructural maintenance — and it’s what pays for the grounds, the common hall,and everything else described above. And it’s close in: Cully’s cafés andparks are a short walk or bike ride away, the rest of Portland’s food,music, and neighborhoods are minutes beyond that, and the commute downtownor to the airport is easy by car, bus, or bike – 3.7-acre grounds with organic gardens, personal plots, greenhouses, native plantings, and mature trees (huge black walnut)- Orchard: apples, pears, plums, figs, mulberries, chestnuts, walnuts, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries- 75,000-gallon rainwater catchment feeds the gardens year-round- Workshop, garden shed, fire pit, quiet space, community porches  
Need
  • Forming Communities
3 weeks ago

Looking for: people building relational capacity, with a view to community

What’s here now: An intention, a framework developed over five years, and a programme running in central Victoria to find people to build with. No land, no group, no timeline. The question this is organised around: What makes a community of people living together sustainable over decades – where people enjoy being there, conflict is low, and the conflict that does arise gets handled in ways people value. The distinctive premise is capacity before formation. Most communities form first and build relational skill afterwards, usually under pressure. This one proposes doing it the other way round: people build the capacities first, and the group forms from people who have them. That includes a working idea about collective capacity – that a group has a ratio, and below some threshold it can’t metabolise its own conflict and starts consuming itself. Roughly: in a group of twenty, perhaps three or four with high capacity, most in the middle, and very few without. Untested, and something this project exists to find out. Governance: Sociocracy, with the intention of testing it meaningfully at scale rather than adopting it nominally. What’s actually happening: A three-week residency at a property near Castlemaine, and a practice group running before it. The medium-term aim is twenty to forty people at a rented facility. The long-term aim is a support hub sharing the framework more widely. What I’m looking for: People who want to build this capacity seriously, and who might eventually want to build something together. Not necessarily people who want to live here – the current property probably isn’t the long-term site. Happy to hear from anyone this resonates with, including people already in community who’d rather share what they’ve learned than join anything.
  • Events
3 weeks ago

Restoring Choice - free online practice group, from Australia

Restoring Choice – free sessions and a practice group Many of us are less practised at three things than we realise: making clear requests, saying no when it isn’t a full yes, and hearing no without something getting damaged. These aren’t personality traits. They’re capacities that were trained out of many of us by ordinary structures – families where some needs were allowed and others weren’t, workplaces that reward overstretch. They can be trained back. Why this might interest people here Most communities teach communication after people arrive, once conflict has already surfaced. This works the other way round – building capacity first, and finding out what a group can do when most people already have it. What’s running Free 60-minute introduction, online. Same session each time; come to whichever suits. Register for intro session below: https://events.humanitix.com/reclaim-your-power-with-restoring-choice Four-week practice group, Tuesdays from 15 September, 6:30-8:00pm. One session a week, and at least one short written entry a day about a real situation in your own life. The writing is the actual work; the sessions support it. Sign up by Sunday 13 September. Register for practice group below: https://events.humanitix.com/restoring-choice-practice-group Everything is free. Times are Australian Eastern 6:30pm here is the early hours in most of the Americas. Worth checking before you register. Who it’s for No prior experience needed. It isn’t therapy, and I’m not a therapist. Many people find that looking honestly at how well they ask, decline, or hear a no is less flattering than expected. That’s common, and it isn’t a verdict on anyone. Run by Glenn Russo – 13 years practising this material, seven years co-facilitating an NVC practice group in Castlemaine. If you’re already living in community and would rather share what you’ve learned than join anything, I’d like to hear from you too.

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