Shiloh
communes
practice
Christian
principles
By J AMES RUSSELL
Of the Emerald
“We see Shiloh in living unto
God in a modem, communal
society. We exist for others and
Him alone.”
So says Thomas Reams, paster
of the Eugene single men’s Shiloh
House at 1910 University Street.
Shiloh House, a non
denominational Christian
ministry, has spread rapidly
across the nation over the past
five years. There are now over 40
different Shiloh locations in 17
states — including at least five in
Eugene.
Reams comments, “We’ve
been in this particular house
since May or a little before. The
Shiloh organization has been in
Eugene for just about four
years.”
The Shiloh chain grows daily
and the Youth Revival Centers
corporation which heads the
movement is expanding with it.
In Oregon, Shiloh communes
exist in the cities of Grants Pass,
Eugene, Dexter and Medford.
Eugene is Shiloh’s national
headquarters and the center of
most organizational activity.
“Most of the people who come
to Shiloh Houses,” says Reams,
“are either former drug users,
people who are looking for their
place in life, many who have lost
it or those simply interested in
doing something for their fellow
man, not themselves.”
The corporation business office
is also located in the 19th and
University location, a former
University fraternity house.
The 19th street location alone
costs over $2,500 a month to
operate. Typically, along with
other Shiloh Houses, it takes a lot
of work to pay for and maintain
the house — especially, inserts
Reams, when you are without a
religious denomination or solid
money organization behind you.
Shiloh, and the ‘Youth Revival’
corporation, is entirely non-profit
and each house makes it on its
own.
“If people need a place to
crash, a meal to tide them over or
clothes to cover themselves in
time of trouble or distress that’s
our job, our life’s calling,” says
Reams. No charge is made on
those who ‘crash' at any Shiloh
House but those who stay per
manently willingly pull their full
share.
Communal living, personal
sharing and Christian fellowship
are daily happenings at each
Shiloh House, says Reams.
Regular prayer meetings also
add to the mood and flavor of
everyday experience.
Presently, only 13 men live at
the 19th and University location
but more are expected soon when
new learns’ arrive to continue a
constant Christian ministry.
“That’s how we do our work for
the Lord,” says Reams. Ministry
teams of six men and three
women are sent out into the field
after witnessing preparation to
start new Shiloh Houses across
the United States.
A national newsletter informed
THE
NEW WORLD
COFFEE HOUSE
1249 Alder
is now under new management
The following changes are now in effect to serve you
better and make your hours at THE NEW WORLD
more enjoyable:
★ 1. TABLE SERVICE
No more long lines to hassle you — but everyone is still
welcome to study, play chess and relax
★ 2. BREAKFAST SERVED
ANYTIME
“EGGS BYRON” with coffee — 55c (an alternative in
THE NEW WORLD tradition)
★ 3. SCHIZO HOURS
daily from 2:00 — 6:00
Drinks — 2 for price of 1 (coffee, teas, express os,
sodas, amalfis)
★ 4. NEW HOURS
open —8:00 a.m. M—F Closed — midnite Su—'Th
10:00a.m.S—S 1:30F&S
New World soups, salads,
sandwiches, pastries,
desserts, 12 teas,
10 sodas & amalfis
Photo by Calvin Jones
Shiloh House's dining area
followers that, “in this life we
wander as pilgrims and
strangers, knowing that we have
an everlasting home while this
present world and all things in it
will shortly pass away. God has
called us together to be a Hbly
nation.”
Witnessing and serving God
are the Shilohites’ main purpose
to life, says Reams.
Dexter, Oregon, is the center of
the ministry’s teaching
organization and a lot of the
learning that most followers
experience is done there. Medical
knowledge, child-care
development, practical education
and many other aspects of
everyday communal happening
are vital to the daily life of each
follower.
Says Reams, “As we learn and
work and help each brother, our
witness goes out to others as
examples of what Jesus and the
love of God has for each of us.”
“What God can do for
everyone,” he adds, “not just for
the rich and powerful but the poor
and meek also.”
Repairs then, both physically
on Shiloh and spiritually for those
they meet, take up a lot of time
for the Shilohites. Trust in the
spirit, seeking the love of God and
care for others are constant
guidelines, says Reams.
In addition to the single men’s
ministry there are also several
other Shiloh Houses for married
couples and one for single women
in Eugene. Those interested
should contact the main Shiloh
office on Lost Valley Lane, phone
747-1246.
These other Houses also have
their unique Christian-living
communal setup. “The Lord has
brought a lot of people around to
be witnessed to,” says the Shiloh
ministry. “The harvest is great,
but the laborers are few.”
“Our glory is in God,” reminds
Pastor Reams, “if we can help
those who are in physical or
spiritual want, in trouble or in
need of a friend then Shiloh will
have done its job.”
Campus gays hold noon vigil
for 29 New Orleans fire victims
Twenty members of the
Eugene Gay People’s Alliance
conducted a memorial vigil
Tuesday noon on the terrace of
the Erb Memorial Union in behalf
of twenty-nine gay people who
were killed in a fire in a gay bar
in New Orleans on June 24.
Evidence accumulated after the
fire, plus a phone message from
an anonymous caller to a New
Orleans television station, in
dicate that the fire was
deliberately set by a group intent
on “ridding New Orleans of
homosexuals.”
Summer
tops $999
Preceding the vigil, a
statement was distributed which
condemned not only the mass
murder in New Orleans, but also
“the more subtle murder our
society practices daily on gay
men and women. That murder,”
the circular read, “tells us we are
sick and somehow perverted . . .
tells us that our human joys and
love are sin . . . strips us of our
dignity, gnaws us from the inside,
and hollows our lives ...”
Speakers at the rally
proclaimed that, whereas
society’s oppression of
homosexuals is old, the reaction
of homosexuals to that op
pression is new. “No more will
we hide. No more will we fear. No
more will we die. No more.”
A connection was drawn bet
ween the New Orleans incident
and legislation, now pending
before the Eugene City Council,
which would ban discrimination
in housing, employment, and
public accomodations on the
basis of one’s “sexual
preference.” One speaker
asserted. “As long as the law
treats any one law-abiding group
of people differently from others,
it condones a moral atmosphere
in which the lives of people in that
group are valued less than the
lives of other people. It is in such
an atmosphere that an incident
such as the New Orleans arson is
encouraged.” The approximately
100 students who stopped to listen
to the speakers were encouraged
to write to city council members
in support of the pending
legislation.
Those who listened to the
speakers were also invited to
attend meetings of the Gay
People’s Alliance, on Tuesdays at
8 p.m. in the Wesley Center on
Kincaid Street off 13th. They
were also invited to make use of
services provided by One Step
Beyond, a gay counseling center
open on Friday evenings at 323 E.
12th Avenue; the number of the
center is 342-8256.
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