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How did we begin?

In the summer of 1969, a handful of students gathered to pray with Fr. Bill O’Brien, the chaplain of Fairleigh Dickenson University, in the campus Newman Center.  The prayer meetings grew in size as others, mostly students from nearby colleges and universities, joined them. 

As our group grew, a sense of community developed among us.  By Lent of 1971, we decided to formalize our common call to community life.  On Good Friday, April 9, 1971, 21 people signed the first “covenant,” a document expressing their commitment to relationship “with the Lord Jesus Christ, with each other, and as a Community with God.”  This covenant is the foundation of our community.  It expresses our shared commitment to God and to each other.

Others have joined us over the years.  Besides Covenanted Members, the Community also has Associate Members.  These members have their parishes as their primary places of worship and service and choose to supplement their parish experiences through a relationship with the Community of God's Love. 

The Community was canonically established as a “Public Association of the Christian Faithful” in the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ, by Archbishop Peter L. Gerety in 1984.