Hundreds of people from across the UK and abroad came together over a fortnight in August to a remote corner of Essex to celebrate their experiences  of – and involvement in – a charity which began as an experiment in better community living 80 years’ ago.

Based on inclusive Christian principles, Othona was founded by Revd Norman Motley, a Church of England vicar, in 1946 following the devastation and hatreds unleashed during World War II as a way of bringing together peoples from different countries and cultures.

Since then, Othona Bradwell has become a haven for a vast range of individuals and groups coming together to be ‘in community’, being open to everyone whether they are from a Christian faith, other faiths or none.

Made up of a small core team of paid staff and community volunteers, Othona Bradwell organises a wide range of themed residential weeks and weekends (everything from music-making to birdwatching, swimming in the nearby Blackwater Estuary, Christmases together, family fun at half terms and as the host of the incredibly successful Essex Green Weekends held in May), as well as the chance of people just to get away from it all to ‘Simply Be’ and recuperate from the challenges of modern life on the off-grid site (much of the power used is generated by solar and a wind turbine).

Offering dozens of rooms, plus yurts and caravan pitches, everyone who is ‘in community’ joins in together with tasks that keeps the place ticking over. In addition, community members are encouraged to join together in short acts of worship, usually in the nearby and very atmospheric seventh century Chapel of St. Peter.

A second Othona location at Burton Bradstock in West Dorset was added in the 1960s.

The 80th Anniversary celebrations at the Essex site brought together a combination of talks and recollections of the early pioneering days of the 1940s and 1950s (when the community lived in tents and Nissan huts and relied on a standpipe for water supplies) with those aimed at identifying how the younger generation of community members wish to develop activities at the Bradwell site to encourage new members to join and participate in a different way of living and relating to each other.

Kathryn Brooks, interim warden at Othona Bradwell, said: “The 80th anniversary celebrations were an outpouring of our gratitude for the past and hope for the future. They were a fantastic and happy time, allowing us all to reflect on the ongoing miracle of a diverse community which has stood the test of time and which still means so much to people of all ages and backgrounds.”

Mark Ringrose, chair of the Othona Community trustees added: “When it was first created in 1946, Othona was very counter-cultural. In 2026, it still is. As opposed to our society with its values of selfishness, greed, anger, conflict and environmental destruction, Othona stands for communal living, respect for the other, support for all, a hope based on the Gospels and a love for nature. The 80th anniversary celebrations were a great way to show our gratitude for the past and hopes for the future and they will power us into the next phase of our witness to the world.”

More information about the Othona Community can be found at: https://www.othona.org/essex/