Bayboro Community -St. Petersburg, Florida

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“Faith expressly signifies the deep, strong, blessed restlessness that drives the believer forward so that he cannot settle down… A believer cannot sit still as one sits with a pilgrim’s staff in one’s hand. A believer travels forward.”

~ Soren Kierkegaard

• Status: Established
• Started Planning:2006
• Started Living Together: 2006
• Visitors Accepted:Yes
• Open to New Members: Yes
• Shared Income: All or Close to All

About: We are a small, relatively new community – a mix of families with small children, singles, and college students – in an urban coastal neighborhood on Tampa Bay. We founded this location at a time when we were seeking different expressions of communal living, and being in the South and on the coast is a new experience for us. The students living with us attend various area schools, including the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg; St. Petersburg College; and Pinellas Technical College.

Bayboro House, the first Bruderhof in Florida, is right on Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg. Founded in 2006, Bayboro is home to about twenty-five people, including university students, families, and children.

Setting: We have a large waterfront house that serves as our main accommodation and gathering space. Built in 1905, it features deep porches where we can sit and look at the bay. The lot, which is flat and has beautiful tropical landscaping, has six other smaller buildings. Though our house is on the coast, we are very much a part of our wider urban community.

Connecting with Neighbors: Friends and neighbors often drop by for visits throughout the week. Each month we help sponsor a meeting for many of the families in our area to discuss neighborhood issues. We reach out to the diverse faith communities here and have lively discussions about faith and how to put it into practice.

Point of Interest: We get to see a beautiful sunrise every morning, and we enjoy nearly 365 days of sunshine a year. You’ll often find us boating or kayaking on the bay, and we like to catch our own fish and seafood to eat.

Faith: Christian. We practice adult baptism. We are also pacifists and conscientious objectors. While we love our countries and countrymen, our faith transcends political and nationalistic affiliations.

Website: https://www.bruderhof.com/en/where-we-are/united-states/bayboro