Working statement of intent. Wording to be refined by the Order.
A modern order in the ancient Templar tradition: faith kept, the weak protected, the land worked, and the table kept full for any who come to it.
The Knights Templar began as poor knights sworn to guard pilgrims and keep the roads safe. The Order carries that calling forward, not with the sword, but with the plow, the open hand, and the kept word. We are men and women bound by faith, honor, and service, who believe that the surest defense of a people is a people who can feed, shelter, and look after their own.
Grounded in Christian conviction, charity before judgment, and reverence for the Creator and the land He gave.
Protection of the vulnerable, care for the poor and the hungry, and duty to the community before the self.
The land held in trust, worked honestly, and left better than we found it, for those who come after.
A people who can grow, build, heal, and provide for themselves owe their freedom to no one.
The Order's seat will be one hundred acres, joined with Eat It Up, the food and land mission already underway. Where Eat It Up feeds the Upper Peninsula, the Order's land will be its heart: a working commandery that grows food, teaches the old skills, shelters those in need, and stands as proof that a self-sustaining Christian community can still be built with honest hands.
It is not a retreat from the world. It is a foundation under it, a place that produces more than it consumes and gives the surplus away.