Name: Sophia House

Location: Two floors of a three-flat in the Hyde Park (University of Chicago) neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.

When Started: 1993, when four young women who'd lived in community as Sinsinawa Dominican Apostolic Volunteers wanted to recapture that community experience on their own.

Format: A live-in community that prays together three times a week, and shares meals and domestic chores day to day. There are two or three retreats a year, and three big parties.

Membership: At present, a married couple and five single persons.

Activities: Presence to each other, faith-sharing, simple living, hospitality, and work for social justice.

Biggest Benefits: People committed to caring about each other, sharing faith struggles, celebrating the spiritual dimensions of life in creative ways, and living more simply -- consuming less because of what they hold in common.

Quote: "Living at Sophia continually calls me out of myself to the world beyond me, challenges me to live in ways that are more loving and honest, and helps me to be about love and justice in our world. I like who I am in community. And I like what my living in community means for the world." Kris Funk.

Contact: Kris Funk. 773 667-6842