» Maintenance Matters and a Warning

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» Maintenance Matters and a Warning

Douai Abbey: The Monastery of St Edmund, King & Martyr
Published by HSK in News · 16 November 2016
» On Sunday just past Fr Abbot travelled to the church of Our Lady and St Edmund in Abingdon for the solemn closing of the Holy Door to conclude the Year of Mercy. After the Mass Fr Abbot gave a talk to those who had gathered for the occasion.

» A necessary part of monastic life is the maintenance of our buildings and grounds. While the monastery is not of extravagant size, it has a not insiginificant fabric that requires a regular round of inspection and maintenance. To that end the whole monastery, including guesthouse, abbey church and library, is currently (sic!) having its electrical wiring inspected in detail by a small team led by our maintenance manager Martin O'Hagan, and any problems are being corrected. It has already taken some weeks and is not without occasional inconvenience to the community.

As part of the process, for example, the moment was seized to replace some defunct uplights in the nave of the abbey church. Greg Primavesi, our clerk of works, discovered that an unsatisfactory variety of halogen lamps of varying watteges were installed. He is now replacing them all with the LED bulbs. The average wattage of the older bulbs was 50V; the new LEDs are all 5V. While producing the same intensity of light they will use only 10% of the energy previouly used by the uplights, and the resulting dramatic reduction in heat from the bulbs should ensure they last for their full lifespan. It is a small contribution to cutting our costs while doing a little something for the environment.

Greg at work on the uplights

» Today an opportunist thief stole the purse of a lady visiting the abbey church in the late morning. She discovered the loss soon enough and the police have been informed. Please, when visiting the abbey church, remember to take some precautions to secure your property and vehicles. There is little we can do to prevent opportunist thieves targetting Douai, despite our rural location, but you can ensure that their efforts will be fruitless if you exercise caution and ensure your personal belongings are always in sight and secure.



 DIVINE OFFICE & MASS
- in the abbey church -
0620 - Matins & Lauds (English)
0745 - Weekday Conventual Mass
[1030 - Sunday Conventual Mass]
1250 - Midday Office (English)
1800 - Vespers (Latin, Gregorian Chant)
2000 - Compline* (English)
*No public Compline on Sundays
VISIT US
Douai Abbey
Upper Woolhampton
Reading, Berkshire
RG7 5TQ, United Kingdom

Visitor Enquiries: 0118 9715 399
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