THIS monastery is of special importance at the present time because of two important decisions that community has made. One is to become an ecumenical monastery. The Sisters of St Benedict write Challenged by our experience of Christian ecumenism, we envisage a monastic community where single Christian women of any denomination live together amidst religious and cultural diversity in the spirit of Jesus, guided by the Rule of St Benedict.
The monastery accepts Christian women as full members without regard to denomination of church affiliation. Women who come from diverse Christian traditions, bringing their wisdom and experience, will live a common life of prayer, work and study guided by the Rule.
The second important decision is of an ecological nature. The community has decided to restore some of their land to its natural state. The sisters plan to develop an upland prairie, a wetland preserve and restore a glacial lake. These features have been lost during the past century due to development. Native plants, some of which have disappeared from the area in recent years, will be seeded, and the area should become a refuge for bird life.
These two topics, ecumenism and ecology, will be of vital concern to the church and the world of the twenty-first century, and it is good to see our Benedictine sisters taking such visionary decisions.
Further information can be obtained from: 'Saint Benedict Center, Box 5070, Madison, Wisconsin 53705-0070, USA, and from their web site
Saint Benedict Center
Douai Parish Links With American Benedictine Monastery
St Anne's Ormskirk linked with St Gregory's, Shawnee, Oklahoma
THE Douai parish of St Anne, Ormskirk, Lancs, has established links with
St Gregory's Abbey, Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA. The link was established through the late Fr Ian Riding OSB, a monk of St Gregory's who was born and raised in Ormskirk. He studied at Cambridge and London Universities and received a doctorate from King's College, London. He became an Anglican priest and in the 1970s moved to Oklahoma to take up an appointment in an Episcopal Church. Subsequently he became a Catholic and joined St Gregory's Abbey, where, after profession and ordination he taught in the college attached to the monastery and rose to be its President; quite an achievement for someone who had failed his eleven-plus! Besides teaching, Fr Ian was much sought after as a spiritual director and retreat giver.
Sadly Fr Ian died at the age of 50 in 1994 from a painful degenerative disease. His life and ministry inspired many people, and his community and colleagues at St Gregory's (the College has recently become a University) have decided to perpetuate his memory by building a new library which will be known as 'The Father Ian Riding Memorial Library for Theology and Spirituality'.
In March 1998, his confrere, Fr Laurence OSB came to visit his friends in Ormskirk and celebrated Mass in St Anne's. When he mentioned that the Abbey was planning to perpetuate Fr Ian's memory by building the library, his friends in Ormskirk approached Fr Alban Hood OSB, the parish priest, with the suggestion that a concert of sacred music be arranged in St Anne's Church to help raise funds for the library.
The concert took place on November 29, 1998, and was given by the Occasional Singers, a local choir of which Fr Alban is a member. Fr Laurence came over for the concert and spoke movingly of Fr Ian's contribution to St Gregory's College. The concert included works by Monteverdi, Csar Franck, Lotti, John Taverner and Mozart. Spoken tributes to Fr Ian were made by his friends in Ormskirk. Over 600 was raised for the Ian Riding Memorial Library fund.
St Anne's parish is delighted to be involved in the project, not just in honouring a local man and in helping another Benedictine institution, but also because throughout his life Fr Ian built bridges between different Christian denominations. The parish hope that much will come from this link with St Gregory's, especially now that an exchange programme is being planned with Edge Hill University College, in Ormskirk itself.
EBC Website
THE English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) launched its web site on March 21. The press release read, From the prayerful peace of the monasteries, Benedictines have been influencing the world around them for centuries. Starting in sixth century Italy, they were at the forefront of the civilisation and education of Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Cities grew around the great Abbeys and Cathedrals built and run by Benedictines. Now, on the brink of a new century and using the latest Internet technology, they aim to further that mission by this new presence in cyberspace.
By visiting this site on the internet, anyone can find out more about these monasteries, the monks and nuns who live, work and pray there and why they are carrying the centuries-long traditions of monastic life into the 21st century.
The English Benedictine Congregation is the oldest (13th century) of the twenty-one Benedictine congregations that together make up the 'Order of St Benedict' throughout the world today. There are pages devoted to each of the thirteen independent communities of nuns and monks in the EBC. There are simple maps showing their locations in England and the USA. There are smaller dependent houses and individual monks working in other countries, mostly in Africa and South America.
The site was designed and created by a team of monks including Br Boniface Huddleston OSB of Ampleforth and Fr Wilfrid Sollom OSB of Douai. The address of the site is:English Benedictine Congregation
Douai, of course has had its own website for some time at Douai Abbey
Parish News
St Anne's, Ormskirk, Day of Renewal
ON November 28, 1998, parishioners of St Anne's, Ormskirk, gathered together to celebrate the parish's strengths, and to see how these strengths could be used to build up spiritual and community life of the parish.
The day was led by Maureen Knight and Ellie McEwen from the Liverpool Archdiocesan Pastoral Formation Department, and was a mixture of reflection and discussion based on St Anne's Parish Mission Statement, which Ellie said could be summarized as a recognition that we are called to ensure that:
God is worshipped
The truth is told
Peoples' needs are met.
The celebration began with a short liturgy using the Mass readings from the 1st Sunday of Advent and as representatives of Parish Groups shared in prayer their hopes for their Group and for the Parish, it was seen how much is already happening at St Anne's, which was a particularly moving and encouraging part of the liturgy.
Apart from the preparation for the Day of Renewal, parishioners had been asked to complete a questionnaire to help identify the 'top 10' areas of importance and Ellie then worked with some of the planning team to sort these out under four headings for group discussion: Pastoral, Education, Social and Spiritual. A fifth group would look at administration, as good communication and liason are necessary to underpin all activities.
The focus for the rest of the day was, 'Where do we go from here?' Through discussion and reflection, both in small groups and all together the parish examined its strengths and identified areas of weakness. It also discussed what sort of co-ordinating forum was necessary to replace PAX, the previous Parish Council.
Although the day itself was fulfilling, Ellie and Maureen rightly stressed that if it were to be more than just an enjoyable day, the real test of commitment would be what happened next. A representative of each group was chosen to meet with the parish priest, Fr Alban Hood OSB, to move the process on.
Construction
Abbey Drive Way & Car Park
PLANNING permission was finally granted for the surfacing of the Abbey Drive, Car Park and landscaping works on the last day of December 1998. Unfortunately there has been so much rain since then, that it has not been possible to bring in the heavy machinery to do the necessary digging, as the ground has been waterlogged.
A start has been made, however, Fr Wilfrid has completed the patio outside the church, so there is plenty of gathering space and the church is wheelchair accessible. Two bollard lamps have been set up outside the church, and two at the entrance gates. A trench has been dug to carry lighting cable across the orchard to the Car Park site. As soon as drier weather comes construction work can begin.
New Monastic Workshops
New monastic workshops have been established for carpentry, radio and maintenance. Previously, monks had used the school workshops, but with the separation of the school from the monastery, this is no longer possible, so a separate facility had to be set up.
The main users of the workshops are the Prior, Fr Bernard Swinhoe OSB, Fr Nicholas Broadbridge OSB and Fr Wilfrid Sollom OSB. Fr Nicholas constructs prayer stools and crosses for sale. Fr Prior and Fr Wilfrid are involved in general maintenance. In addition Fr Wilfrid is a frequent user of 'ham' radio and keeps his equipment there.
Co-Workers
We welcome Martin O'Hagan to the maintenance team. He replaces Ernie Reehl who retired before Christmas (see previous Newsletter). He has already begun catching up with the backlog of work, renewing roof gutters, repairing roofs, boilers and broken windows.