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No 164 - 2001
8 Community Notes
Ordination of Fr Benjamin at Candlemas
FR BENJAMIN Standish OSB was ordained priest by Bishop Crispian Hollis, bishop of Portsmouth on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, February 2. The celebration began with the blessing and procession of candles.
Bishop Crispian Hollis lays hands on Fr Benjamin, assisted by deacons oblate-novice Peter Lattey (left) and oblate Ron O'Toole
About two hundred friends of Fr Benjamin and the community were present and there was many visiting concelebrants. Many of the monks working in parishes also came, as did Fr Edmund who flew from Rome for the occasion.
Fr Benjamin lies in front of the altar during the Litany
After the Mass all the visitors were entertained to lunch. Next day Fr Benjamin presided at the Conventual Mass at 11am and preached to the regular Sunday assembly.
Cantors Frs Bernard Swinhoe OSB, Edmund Power OSB, Peter Bowe OSB & Oliver Holt OSB sing the Litany.
Fr Benjamin was born in Liverpool in 1960, but the family moved to the Wirral where he went to St John’s Catholic School. On leaving school he studied catering and then spent a year as a Franciscan aspirant. He then studied Philosophy and Theology at Ushaw, Co Durham, before coming to Douai becoming a novice in 1989. He made temporary profession but left in 1992. Shortly after this his mother fell ill and he nursed her until her death. He returned to Douai in 1999, made solemn profession in January 2001. He completed his theological studies at Wonersh, Surrey.
Fr Godric Timney OSB lays hands on Fr Bemjamin while Fr John Cooke, parish priest of Fleet, waits his turn
Visitation
The quadrennial visitation of the community took place in April 2001. It was conducted by Abbot President Francis Rossiter OSB and Fr Bede Hill OSB of Worth Abbey. A visitation is an opportunity for a community to take stock. The visitors interview each monk and then report on the spiritual and material state of the community, making whatever recommendations are necessary. It is an occasion of grace which enables a community to grow spiritually.
General Chapter
In July the ninty-first General Chapter of the Congregation took place at Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire. Fr Abbot attended, along with Fr Alban Hood OSB, the delegate elected by the community. All the officals of the congregation attend, including Fr Dermot Tredget OSB who had been the inspector of accounts for the monasteries of the congregation during the previous four years. Fr Edmund Power OSB was elected Procurator in Curia, and Fr Abbot was appointed third assitant to the President. At the end of the chapter Abbot Francis Rossiter resigned after twenty years as President and Fr Richard Yeo, Abbot of Downside was elected to this office.
Trusts
The Abbey Trust has appointed Bernard Crean, Frank Canosa, David Morgan and Alex Sanderson as a Financial Group to advise the Trust. The Parishes Trust has appointed Buzzacott & Co. as their advisers.
Fire
At 10.15am on Wednesday December 19 Fr Oliver Holt OSB was working at his desk when he found smoke seeping into his room. Investigation showed that the sacristy of the house chapel was on fire. Immediately he sounded the fire alarm and phoned 999. As the community gathered it was realised that the sacristy was full of acrid smoke which began to creep out into the cloister. It was not possible to tackle the fire in the sacristy ourselves, but Prior Dermot Tredget OSB and Br Hugh Somerville-Knapman OSB played water through the fire hoses onto the outside of the sacristy door to prevent the fire spreading, although the heat outside was intense enough to melt a plastic cable conduit and crack the toughened glass in the door from the cloister to the stair case.
The fire brigade arrived within a quarter of an hour; four engines came, two from Newbury, one each from Mortimer and Reading. The fire was quickly extinguished and although the sacristy was completely burned out, the only other damage was caused by smoke, which had penetrated throughout the south block. The rooms immediately above the fire had to be cleansed and the whole block fumigated to get rid of the smell which lingered.
We were fortunate that the fire happened during the day, at night it would probably have got a greater hold before being discovered. We were also fortunate in having a concrete building; had the floors been of wood and walls of plaster, much greater damage would have been done.
If one has to have a fire, this one came at just the right time, when we were planning the refurbishment of the buildings. Fr Wilfrid Sollom OSB made a detailed photographic study of the effects of the fire and the smoke throughout the building, which he used as illustations for a report he wrote for the architect. The fire officer visited afterwards and made helpful suggestions about installing smoke alarms and keeping doors shut. It was clear that improved safety proceedures needed to be implemented, a process we have begun.
Buildings
The leasing of the former school buildings is nearing completion. The problem arising from a covenant imposed on the land in 1909 has been overcome and the issue of oil contamination is much less than was feared. In January the planning committee of West Berkshire Council approved the plans of our architect, David Richmond, for the monastery buildings and are to consider the plans for the appartments and residences in the school buildings at their April meeting. We hope to give more details in future issues of Douai Abbey Newsletter and the next number of the Douai Magazine.
Personal
Fr Matthew Hulley OSB, Cathedral Prior of Peterborough, died on October 7, 2001. Fr Abbot’s tribute to him was published in the Winter issue of Douai Abbey Newsletter. In that same issue was recorded the 70th anniversary of his and Fr Robert Richardson OSB’s clothing as novices.
In December Fr Vincent Deane had to go into Fairmile Hospital, near Wallingford, Oxon. as we were no longer able to look after him. In the previous few weeks he had gradually lost sense of time and place and had taken to wandering about inside and out at all hours, sometimes getting lost and having to brought home by kindly neighbours or passing motorists. Just as we go to press he has had to be moved to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, suffering from pneumonia.
Prior Dermot Tredget OSB has embarked on a D. Phil. at Oxford on the theology of work. Fr Alexander Austin OSB has completed his MA in spirituality at Heythrop College, University of London. Br Christopher Greener OSB and Br Simon Hill OSB are reading Theology at Oxford, and Fr Oliver Holt OSB is continuing his study of Medical Ethics there.
Speakers
During the year among speakers for the community were: Professor Roland Oliver on Christianity in Africa, Dennis Minns on St Irenaeus, Stephen Gasche on Marriage and Canon Law, Dorothy Bell on her career and work with AIDS patients.
Visitors
Abbot Thomas Frerking and Fr Gregory Mohrman OSB of St Louis Abbey, Missouri spent a few days with us after the General Chapter. Abbot Thomas came again in January for two visits before and after an abbots’ meeting at Buckfast Abbey. We also had brief visits from Abbots Mark Serna of Portsmouth Abbey, RI and Aidan Shea of St Anselm’s Abbey, Washington, DC, on their way to Buckfast. On several occasions the regimen of the Congregation has met at Douai, which brought the Abbot President and Abbot Stephen Ortiger of Worth as visitors. For several years now the community of Elmore Abbey have come to celebrate Vespers of St Edmund with us, and we have reciprocated the visit on the Sunday after Christmas.
Relatives & friends
The relatives of the community were invited to Mass and lunch on the feast of St Benet Biscop, January 12. About thirty attended.
Recent deaths include Bertha Herington of Coventry who taught for many years at our preparatory school at Ditcham Park, Hants, Michael Hawkin who was doctor to four abbots, Sylvester Mooney, Gregory Freeman, Leonard Vickers and Finbar Kealy, and Jim Balding who for several years looked after the church and grounds at Burghfield Common. Please join us in praying for them.
The Grounds
Since taking over responsibility for the monastery garden and grounds Nick Nutley has achieved many improvements. Most recently the former ‘monastery pitches’ have been fenced on the east side and a hedge has been planted. The intention is to make this area into a wild flower meadow, not cutting the grass for hay until after the flowers have seeded each year. The orchard to the north of the abbey church has been cut down as most of the trees were diseased. Only the two ancient bramleys remain which always given a good harvest. Many of the plants and shurbs from the former school grounds have been transferred to the the monastery grounds, under the guidance of Fr John Bolton OSB of Worth who is staying with us for a time. So new beds have been developed alongside the conference room and sacristies. Much clearing has taken place in the monastery garden, which was beginning to become over grown.
Pastoral Programme
The Pastoral Programme continues to develop. Recent topics include the Theology of Vatican II, Priestless Parishes and Interfaith issues. The link with Reading University is continuing, we gave a course on the Psalms in the autumn term, and there will be a Saturday School on Monastic History at the Abbey Conference Centre. More titles are being planned, for details please contact the Programme Director at Douai Abbey.
Internet & email
Our web site which we keep up to date now has a new address www.douaiabbey.org.uk The former address still functions. To email members of the community simply put the monk’s religious name @douaiabbey.org.uk
The Community
Abbot Geoffrey Scott
Prior Dermot Tredget
Fr Finbar Kealy Abbot emeritus, assistant in Ormskirk parish
Subprior Terence FitzPatrick
Fr James Donovan Cathedral Prior of Winchester
Fr Romuald Simpson Cathedral Prior of Coventry. Woolhampton parish
Fr Robert Richardson
Fr Augustine Stickland assistant in Alcester parish
Fr Leo Arkwright
Fr Bernard Swinhoe Novice Master
Fr Timothy Kelly Kemerton parish
Fr Louis O’Dwyer Infirmarian
Fr Gervase Holdaway Oblate Director, Pastoral Programme Director
Fr Nicholas Broadbridge
Fr Wilfrid Sollom
Fr Boniface Moran Alcester parish
Fr Peter Bowe Bursar, Junior Master
Fr Godric Timney Wash Common parish
Fr Austin Gurr Stratford-upon-Avon parish
Fr Oliver Holt Guest master
Fr Edmund Power Prior of Sant’ Anselmo, Rome
Fr Alexander Austin Pershore parish
Fr Francis Hughes Scarisbrick parish
Fr Richard Jones Broadway parish
Fr Alban Hood Ormskirk parish
Fr Paul Gunter Studley parish
Fr Benedict Thompson
Fr Benjamin Standish
Br Christopher Greener
Br Simon Hill
Novice Hugh Sommerville-Knapman