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No 165 - 2002
8. Community Notes
(In general only events since the Winter 2002 issue of Douai Abbey Newsletter are recorded here.)
Centenary Celebrations
The centenary celebrations are planned to run from June 21, 2003 until June 2004. Apart from the Mass to open the year a series of events is planned. Already Fr Abbot has set up a display cabinet at the monastery entrance where a small exhibition has been placed. A commorative book will be published and also a CD of music at Douai. If ordered in advance these can be obtained at the pre-publication prices of £14.99 for the book plus £1.50 postage (£2.50 abroad) and the CD at £10.99 plus £1.50 postage (£2.50 abroad). Apply, sending cheque or credit card details to: Douai 1903-2003, Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, RG7 5TQ. In addition a commemorative postcard will be printed using architect F.A. Walter’s water-colour of the school entrance as it was in 1903. There will be lectures by Fr Edmund Power OSB, John Trigg and Nicholas Atkin during the year, and in the summer a Flower Festival in the Abbey Church.
Evensong
On several occasions during the past year various choirs have celebrated Evensong in the Abbey Church, the most recent being the English Baroque Choir on Sunday February 23. The vicar of Woolhampton, Beenham and Midgham, Canon Christine Redgrave officiated. There was a large congregation from our own parish as well as the Anglican parishes in the area.
Christmas
Around Christmas time the Abbey Church is increasingly being used by local groups for their Carol Services. In addition to Carols for Schools which is organised by our own parish for children from all the primary schools within our parish boundaries or which our children attend, we hosted Elstree School, and St Gabriel’s School, Newbury, who held two services. Our own Christmas Vigil and Mass on Christmas Eve has become well attended since we moved the time to 9pm. Earlier on Christmas Eve each year, the Cods Hill Carol Singers call to sing Christmas greetings and share a glass of punch with us. On New Year’s Eve for the past few years we have held a silent Vigil in the Abbey Church from 11pm till Midnight.
University Links
The links between our Pastoral Programme and the University of Reading School of Continuing Education are now well established. In the autumn term Fr Louis O’Dwyer OSB gave a series of lectures on The Psalms at the University, while at Douai two Saturday Schools were held; Christian Poetry in which Fr Oliver Holt OSB gave two of the lectures, and Rayonnant Architecture in 13th century France. Both were well attended. On May 17 there will be another Day School entitled ‘By the Labour of their Hands’: Mediæval and Victorian Images of Work. At the University in the autumn term a series of lectures Monks and Monasticism will be given on Thursday evenings and in the spring term next year Fr Gervase Holdaway OSB will give a series on Wisdom Literature in the Bible. There will be more Day Schools in the autumn and next year, including one on Benedictine Monasticism Today.
Outreach
The Pastoral Programme continues to expand, especially in the area of retreats. In addition many people come to make individual retreats. Besides the Spirituality-in-the-Workplace series of the Pastoral Programme, Prior Dermot Tredget OSB has led business ethics retreat/workshops here for the Anglican ordinands from Cuddesdon, Wycliffe and St Stephens Colleges, Oxford; the Catholic parish of St Mary Moorfields in the City of London; as well as travelling to Italy to give a week’s course at the Catholic University of Piacenza. He also delivered the annual Plater Lecture at Plater College, Oxford. Fr Oliver Holt OSB has led a Day of Recollection for the staff of the Marist Convent Preparatory School at Ascot. Fr Gervase Holdaway OSB has given a retreat day for the Parish Pastoral Council of St Joseph’s Parish, Maidenhead, and also a retreat and lectures at Campion House, Osterley. Fr Nicholas has also given retreats at Osterley and elsewhere.Moreover, many groups come to use our facilities for their own conferences and retreats; recently these have included the Oxford Christian Institute for Counselling; Probus, a retired business people’s organisation; the Waverley Group, a Christian Training Institute; the Berkshire Girls Guides Commissioners; Euphony, a telecommunications organisation; Portsmouth Diocese School Chaplains; Basingstoke Methodist Ministers and Hatton Road Baptist Church.
Abbots meet at St Louis
At the time of going to press Fr Abbot has travelled to St Louis, MO, for a meeting of the English Benedictine Abbots and Abbesses. This is the first time the meeting has taken place on one of the three EBC monasteries in the United States of America.
Building Preparations
Tree surgeons at work & the trimmed oak tree.
Preparatory works for the monastery building programme have taken place. These include laying cables and pipes to the Parish Church to ensure uninterupted supplies of electricity and water once the separation of the buildings has taken place to allow Bewley Homes to commence their work. Tree surgeons have taken down the ash tree on the edge of the rockery which was in the path of the new cloister to the library, and have trimmed the oak tree to the south of the present cloister which will become enclosed in the new refectory quadrangle. Several trees and a hedge in the monastery garden has been removed to allow the construction of a contractor’s road. After discussion it was agreed that the route which would require the cutting down of the least number of trees would follow the ‘Freeman Highway’ to a point near the south end of the monastery garden which it then crosses in a curve to pass close to the south end of the south block. This leaves intact the trees at the south end of the garden which will form a screen from the new houses.
Stephen Sullivan RIP
We regret to record the death in Guernsey at the beginning of March of Stephen Sullivan, our long term benefactor. It was Stephen who built our calefactory and some of us remember the happy occasion on St Benet Biscop’s Day 1967 when it was formally opened with brandy which Stephen had brought with him. Fr Godric Timney OSB represented the community at his funeral at St Joseph’s church, Guernsey on March 10.
Brendan Timney RIP
We also commiserate with Fr Godric on the death of his brother, Brendan, after many years of ill health on February 28.‡
Index
The Role of the Monastery in Today's Society A Layman's Viewby Sir David Goodall
100 Years at Woolhampton as seen from the pages of The Douai Magazine
The New Monastery Buildings by Oliver Holt OSB
A Low God is No God Reflections on latent atheism by Peter Bowe OSB
Go to index of Douai Newsletter.
