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Community Notes

A QUIET Vigil Service was held in the Abbey Church to see in the final New Year of the old millennium. For the community the year 2000 was to witness the taking of many important steps which would set its direction for the approaching new century.

Since the closure of Douai School, the community has had to face two major questions, one practical, what to do with the buildings, most of which are listed grade II, and the other, more fundamental, what is our mission. In dealing with the first question, we are subject to the conditions laid down by the Charity Commissioners and will also have to obtain planning consent.

Hospitality

In dealing with the second question we have to consider what is our Benedictine charism and how we can best live it using our particular skills and considering our location. Hospitality is essential to being Benedictine. St Benedict tells us that guests are never lacking in a monastery and that every guest is to be treated as Christ himself. In the present age more and more people are seeking to spend time in monasteries on individual and organised retreats. So we have decided to expand our guest facility and develop this work. We had encouragement when recently the London Evening Standard published an article by someone who had been on retreat at Douai, recommending us, which has led to a number of enquiries and bookings.

Education

AloAlongside the retreat programme we reaffirm our commitment to Christian education. The church is desperately in need of tertiary education, as, not only are more and more baptised people being called to take up active ministries, but also a growing number are seeing the need to deepen the understanding of their faith. The Pastoral Programme is helping to fulfill this need. In addition, we have established links with Reading University, so that the community has this year been responsible for teaching two evening courses, 'Towards a Twenty-first Century Christianity I and II' as part of the Continuing Education programme. A further two courses are planned for the next academic year. In addition the University has held one of its Saturday courses on Medieval Monasticism at Douai and others are planned.

Spirituality in the Workplace

Another important aspect of this growing ministry is the 'Spirituality in the Workplace' series. Prior Dermot Tredget has developed a series of six retreat/workshops which have already been run twice at Douai. In addition, he has been invited to lecture and hold seminars on this topic in several universities including Oxford, Surrey and Birmingham, as well as in sundry business and professional venues. He is also helping develop a course at Cranfield University. Several articles about these workshops have appeared in newspapers and journals including The Financial Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Tablet, the London Evening Standard and, in Italian, L'Avenire. There have also been several television interviews.

American Initiative

During November Fr Gervase Holdaway OSB spent three weeks in the United States visiting monasteries which have Universities or Colleges attached to discuss the possibility of establishing a Summer School at Douai for groups of students of Benedictine establishments. The proposal was very well received and will, we hope, take off in 2003, when we have completed sufficient guest accommodation. The venues he visited were Belmont Abbey College, North Carolina; St Leo's University, Florida; St Gregory's University, Shawnee, Oklahoma; Conception Abbey, Missouri; Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas; St Meinrad School of Theology, Indiana; he also met with representatives of St Vincent's College, Pennsylvania at Pittsburg Airport. During the same period Prior Dermot Tredget attended the American Benedictine Priors Workshop at Benet Lake Abbey, Wisconsin, and visited Benedictine College, Aurora, Illinois; St Anselm's College, Manchester, New Hampshire; and St Johns' University, Collegeville, Minnesota.

Community Growth

With all this activity it is important that the Community receives new members. We are happy to record that Br Christopher Greener OSB made first profession on October 2, 2000 and Br Simon Hill OSB on January 20, 2001. They are now studying Philosophy under Fr Louis O'Dwyer OSB and going for tutorials one day a week to Oxford. Novice Andrew Grattan felt his vocation lay elsewhere and left in August 2000. Happily, Br Benjamin Standish OSB who had left earlier and subsequently returned made solemn profession on January 20, 2001. He was ordained deacon the following Saturday in Ellesmere Port where his brother is parish priest. Br Petroc Kimm was clothed as a novice at the end of the retreat in August, and Postulant Scott Somerville-Knapman, who had been a novice in 1995-6, returned from working with the Sydney police to join us again on New Year's Eve. Fr Benedict Thompson was ordained priest on March 25, 2000.

Oblates

A worldwide experience is the phenomenal growth of the Oblate movement, even while the number of monastics declines. Douai too has experienced this growth. We have increased the number of Oblates' retreats to four a year, and this may have to increase yet more. If any reader is interested in the oblate movement please contact the Oblate Director at Douai Abbey.

Abbots Congress

In September 2000 Fr Abbot travelled to Rome for the quadrennial Abbots' Congress. The day before the Congress opened Pope John Paul II beatified Abbot Columba Marmion, the Irish born abbot of Maredsous whose books Christ the Life of the Monk and Christ the Life of the Soul were for many years best sellers. At the beginning of the Congress the Abbot Primate, Marcel Rooney resigned and Abbot Notker Wolf of St Ottilien was elected. Abbot Notker is well known to Douai monks and indeed he stayed with us for a week in 1999 for the meeting of the Monastic Interfaith Dialogue.

Liturgical Changes

Since the beginning of 2001 the time of Sunday Conventual Mass in the Abbey Church has been moved forward half an hour to 11am. This change was made to allow the community space to have Midday Prayer at 12.50pm. On the first Sunday of Advent the Douai Singers, who sing in the liturgy once a month and on major festivals, wore choir robes of royal blue for the first time and joined the procession in and out of the church. This gives the celebration a greater sense of unity and underlines that the singers are an integral part of the celebration and not an adjunct.

Families

We consider our links with our natural families most important, and to this end Fr Abbot had initiated in 1999 a 'Families Day', to which the community may invite the members of their immediate families to Mass and lunch. This has replaced the former 'Parents Day' which was abandoned a few years ago. It has proved popular and increased numbers have attended in each of the following years.

Third World

We have not forgotten the need to help the Third World. On Ash Wednesday 2001 Fr Peter Bowe OSB, who is the community bursar, flew to India to help the community of Asirvanam. This is a community which has experienced rapid growth, but lacks sufficient expertise for monastic formation and theological teaching. Monasteries of the First World are being asked to lend monks for short periods to help fill this gap. Last year Fr Edmund Power OSB, who is Prior of Sant' Anselmo in Rome, also went to India to give retreats; an account of his visit is printed elsewhere in this issue.

Nor do we forget the underprivileged at home; the ministry to homeless travellers is under the loving care of Br Benjamin Standish OSB and Fr Bernard Swinhoe OSB. We have accommodation for the homeless to stay the night and take a shower and everyone who comes is given food.

Ernie Rheel RIP

We are saddened to record the death of Ernie Rheel on Christmas Eve 2000. Ernie had been our maintenance person for many years. There was little he could not successfully turn his hand to by way of repair or construction. He and his Asian wife had been victims of Amin's policy of expelling Asians from Uganda in the the early seventies. They had arrived in the refugee camp that was set up on Greenham Common, where Fr Peter Bowe OSB made their aquaintance and brought Ernie to Douai to be part of our maintenance team. He retired a few years ago and was intending to move to be near one of his sons in Canada, when he suffered the stroke which was to prove fatal. May he rest in peace.

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 Matthew Hulley Cathedral Prior of Peterborough
Fr Robert Richardson
Fr Vincent Deane
Fr Augustine Stickland assistant in Alcester parish
Fr Leo Arkwright
Fr Romuald Simpson Fr Bernard Swinhoe
Fr Timothy Kelly Kemerton parish
Fr Louis O'Dwyer
Fr Gervase Holdaway
Fr Nicholas Broadbridge
Fr Wilfrid Sollom
Fr Boniface Moran Alcester parish
Fr Peter Bowe
Fr Godric Timney Wash Common parish
Fr Austin Gurr Stratford-on-Avon parish Fr Oliver Holt
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
Br Benjamin Standish
Br Christopher Greener
Br Simon Hill
Novice Petroc Kimm
Postulant Scott Somerville-Knapman

Index

Editorial

Bishop Austin O'Neill OSB 1841 - 1911 by Abbot Geoffrey Scott OSB

An English Monk in India by Fr Edmund Power OSB

On Sabbatical in Dublin by Fr Finbar Kealy OSB

Une Annee sabbatique by Fr Oliver Holt OSB

Music at Douai by Fr Romuald Simpson OSB

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revised 24/07/01 by WS