AT the Conventual Mass on October 2, the feast of the Guardian Angels, Br Christopher Greener OSB made temporary profession for three years, having completed the novitiate. Br Christopher came from Cheltenham where Douai monks had, until recently, staffed the parish. He is a graduate in History from Cheltenham College of Higher Education. Sadly, his fellow novice, Andrew Grattan has decided, for the present, not to proceed to profession.

At the Conventual Chapter on December 7 the community voted to accept Novice Simon Hill for temporary profession and Br Benjamin Standish OSB for solemn profession. Hopefully these professions will occur on Saturday January 20, at the Community Mass which will be at 12noon. Br Benjamin will be ordained deacon on January 27 in the parish of Ellesmere Port, South Wirral, where his brother is parish priest.

EVERY four years the abbots of all the monasteries in the world meet in Congress in Rome. The meeting this year ran from September 3 to 15. On Sunday September 2 all the abbots had been invited to a ceremony at the Vatican during which Abbot Columba Marmion was beatified.

The main event of the Abbots’ Congress was the election of a new Abbot Primate in succession to Abbot Marcel Rooney who had resigned. Abbot Notker Wolf of St Ottilien was elected. Abbot Notker had visited Douai last year as a member of the Monastic Interfaith meeting.

Since Benedictines are not a centralised order, there is no head or general as there is for orders such as the Dominicans or Jesuits. The Abbot Primate is a titualar figure only, he has no authority. He acts as abbot of Collegio Sant’ Anselmo, the house of studies in Rome, of which our Fr Edmund Power OSB is Prior.

He does have considerable influence however, and acts as a roving ambassador for Benedictine monasteries throughout the world, helping them to keep in touch with each other and, importantly, encouraging and arranging for help for those monasteries developing in third world countries.

THE American Priors’ Workshop took place at St Benedict’s Abbey, Benet Lake, Wisconsin from November 9 to 13. Fr Dermot Tredget OSB was the only English Prior to take part. The theme was Benedictines in the 21st Century. There were two major presenters, Archbishop Rembert Weakland OSB and Sister Ruth Fox OSB.

Liturgy was especially important. In many respects the Church has not succeeded in spite of the reforms of Vatican II; there is a worrying growth of private devotions, in face of which Benedictine commitment to communal prayer is particularly important. The praise of God for its own sake is not always in harmony with the current activist or Pelagian approach to life, making our witness especially important. The way we celebrate liturgy, design our churches builds on the aesthetic dimension of our lives. Making Scripture relevant to the contemporary century and promoting Lectio Divina are other important gifts we can offer the world.

Community life is another contribution; the tensions between the individual and the community should be creative and lead to the growth of both. A healthy comunity is one that keeps you sane and challenges. Benedictine community is a good model for reintegrating the alienated back into the fold, since it must be outward looking and include a social dimension.

Monasteries have an important role to play in support of local dioceses and their priests. The ‘abbot’ model will be more important for the church of the 21st century than the ‘bishop’ model; someone whose focus is more spiritual than temporal or administrative. Likewise, Benedictines can provide a helpful model for collaborative ministry. How we make decisions, not promoting self-interest but recognising the gifts and talents of others, is an important witness for a church where collaborative ministry is becoming increasingly essential.

Spritual Direction and counselling are important works to help people grow spiritually.

The witness of stability, simplicity of life and obedience are important charisms Benedictines have to offer the church. It is sad that so few people really understand what monastic life is about. We must ask ourselves if we are articulating our vision in a way that is intelligible to people, especially younger people. In this respect the oblate movement has a great deal to offer.

Monastic tradition is a good foundation for ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue, since it is a charism which is common to all faiths. It is in Asia, especially in China and Korea, that the Church is growing most rapidly. We need to ask how can our monasteries be more open to ethnic groups.

Sr Ruth concentrates on five areas of our house. First the church; a major modification for the 21st Century will be enlarging the church, especially the door, making it wider and more inclusive. We have to see how we can make our liturgies more hospitable.

Then there is the threshold. A monastery is a place of hospitality; we must ask, who is knocking at the door? Are we open to them, especially to minority groups, to those of different ethnicity and culture? Maybe our attitude to others will have to change.

Sr Ruth considered cracks in the structure: are the people who should be downstairs always upstairs; are they rebels or pioneers? There are those who find it difficult to make a permanent commitment: should there be some form of temporary vocation? Considering IT, e-mail and voice-mail; how have they affected our lives; are we in danger of creating a virtual world; do they make our lives more impersonal, or do they enhance our spirituality?

The basement is a part of the house we may not like to enter. It can contain the messiest, darkest parts of our lives, but ghosts have to confronted. The basement is also where the foundations are, the essential part of any house; it can be a place of inspiration and prophecy.

Finally the windows; we can look out and people can look in. Are they large enough, do they provide clear wide vision, or are they one-way windows? Do people see authentic living through them? Monasteries are not for ‘Disneyworld’ or nostalgic tourism. Two important windows that need enlarging are those of social justice and inclusiveness.

Community News

AS part of the Pastoral Programme Fr Dermot Tredget OSB has developed a series of six Retreat/Workshops entitled Spirituality in the Workplace designed for people in leadership positions. These workshops are always over subscribed and they have attracted considerable attention in the media. About a year ago there was a front page article in the Financial Times, and more recently articles have appeared in the London Evening Standard and The Sunday Telegraph, as well as in more specialist journals.

As a result Fr Dermot has been invited to give lectures at Cranfield University, where he has been invited to be a consultant for drawing up a new degree course on this topic, and to the Chartered Institute of Personel Development at their annual conference in Harrogate. In addition he been an advisor to various management consultants and has given a retreat at Douai for the Academy of Chief Executives.

FROM August 21 to 24 Fr Wilfrid Sollom OSB, a member of the EBC Internet Commission, took part in a webweavers workshop which was held at Worth Abbey.

IN November Prior Dermot Tredget OSB and Fr Gervase Holdaway OSB travelled to America to visit a number of Benedictine Universities and Colleges. Prior Dermot combined his visits with the journey to attend the meeting of Benedictine Priors.

The purpose of the visits was to begin preliminary discussions about the feasability of holding summer schools at Douai for students of Benedictine colleges and universities. The proposals were greeted with enthusiasm and it looks as if it will come about probably in 2003.

In addition Fr Gervase used the occasion to study how other communities run their equivalent of the Pastoral Programme, and he received a lot of helpful advice at Conception Abbey and from the Benedictine sisters at Ferdinand whom he was able to visit while at St Meinrad. He was also able to have valuable conversations with several Oblate Directors.

THE partnership between Douai Abbey and Reading University has begun well. We are about to complete the first term of teaching a course Towards a Twenty-first Century Christianity I which has been well attended, and the first University Saturday School held at Douai was fully booked. Towards a Twenty-first Century Christianity II will be taught next term and there will be another Saturday School at Douai in May and a week-end course in March. Full details of these can be obtained from the University or the Pastoral Programme Office at Douai.

IN August Fr Romuald Simpson OSB returned to the monastery from the parish of Stratford-upon-Avon where he has been parish priest for the past ten years. He has been appointed Junior Master, responsible for the young monks, once they have completed their novitiate.

Fr Romuald’s place in Stratford has been taken by Fr Austin Gurr OSB, who had been parish priest of Alcester. Fr Boniface Moran OSB who had been assistant in Stratford has gone to Alcester.

We have taken on responsibility for the parish of Broadway from the Passionists, on a two year contract with the Archdiocese of Birmingham. This marks the return of Benedictines to Broadway after an absence of 165 years. In the nineteenth century a monastery had been established there in an attempt to re-establish the Abbey of Lambspring which had been suppressed in Germany in the early nineteenth century. However the community did not flourish and it was closed in 1835. Fr Richard Jones OSB, who had been working recently in the Belmont parish at Whitehaven, has been appointed to administer Broadway and also to assist in Stratford.

Abbot Finbar Kealy OSB completed his master’s in Pastoral Theology in Dublin, and in October became assistant pastor at St Anne’s Ormskirk.

An article in the last issue may inadvertantly have given the impression that St Peter’s, Woolhampton, was closed. We are happy to report it is very much alive. Apologies for the misunderstanding.

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