Editorial
FOR the past three years we have not published a Spring issue of Douai Abbey Newsletter since we considered that The Douai Magazine published at Easter replaced it. However various considerations have led us to think again. Douai Abbey Newsletter was conceived in 1997, as we said in our introductory editorial, to be addressed to all the friends of Douai. "It is addressed to everyone who has an interest in, or connection with, Douai and consequently will be mailed to those on all the mailing lists, as well as being available at the back of church and elsewhere".In what could be called in modern jargon a mission statement we added "in each issue we hope to provide information about the happenings of the community, our development plans for the future, how we are progressing, as well as articles of a liturgical or spiritual nature". We make no charge for the Newsletter although contributions towards its costs are always welcome. The Douai Magazine, however, is larger and contains material of a more specialist kind. It is much more expensive to mail. The Newsletter does not cost any extra to mail, since it goes out with the Pastoral Programme and other mailings. Douai Abbey Newsletter will be included as an intregal part of The Douai Magazine for those who subscribe for that. Those of you who receive the Newsletter and would like to receive the Magazine also are asked to send a self-addressed C4 envelope with a 34p stamp on it.
Community Notes
Fr Godric elected Chairman of the NCP
FR GODRIC was elected chairman of the English and Welsh National Conference of Priests at its September meeting. He is parish priest of Ormskirk in Lancashire. He had first become a member of the National Conference in 1999 when he was elected by the priests of the Portsmouth Diocese to be one of their representatives, which he was for two years whilst being administrator of the parish of Wash Common, Berkshire. After he had been transferred to Ormskirk he became a representative of the religious orders.In an interview with a Catholic Times reporter Fr Godric said that he had found it a very good forum for discussion, likening the five-day annual meeting to a retreat. His election as chairman he decribes as a total mystery. Somebody came up to me at lunch and said they had been praying about it and talking to other people, and then asked me if I would be interested. I just guffawed. I thought there were other people much better qualified. In the end, Fr Godric was persuaded to let his name go forward. Each of the people nominated was then given three minutes to speak to the meeting and he gave them reasons why he should not be elected as he had not been on the standing committee, and was not a secular priest.
In November, Fr Godric with other members of the NCP met with the Bishops Conference to speak about the concerns of priests, which included worries about the burdens placed on priests as a result of falling numbers, especially in places where parishes were being closed or amalgamated..
Fr Dermot
Some of the participants in the course continue to meet regularly under the title Spirituality-in-the-Workplace Network, at about monthly intervals.
Pastoral Programme
Conference Centre
Br Simon Hill
Br Petroc
Fr Bonifaces cousin ordained as Bishop of Aberdeen
Our Publications
IN recent years we have produced a number of items that are on sale in the Abbey Church Bookshop and which might be of interest to a wider public.The Abbey Church coloured brochure, with text by Abbot Geoffrey Scott was designed by Christy FitzPatrick and is priced 3.50. Abbot Geoffrey also wrote the history of St Marys church and parish, Woolhampton which was published in 1975 and is still in print price 60p. Another book by Abbot Geoffrey is Gothic Rage Undone, the history of the English Bendictine Congregation in the eighteenth century. This costs 20. Fr Dermot Tredget OSB has recently had five talks which he gave at St Mary Moorfields church in London on the spiritual dimension of work published under the title Making a Life or Making a Living? at 2.
For this, the centenial year in Woolhampton, we produced a commemorative volume of the history of the community which includes a CD listing all the monks and also pupils in the former Douai School. This was produced by the Stanbrook Abbey Press and cost 11.50.
A number of CDs have also been produced. For the centenial year the Douai Abbey Singers and the monastic schola brought out Music from Douai Abbey giving a snapshot of music in the life of the Abbey church, which includes pieces of plainchant, two Mass settings, Missa Quarta by Lajos Bardos and Douai Missa Brevis which was commissioned for the Douai Abbey Singers from Roxanna Panufnik; two pieces composed by monks of the community, Fr Romuald Simpsons responsorial psalm Send forth your spirit, O Lord which is used every year at the Easter Vigil and on Whitsunday and Abbot Austin ONeills setting of See amid the winters snow. Included also are representative pieces of polyphony and organ music. This CD costs 11.99.
Sounds of Bach is a CD of organ music by J.S. Bach played by Terence Charleston on the two abbey organs. An earlier CD by Terence Charleston is entitled The Glory of Baroque. Both cost 15.
Apart from the various postcards of the church, there are three mounted prints of drawings by Daniel Trotman which cost 2 each. These drawings are also available as notelets at 2 for a pack of six.
Also a series of seven cards with envelopes have been made using some of the stained glass windows and other art work of St Marys church, formerly the School Chapel, which cost 1 each or 6 a set.
All of these can be obtained from The Bookshop, Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, RG7 5TQ. Please do not send any money with the order; we will send an invoice with the goods.
Douai Abbey Singers
THE Douai Abbey Singers, our church choir, under their director, Dr John Rowntree, were invited to sing at the Saturday evening Mass in Westminster Cathedral on February 21. They sang the Kyrie & Sanctus from Bartoluccis alternatim setting of plainchant Mass VIII with the congregation joining in, the Gloria & Agnus from Bardoss Missa Brevis, Byrds Confirma hoc and Saint Sens Ave Verum. The Master of the Cathedral Music, Martin Baker, wrote in appreciation of the high standard of their singing and invited them to make a return visit. They hope to make this an annual event.The Douai Abbey Singers sing at Mass in the Abbey Church once a month and on the greater festivals. Two Masses have been composed for them, Roxanna Panufniks Douai Missa Brevis and recently an alternatim mass based on plainchant Mass X by John Sandars who died just after its first performance in Advent 2003.
Service of Music and Meditations
Incidentally, when we installed a new organ in the chapel of our monastery in Paris, Charpentier expressed his approval of the instrument .
Novices Clothed
GEORGE Fitzgerald and Barnaby Hughes were clothed as novices before Midday Prayer on Saturday January 17.George was given the monastic name, Theodore. He is a native of Belfast where he attended the College of Business Studies and the College of Catering, 1964-71, obtaining diplomas in accounting and catering. He was employed first as an accountant before running his own catering business.
Later he joined Oscott College where he pursued an ordination course. Whilst there he came to hear of Douai and made the first of several retreats in June 2002. He says I had never had any thoughts of becoming a Benedictine, but after my retreat I found that Douai was a place where I felt at ease and at peace. My life until then, although fulfilling, seemed to lack focus. I found that focus at Douai.
Barnaby, who was named Placid, was born in 1979 in Long Beach, California, the youngest of three boys. At an early age he had piano lessons, playing in everything from jazz and ska (a precursor to reggae) bands to solo gigs at coffee houses and church music groups. His religious upbringing took shape in the semi-fundamentalist and evangelical type of Baptist tradition. After completing his public [state] school education at high school, Barnaby went off to a medium-sized polytechnic university on the central Californian coast. He soon abandoned his original intention of studying architecture and distanced himself from the vibrant evangelical community in which he had been heavily involved, taking up historical studies and forming close friendships with two budding theologians, one Catholic and the other Presbyterian, with whom he spent many late nights discussing theology, but it was not until he went off to Bristol, England that he became convinced of the truth of Catholicism. His academic work played a major role, for he wrote his first three essays in Bristol on early monastic rules, medieval monastic identity, and Tradition in the early church. Barnaby was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on the Easter vigil of 2002, just one week after finishing his BA in History. He returned to Bristol to pursue an MA in Medieval Studies. Early in that year he stayed at Douai Abbey on a retreat with the Bristol University Catholic Chaplaincy. While researching the history of the English Benedictines in the summer, Barnaby returned to Douai many times. Upon completion of the MA, he decided to try out monastic life. Brother Placid tells us he is still discerning his monastic vocation, which he sees especially in terms of community, liturgy, and study, through which he will be able to know, love, and serve God.
Music at Douai
DOUAI is gaining a reputation in the locality for its musical performances. In the forthcoming months several concerts have been planned. On Sunday April 25 a newly formed string quartet of players from Berkshire, The Brinkwells Quartet, will give a programme of quartets by Mozart, Puccini and Elgar.The Newbury Spring Festival, as usual, will stage two concerts at Douai. On Friday May 14 a programme of choral music including Allegris Miserere, Brittens Hymn to St Cecilia, Taveners Song for Athene and a new composition by Nigel Short, The Dream of Herod, will be given by a group called Tenebrae. An organ and harp recital given by Thomas Trotter and Catrin Finch will be given on May 21.
The Kings Singers will give a programme of music by Byrd, Gesualdo, Poulenc, Durufl and others on June 12, and on July 3 the Newbury Choral Society will present Durufls Requiem and music by Elgar.
On July 31 we shall hear Oxfords leading baroque group, Charivari agrable.
Recently we had the inaugural concert of a new ensemble, the Ella Chamber Orchestra, which was conducted by its founder, Nick Beach, who had visited Douai many times when he was director of the West Berks Saturday Music School. Many musicians value their connection with Douai, and like to return.
Go to The Douai Magazine 2003
Go to the previous issue Douai Newsletter Winter 2003
Go to index of previous issues.