Douai

Oblate

October 2000

vol 2 no 4

From the Oblate Director

Retreats and Formation

SINCE our last issue, we have had two oblate retreats, in July and September, during which we have begun following the oblate formation programme devised by Sr Dolores Dowling OSB and published on the internet by Sr Sean OSB of Clyde Monastery, and which she has kindly allowed us to use. We have used four modules so far, St Benedict, Holiness, Conversion and Obedience. Those who were unable to be present and do not have easy access may write to obtain copies of these modules. To read them click here.

During the July retreat Mary Macauley, Oliver Mead and Katherine Ryan made their final oblation after Compline on the Saturday, and we were delighted that most of the monastic community were present.

One of Oblate novices, Lynne Sedgmore, spoke to us during the September retreat about the Millennium World Peace Summit held at the United Nations Building in New York at the beginning of September, at which she was an invited observer. For the first time in history religious and spiritual leaders from the major religious traditions and from all regions of the world met at the United Nations to pledge themselves to work for peace. They signed the ‘Commitment to Global Peace’ and resolved to join together to address the pressing problems of conflict, poverty and the environment. This was the first time the United Nations had concerned itself with religions. The United Nations is well aware that a political process is insufficient in itself. This reminds us of the ‘Benedictines for Peace Movement’ and raises the question whether we should become more involved.

Lynne Sedgmore is a member of MODEM, (Managerial and Organisational Disciplines for the enhancement of Ministry), and we reproduce an article she has written for their magazine.

Dates for forthcoming retreats The guest house is already fully booked for the next retreat, December 15 - 17, although there are rooms available in the monastery for men. If more ladies wish to come it might be possible for them to sleep at Cold Ash Convent or to have B&B accommodation in the village. This emphasises the need we have of more guest accommodation at Douai. Retreat dates for 2001 are April 6 - 8, July 6 - 8, September 28 -30, and December 7 - 9. I advise you to book as early as possible.

Visits During September I went as chaplain on a retreat pilgrimage to Piedmont. Among the places we visited was the former Benedictine monastery of San Michele on an Alpine peak and the present day monastery of San Gulio on an island in the Lake of Orta, where we took part at Vespers with 64 nuns, including 8 novices.! During November I shall be visiting a number of monasteries in the United States, so I shall not be answering correspondence. I shall take the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the Oblate Directors, as I firmly believe one can always learn from the wisdom of others.

Gervase Holdaway OSB

Do all for the Glory of God” RB 57:9

Personal Reflections on Workplace Leadership as Ministry
Lynne Sedgmore OblOSB

Lynne Sedgmore, an oblate novice of Douai, is Chief Executive and Principal of Guildford College of Further and Higher Education.
She has worked as a Management and Marketing Consultant for a range of public and private sector organisations. She was previously Vice Chair of Croydon Health Authority.
She is a trained Spiritual Director, is active in her local parish and sits on the Guildford Diocesan Education Reference Group.
She has attended and led Spiritual Retreats and Workshops for over 15 years and is a member of MODEM.

SPIRITUALITY within my workplace and working life has been an important focus and element of my professional and spiritual journey for many years. I find it heartening to find so many others exploring this topic. As a new member to MODEM I welcome the invitation to dialogue with other members on leadership as ministry. As long as I can remember I have searched for meaning and purpose as a spiritual seeker, alongside my developing career as a lecturer, manager, and Chief Executive within Further and Higher Education Colleges. It is of central importance for me to integrate my spiritual growth and experiences with my everyday world of leading and educating individuals, teams and organisations. It is important to me to attempt to live my Christianity as a holistic lifestyle, integrated into every aspect of life, providing a daily means of learning and endeavouring to live a holy life based on the example of Jesus Christ and the Rule of St Benedict. My professional work is a key element of this holy task of being in the world.

Although I manifest my own personal spirituality through the Christian faith, I actively encourage respect for all faith traditions and the empowerment of those who find non-religious means to express their own spirituality in a loving and appropriate manner. As a leader and manager within a secular organisation I believe that this approach is the only way to engage all staff. For many individuals the word ‘religion’ has negative connotations and can alienate them.

Spirituality as a word and concept may be acceptable, but in the main, my experience is that the majority of staff are most comfortable working with the terms ‘core values’ and ‘higher power’ rather than with any others. The definition of spirituality I have worked with in organisations is “connection with and experience of a higher power that provides and enables inner peace, strength, harmony, love, meaning, joy and right action.

My experience is that the development and expression of such qualities encourages a working community with a strong sense of inter-relatedness with a high power, self, others and the environment.

In addition to developing academic, vocational, moral and social responsibilities and competencies I believe that a key role and function of education is to help individuals develop their own spirituality.

The Government’s ‘Vision for a Learning Age’ includes a statement on developing the 'spiritual sides of our lives' in order to develop as full and effective citizens.

Educational organisations make a major contribution to the shaping of our local communities and to society at large. A growing number of individuals are actively seeking purpose and meaning in their personal lives and are beginning to request or expect a soulful rewarding work-life. Certainly within my own College many staff demand high job satisfaction and personal reward in an environment that no longer offers significant financial benefits and high status or value within society. In my experience the workplace provides an important environment in which we are tested intellectually, emotionally and spiritually as well as professionally. We need to learn how to live constructively within our work community. We may spend more time with work colleagues than we do with our families, offering ample opportunity to clarify and manifest and integrate our personal and professional ministry.

I am committed to developing organisational and community structures which enable members or organisations to express and grow all aspects of themselves, while contributing effectively to the goals of the organisation.

I believe strongly that leadership is primarily an art, an art which is felt, experienced and created, an art that is dependant on effective relationships. It is important that those of us in leadership roles do attempt to articulate and shape our own models and fundamental questions of leadership to help us live an authentic and committed Christian life within our professional worlds.

I am interested in debating questions such as: what does spiritual management look and feel like? what is the role of the CEO in relation to the soul and spirit of an organisation? do we agree that as leaders of our working communities we are responsible for the spirituality of members of our organisations? how aware and able are we, as leaders, to manifest our spiritual values as well as achieve the goals of our organisation? do people who are more highly developed spiritually achieve better results?

I welcome dialogue to improve my own leadership as ministry and to learn from others what works for them.

Lectio Divina for the Jubilee

Part III: Forgive us our Debts

This is the third article by Sr Genevieve Glenn OSB; reproduced with permission from the Oblate Newsletter of the Abbey of St Walburga, Virginia Dale CO

AMONG the obligations laid down in the biblical concept of Jubilee is that of remitting debts. A debt-driven economy created economic slavery from which God commanded freedom.

Jesus used the imagery of debt not to discuss economic matters but to spell out rather vividly what it means to forgive others as we have been forgiven. In fact, the version of the Lord’s Prayer that I learned from my Presbyterian grandmother asked: 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.' Jesus’ story of the unforgiving servant is filled with vivid human detail that turns it into a haunting tale. You remember it in Matthew 18:23-35. It concludes ‘Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave as I had mercy on you.’ It is worth noting that both of the debtors were slaves. From a human, rather than an economic point of view, perhaps the one who can’t forgive his fellow slave is most trapped. Holding others in emotional debt enslaves both the debtor and the one who holds the debt.

There is only one debt that frees both. St Paul names it when he says: 'Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law'. Romans 13:8

In the Rule, St Benedict insists on ready mutual forgiveness because without it, the fabric of the community is continually threatened with destruction. He instructs us to seek forgiveness immediately where we have offended. Since that is often hard to do, that exhortation might draw our attention away from Benedict;s equally strong insistence, in the same line, that if one is asked for forgiveness one should grant it immediately. (cf RB 7:6-9) The accumulation of grudges and resentments is far more burdensome to the one on pilgrimage to God’s tent than is the accumulation of material goods through private ownership. So important does Benedict consider the daily task of mutual forgiveness that he insists on the repetition of the Lord’s Prayer aloud at least twice a day, at Morning and Evening Prayer, in order to heal the wounds caused by contention before they have time to fester. (cf RB 13:12-13).

Suggestions for Reflection
Give some time to looking at what resentments or grudges you may have accumulated yourself or caused others to accumulate. If possible, seek freedom for both of you by talking the matter out. If that is not possible, seek that freedom through prayer for both of you.

One of the powerful meditations the New Testament offers us on the mutual relationships which make up the new humanity into which we aspire to grow in this Easter season is to be found in Colossians 3. You might want to consider reflecting on that chapter, which is shot through with all sorts of ideas dear to the Benedictine heart, along with the references in the Rule to forgiveness and reconciliation, especially in RB 4 and RB 71.

New Book
Desiring Life: Benedict on Wisdom and the Good Life by Norvene Vest
Cowley Publications ISBN 1-56101-182-7 PP 171 available from Douai Abbey Bookshop price £11.99

NORVENE Vest is no stranger to Douai Oblates who are familiar with No Moment Too Small, her book on holy reading and prayer and Friend of the Soul, her study of St Benedict’s teaching about integration of work and faith. This latest book complements the other two and is about the value of St Benedict’s teaching for people attempting to lead a Christian life in the post-modern world.

The contemporary world has many similarities with that of St Benedict’s time. In both instances there is evidence of a collapse of accepted norms and standards of public behaviour. Wealth has become the over-riding criterion. Today increasing profit is the decisive norm governing behaviour, whatever the cost in human relationships. family life, of even personal health. In public life moral standards have disappeared, violence is becoming endemic, killing is glorifed, in the political arena ‘digging up dirt’ on opponents is now preferable to debate about policies, sexuality is debased to entertainment.

Norvene Vest sets St Benedict in the biblical wisdom tradition, a tradition which continued among the writers of the early church. She writes “Benedict set his whole Rule in the context of the question of how to live the abundant life, the life for which we were made, even and especially when that seems most difficult. Fortunately for us Benedict does not just state the theory, but like other sages he endeavours to show how the theory can be lived in practice.” St Benedict’s teaching on private property has important lessons for our attitudes to possessions; his chapter on humility has important teaching for inter-personal relationships. Like wise his teaching on speech will serve to counteract the false use of speech in so much of public life today. His instruction about always blessing the other person will help us avoid sins of violence and what he says about always, respecting others, never attempting to possess or use another person, will show us the way to right living.

The book is divided into three sections: wisdom our relationship with the world; virtue our relationship with ourselves and ethics our relationships with each other.The principles of St Benedict’s teaching remain ever fresh to lead us safely through the hazards of life today.