Ecumenical Dialogue

May They All Be One- An Ecumenical Welcome

A great concern that we carry in our prayer is the division within the Christian family. “Monasteries have always been places of healing in the Church. Pope John Paul II recognized this special gift when in 1996, he published his Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen. Expressing his deep desire for the healing between the Churches of the East and the West, he proposed that monasteries should be places of reconciliation. He saw that the common heritage of the eastern and western monastic traditions could be an opportunity for real ecumenical dialogue.

Over the past ten years we have tried to respond to this invitation by hosting monastic meetings and dialogue days. We feel blessed and encouraged by the response of so many others who value this opportunity, and we have gained many new friends from the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches. It has been a great joy to establish contacts with several of the Christian Churches in Aleppo in Syria, where the ecumenical dialogue is flourishing It is our hope that this initiative may bear fruit and that one day the Church may once again ‘breathe with both lungs’.

Of course not all who come to a monastery have deep roots in faith. Many of those who have little contact with the Church frequently experience a profound awareness of the presence of God, during the time of silent adoration following Compline. It is often when the community is feeling most tired and useless that God uses our prayer in unexpected ways.

Ecumenical Dialogue at Minster Abbey

In his Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen (May 1995) Pope John Paul II expressed the hope that monastic communities from East and West would meet and participate in the 'dialogue of charity' for the restoration of unity among all Christians. In response to the Holy Father's hope, the Benedictine Nuns of St Mildred's Abbey, Minster has taken to heart this special prayer for Unity amongst all Christians.

East Meets West In Kent

The Benedictine nuns of St Mildred's Priory, Minster Abbey, Kent hosted their fifth Monastic East-West Meeting from 1-6 October, bringing together monks, nuns, scholars, bishops and other Church representatives from both Eastern and Western Christendom to pray together, discuss and meditate on the theme of 'Healing and Reconciliation: Dialogue for the Future'. Dom Dyfrig Harris OSB of Belmont Abbey and Sr Benedict Gaughan OSB, Sub-Prioress of St Mildred's, report

In his Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen (May 1995) Pope John Paul II expressed the hope that monastic communities from East and West would meet and participate in the 'dialogue of charity' for the restoration of unity among all Christians. In response to the Holy Father's hope, the Benedictine Nuns of St Mildred's Abbey, Minster have, for the past eight years, dedicated themselves to this endeavour. This year's Monastic East-West Meeting at Minster, the fifth such gathering, celebrated the 40th anniversary of Vatican II's decree on ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio.

Shared study and Lectio Divina

The Meeting began with study and Lectio Divina. Dom Colin Battell, of Ampleforth Abbey, and Dr Marcus Plested, from the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies at Cambridge, led the group of monks and nuns from the various Eastern and Western Churches in two days of study and prayerful reflection on the Great Letter of St Macarius. In his Great Letter, St Macarius emphasises the importance of encountering God in the 'heart'. Through Cassian the teaching of St Marcarius came to St Benedict, while in the East his writings made a great impact upon, among others, St Symeon the New Theologian and St Gregory Palamas. The Great Letter, though only recently available in English translation, was selected not only because of its antiquity but also because of its formative influence on the rise and direction of monasticism in both the East and the West. It therefore provided an opportunity for the members of all monastic traditions present to rediscover something of the common roots of their shared heritage.

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