There are only six novices among the communities of the English Benedictine Congregation. With numbers rapidly shrinking, the monks are focusing on vocations and going back to basics to identify their unique contribution to the Church Any “Who’s Who” of the great and the good of the Church in England and Wales would need to include members of the English Benedictine Congregation. The world’s oldest grouping of Benedictine communities has been a feature of the Church in these isles since it was founded in the thirteenth century (bar the interlude of the Reformation). It brings together 13 autonomous communities of monks and nuns in England and in the United States. Today, however, a number of the monasteries are facing a fight for survival due to declining numbers.