Benedictines meet to discuss their future

Members of the English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) are due to meet tomorrow for a specially arranged gathering to discuss how to best foster new life in its monasteries, writes Christopher Lamb.

The EBC is composed of 13 autonomous houses of monks and nuns, with 10 based in England and three in the United States. These include Ampleforth, in North Yorkshire, and Downside, in Somerset; Worth, in West Sussex and St Benedict’s, in Ealing, West London, all of which oversee independent secondary schools.

The extraordinary general chapter will take place at Buckfast Abbey, in Devon, from Sunday until next Wednesday. Abbot Richard Yeo, the abbot president of the EBC, explained that the meeting, which he said would look at how to promote renewal in its monasteries, had been called by the ordinary general chapter – made up of abbots and abbesses and monastery delegates – which met last year.  In 1973, there were 506 monks and 136 nuns in the?EBC, whereas in 2013 the figure stood at 279 monks and 35 nuns.