COMMUNITIES / New leader set to reinvigorate houses with a sense of mission
A monk with a strong media profile and a track record in boosting vocations has been elected next leader of the world’s oldest grouping of Benedictine communities.
Fr Christopher Jamison will become the new Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation (EBC), a group of autonomous monasteries founded in the thirteenth century which established the English public schools Ampleforth in North Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset.
Fr Christopher, who succeeds Abbot Richard Yeo, is the former Abbot of Worth, West Sussex, and will be tasked with strengthening the religious life of the 13 abbeys in England and the United States and the missions in Peru and Zimbabwe, undertaking visitations of each monastery.
“Benedictine monks and nuns have been part of English culture for over a thousand years,” said Father Christopher. “My brothers and sisters have elected me to lead the Congregation in these times of great challenge and great opportunity. It is an honour and I look forward to helping our monasteries of monks and nuns in fulfilling their role as schools of the Lord’s service.”
Top of the new Abbot President’s agenda will be helping to reinvigorate the English Benedictine houses with a sense of mission and address what has been a steep fall in numbers in recent decades. In 1973 the Benedictines had 506 monks and 136 nuns but by 2013 the figure was 279 monks and 35 nuns.
The communities are to face scrutiny at the forthcoming inquiry into child sex abuse where they have been identified as a case study: six schools run by English Benedictine monasteries have faced allegations.
Father Christopher has been successful in positively showcasing monastic life, playing a leading role in the 2005 BBC2 documentary The Monastery which saw five lay men spend 40 days at Worth. He has also written two books on applying monastic spirituality to everyday life.
After serving one term as Worth’s Abbot Fr Christopher became director of the National Office for Vocation, helping devise a vocations strategy across England and Wales.
Born in Australia and educated at Downside, Fr Christopher read modern languages at Oxford University before joining the Worth monastery where he was a teacher in the community’s school and then headmaster.
By Christopher Lamb
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