Cowley Magazine - Autumn 2006

Volume 34 • Number 4 Autumn 2006

©2006 by The Society of Saint John the Evangelist, North America

Cover photo:

“Silence is God’s first language.” St. John of the Cross

Brs. Geoffrey Tristram and Curtis Almquist with (left to right) Mother Rosemary, SLG (Superior of the Sisters of the Love of God, Fairacres, Oxford), Mother Mary John, OSB (Superior of St. Mary’s Abbey, West Malling, Kent), and the Most Rev’d Rowan Williams. The brothers and the Archbishop of Canterbury joined in the centenary celebrations of both communities, at West Malling on September 12 and at Oxford on September 14.

Dear Members of the Fellowship of Saint John and our Friends,

The Society of Saint John the Evangelist 3

A Letter from the Superior

Curtis Almquist, SSJE

It makes a remarkable difference to awaken to a new day seeing it as a

gift, not a given. There is an amazing grace in greeting the dawn – no matter how wonderful or sorry it may appear at first glance – as an invitation from God to know and practice God’s presence as we move through the day. Life is not a series of accidents or obstacles, but of invitations from God to know Christ and to make him known. Back in 1899, one of our SSJE brothers, Fr. George Congreve, said that “the meaning of all my life is its capacity of receiving the infinite love of God, and of making the best return I can. Love is not only the source of our being, but the substance also.” The reconciling love of God is still the currency of our community’s

formation and ministry, as we com-panion people to know God’s love and presence, and help them pray their lives. Both the Monastery and Emery House guesthouses are open, offering our guests silence and sanctuary. We also offer a timely selection of retreats and workshops on various areas of prayer and spirituality. We welcome you, and we encourage you to welcome others, to accept our invitation to visit us and to join us for a time of retreat. Our website – www.ssje.org – describes our programs. You may also view scenes of the Monastery and Emery House by taking a “virtual tour.” In the 1920s we acquired the Mon-astery property in Cambridge because of its strategic location adjacent to Harvard University. With Harvard, M.I.T. and many other Boston-area aca-demic institutions in close proximity, Cambridge attracts many people from all over the world. A sign is now posted outside the Monastery Chapel welcom-ing all to make use of our chapel. The sign is written in 16 different languages and reads:

Emery House, newly painted and refurbished

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

Isaiah 56:7

We welcome you.Our chapel is a sanctuary for your

prayer and quiet reflection.

The Society of Saint John the Evangelist 54 SSJE

Most days our chapel is open from early morning until after Compline in the evening. Not only do people join us for our daily round of prayer and worship, but each day many people – of diverse cultures and religious tradi-tions – spend time in the chapel as a holy place for prayer and recollection. Not long ago the parents of a Harvard student wrote that on their arrival in Cambridge, “We were very impressed by the wonderful air of serenity that emanated from your monastery. …As Hindus we are appreciative of all places and all sanctuaries that enhance recol-lection and mindfulness of the Divine.” We seek to bear the beams of God’s love to those who are near and to those who are far off. This fall and early winter SSJE brothers travel on mission to parishes, dioceses, and conference centers in a number of places in North America. In September Brother Geoffrey Tristram and I represented SSJE at the cen-tenary celebrations of two Anglican contemplative women’s communities, The Community of Saint Mary in West Malling, Kent, and the Sisters of the Love of God at Fairacres, Oxford. In the following pages you may read Br. Eldridge Pendleton’s reflections about

both of these communities and SSJE’s relationship with them from their earli-est days. Three pairs of SSJE brothers are leaders in pilgrimages to the Middle East this autumn and early winter, such an important outreach during these troubled and opportune times. Brs. Kevin Hackett and Bruce Neal were chaplains on “The Ways in the Wilder-ness” pilgrimage to Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Egypt, September 19-Oc-tober 4. Brs. Mark Brown and Robert L’Esperance are leading a “Pilgrimage and Spirituality” course in and around Jerusalem and Galilee, October 10-23. Brs. James Koester and Jonathan Maury will be chaplains for a “Palestine of Jesus” pilgrimage in Israel and Pales-tine, January 5-8, 2007. More informa-tion about these and other pilgrimages, hosted by Saint George’s College in Jerusalem, is available on our website: www.ssje.org In January 2007 SSJE brothers are scheduled to return to Kenya and Tanzania, where wonderful relation-ships are developing among fellow Anglicans. Brs. Thomas Shaw, David Vryhof, Roy Cockrum, and I will share in the ministries of teaching and

The monastery chapel

Br. Geoffrey Tristram with Srs. Edmée, SLG and Benedicta, SLG, with whom Br. Geof-frey has shared a friendship for more than twenty-five years.


Curtis G. Almquist, SSJESuperior

Faithfully yours,

Arches are structures with deep resonance. They embody and symbolize many things: strength and support, lightness and openness within density, thresh-olds into liminal space. As an archetypal symbol, they are fundamentally masculine. In mythology arches and doorways are understood as thresholds in time and space (chronos/physical world) through which one passes to enter another kind of time and space (kairos/spiritual world), a concept that is deeply consonant with our ministries of both worship and hospitality. In architec-ture, the arches serve to lift the eye (and spirit) upwards to a higher plane and ideal. It is also a fundamentally Johannine symbol, which may well have figured into the architect Ralph Adams Cram’s extensive use of them throughout the monastery, recalling the I AM sayings – the Way, the door to the sheepfold, the grain of wheat needing to die to bear fruit….

spiritual formation with seminarians at St. Philip’s (Anglican) Theological College in Maseno, Kenya, and with seminarians and clergy in the Diocese of Tanga in Tanzania. The experi-ence among our sisters and brothers in

Elphas Wambani, a teacher at St. Philip’s Theological College in Maseno, Kenya, spent a sabbatical with us during the month of July.

Africa has been rich with blessing for us as we learn about strength and courage, faithfulness and generosity abounding in the context of incredible economic poverty. We pray that we may be bro-kers of Christ’s blessing as we bring our own experience of Christ to Africa, and bring this profound witness of Christ in Africa back home with us. This is the work of Christ’s reconciling love. Life is a gift. The gift of our own life as a monastic community is made possible only through the friendship, prayer, and financial support that we receive from you and our other friends. We welcome and need your support in every way. We are very grateful for your partnership in our living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The chapel arches.

Called to Life: Vocation to the Religious Life Today

Geoffrey Tristram SSJE

“We come into the Society not because it suits us, because it takes our fancy, or agrees with our judgments, because our tastes are satisfied, or because it enables us to get on well and happily – but simply because God calls us.”

(from The Religious Life, by Richard M. Benson)


These lines written by our founder, Richard Meux Benson, remind us

that the call of God is as mysterious yet as compelling today as it was for those first fishermen by the Sea of Galilee who heard the voice of Jesus calling them to leave their nets and follow him. As Novice Guardian I have the tremendous privilege of meeting with many men who feel called to explore the monastic life and it is always very moving to hear their stories of how

God has called to them in their lives. The invitation to “Come, follow me” is experienced in many different ways, but nearly always there is a deep sense of longing, of yearning, of desiring. Those called to the religious life will often find the Psalmist’s expressions of desire and thirst for God speak profoundly to their own hearts: “As the deer longs for the water brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42 ); “O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a barren and dry land, where there is no water.” (Psalm 63) The ‘restless heart’ is part of the human condition and most of us know what it is to try, in vain, to satisfy our longings and assuage our thirst through the pursuit of material possessions (and should we run out of ideas, our consumer society has an infinity of of-ferings to tempt and delight!) The old illusion continues to hold us powerfully in its grip: “If only I had…then I would be happy.” To a nineteenth century England dazzled by the riches of empire, the historian Thomas Carlyle wrote wisely if somewhat sardonically, “The misfortune of man has its source in his greatness; for there is something infinite Br. Bruce Neal


A late afternoon summer sun casts shadows across the hermitages at Emery House.

in him, and he cannot succeed in bury-ing himself completely in the finite.” St. Augustine expressed this famously in the opening chapter of his Confes-sions: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” Once touched by God it is very

difficult ever to be satisfied by anything less than God, although we certainly do try! Many men who come to explore the monastic life will express some-thing of this longing for the infinite, this profound desire for the living God, and one of the signs that we look for in discerning whether a man has a religious vocation is “a sense that he is truly seeking God” and “that he has a desire to seek the face of God in prayer” (Guidelines for Aspirants). Having a deep love and desire for God does not of course in itself mean that one has a monastic vocation! St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa both held that to be a monk is simply a wholehearted way of being a Christian: monasticism is integral Christianity. There are many other ways of living a wholehearted Christian life. The

monastic life is a hard life, and in my work as Novice Guardian I would never try to persuade an inquirer to join our community. He must really desire it with all his heart. Indeed in the Rule of St. Benedict, an aspirant has to “keep knocking at the door and if at the end of four or five days he has shown

himself patient…and has persisted in his request, then he should be allowed to enter.” (R.B. Chapter 58). To try to dissuade a man from enter-ing the monastery is a way of testing his resolve, but also of helping him explore whether God might in fact be calling him to another way of living out his call to wholehearted Christian discipleship. The writer Daniel Rees describes monasticism as “a way of life embraced by those whose desire for God is an overriding passion.” That does not always become clear until one has tried other ways of life, with integrity, first. The poet W.H. Auden expresses this beautifully and profoundly: “For the garden is the only place there is, but you will not find it until you have looked for it everywhere and found nowhere that is not a desert.” (For the Time Being)


Consider Becoming an SSJE Brother!

“Come and See”December 14-17, 2006

& June 7-10, 2007

We welcome men interested in learning about a vocation to SSJe to join us for two “Come and See” weekends at the monas-tery. For those who cannot make it to either of these weekends,

we will be glad to schedule another time for you to visit us.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ssje.org or contact our novice Guardian, Br. Geoffrey Tristram, at the

monastery or by email: [email protected]

Vocation is ultimately a great mys-tery. The Cistercians have this story: “Bernard, Bernard, why have you come here?” the Abbot of Clairvaux often asked himself during his novitiate, and to this he replied: “To hide myself in

the face of God.”(The Usages of the Cis-tercian Monks). When we brothers are asked why we came into the Society we often can say no more than those words of our founder, “simply because God called us.” As the years go by many of us come to realize that God called us here for reasons of which we had no idea when we arrived! The religious life is not easy, but if one answers a call from God it really is a “call to life.” Let the last word go to St Benedict, father of western monasti-cism, who at the end of the Prologue to his Rule writes these beautiful words: “As we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts over-flowing with the inexpressible delight of love.”

Br. David Allen

“To God and God Alone”: Contemplative Communities Celebrate Centenaries

Eldridge Pendleton, SSJE


This year marks the hundredth an-niversary of the founding of two

Anglican contemplative communities with which the Society of Saint John the Evangelist has historic ties and abiding affection. The closing years of the 19th centu-ry and the following decade of the 20th century witnessed a growing interest in contemplative prayer among Angli-cans. Fired by the writings of William Inge, Baron von Hugel, Evelyn Under-hill and others, increasing numbers of women felt the call to dedicated lives of contemplation in community. Unlike the earlier Anglican religious orders for women that combined prayer and works of mercy, there was a growing desire for enclosed communities whose focus would be prayer alone. George

Seymour Hollings, SSJE, a leading au-thority on contemplative prayer at that time, encouraged many who sought his guidance to be contemplatives. With the blessing and support of his Superior, Robert Page, SSJE, and the Bishop of Oxford, he founded the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God in 1906 at Oxford.

The cloister for the Sisters of the Love of God, Oxford, adjoining the chapel, built and dedicated in 1923 as the result of an appeal launched by Father Cary, SSJE.

That same year a small religious community active in works of mercy in north London felt the call to a more prayerful form of religious life. Under the influence of Abbot Aelred Carlyle of Caldey Abbey they adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict and moved to a secluded house in Baltonsborough, Somerset, near Glastonbury. In 1916, with the help of some leading Cowley Fathers, trustees of the English Ab-bey Restoration Fund, these nuns took up residence in the ancient monastic

Saint Mary’s Abbey, West Malling, Kent


buildings of St. Mary’s Abbey, West Malling, Kent, where they have re-mained ever since. In the intervening years since their founding both com-munities have had a powerful influence on the life of the Church and through the generations have maintained strong bonds of friendship with our Society. Under Father Hollings’ leadership, the community of the Sisters of the Love of God attracted vocations. After several temporary homes the com-munity settled at Fairacres House, a property on Ifley Road, Oxford, near the Mission House of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, with grounds spa-cious enough to allow them to live an enclosed life. Following Father Hollings’ death in 1914, his place as Chaplain General was taken by Lucius Cary, SSJE, who combined a profound interest in the contemplative life with many other spiritual gifts. Father Cary helped the Sisters prepare a Rule of Life and a

constitution. Under his leadership and with the advice of some of the original Sisters, the community flourished, soon establishing branch houses in England, and in 1938 laying plans for a new foundation at Ein Karim, the traditional birthplace of John the Baptist, near Jerusalem. With the outbreak of World War II this last was abandoned. In more recent times SLG has maintained houses of prayer in Kent and in New Zealand. Peter Anson wrote in his Call of the Cloister that while many have described the Sisters of the Love of God as Anglican Carmelites, this is incorrect. He asserted that “although their brown habit may give them a superficial re-semblance, in many respects in its early days the observances of the SLG were far more austere and penitential.” This, of course, is an outsider’s observation to which the Sisters add that over the century this early rigor has moderated.

During SSJE’s pilgrimage to the British Isles in 1991, a small group gathers in the gardens of the Sisters of the Love of God, Oxford. Pictured are three former SSJE Superiors – James Naters (England), Thomas Shaw and Paul Wessinger (North America) – with Sister Edmée and Sister Mary Kathleen.


Lucius Cary, SSJE

The aims and objectives of this com-munity have always remained the same, the glory of God in the perfection of holiness and the offering of reparation for the sins of humanity. After Fr. Cary’s long tenure of leadership, (he died in 1950), William O’Brien, SSJE, the Superior of the Eng-lish Congregation, served as Chaplain General to the Sisters of the Love of God, combining it with similar respon-sibilities for the Benedictine nuns at Malling. It was during this time that Fr. O’Brien presented the nuns there with an abbatial cross which every abbess has worn since. After Fr. O’Brien’s death, David Hemmings, SSJE briefly as-sumed the responsibility for the spiritual oversight of the SLG Sisters. Br. Anselm Chiverton, who trained a number of communities in monastic chant, includ-ing the nuns at Malling, began his long association with SLG in the 1950s, drilling them in the Solesmes tradition of plainchant. For almost forty years he presided at weekly choir practices which were hard work, but, as Sr. Isabel Mary said in her charming remembrance of him, also a joy because of “his humor, his gifts for poker-faced repartee and impersonation, his irreverence—never hurtful and always to the point.” In more recent times Paul Wessinger,

SSJE served as resident chaplain for the SLG Sisters at Bede House, Kent, before returning to the United States to be Superior of the American Congregation and bringing renewal to the monastic life of the brethren in America. For a number of years Fr. David Campbell and others of SSJE English congregation served as confessors for the Benedic-tine sisters. In the late 1970s two SSJE brothers and a sister from SLG began an experimental contemplative community life at Emery House. It did not last, and a little later, SSJE developed Emery House into a spiritual retreat center. Also, at that time Martin Smith, then a member of SSJE, assisted by Sister Rosemary, SLG, edited and produced Benson of Cowley, a collection of essays by scholars honoring the founder of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist. After that, contact between SLG and the North American branch of SSJE was more limited until 1990, when SLG Mother Anne and Sister Susan visited our community for the celebra-tion of Br. Paul’s 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. Also at that time, under the leadership of Tom Shaw, SSJE, our Congregation began to look toward its roots in preparation for a community pilgrimage to Great Britain the following year. The pilgrim-age, which included a week of retreat at Bishop’s House, Iona, culminated with a celebration over several days at Oxford. This included the formal presenta-tion of papers by SLG sisters and SSJE brothers and opportunities informally to savor the hospitality of the Sisters of the Love of God and to deepen our friend-ship with them.


The Sisters of the Love of God

SSJe brothers’ Sunday and Feast day Sermons

are now available on the web. Visit the site at www.ssje.org

In our relationship with both of these communities we have received as richly as we have been able to contrib-ute. In 1996 and again in 2005 Mother Rosemary, SLG, led our community’s annual retreat. In his appreciation to her after the 2005 retreat, Br. Curtis thanked her for helping us “to hear our own tradition again for the first time.” Increasingly in recent years, SSJE brothers from this community have made their retreats before profession at Fairacres. Others of our Society have benefited from quiet times with the nuns at Malling Abbey. I remember a wonderful week of retreat there in 1996. One afternoon during my visit, Mother Mary John, the Abbess, told

me of her first encounter with our Soci-ety. While an adolescent on a retreat at Peekskill led by Fr. Robert Smith, SSJE, she discovered her vocation to the religious life. We give thanks for our many years of friendship with these communities. We celebrate their dedication to the contemplative life and their witness to the Gospel, and wish them many more years of God’s richest blessings. In September 2006 our brothers Tom Shaw, Curtis Almquist and Geoffrey Tristram were in England to take part in the centenary festivities of these two religious communities.


The Perspective of Our Senior Brothers:

Br. Paul Wessinger: I pray for reconciliation – reconciliation in my own life, when I feel frustrated or ir-ritated. I pray for reconciliation between the United States and our war-torn world. I also pray for reconciliation within the Church itself, beginning in my own soul and between people with whom I hold sometimes very different views. I pray that we be “one,” as we hear Jesus say in John’s Gospel. Within our SSJE community, I delight in whole expansion of our ministries – within the Church, with students, in our COWLEY publishing, in the Holy Land and in Africa. This is our distinct participa-tion in the Lord’s Prayer, to help usher in God’s kingdom. I think it will be a very diverse kingdom, and that delights me.

Br. Bernard Russell: I, too, pray for reconciliation. I’m praying all the time about the conflict between groups of people and nations. I pray that we come together. I feel very free in my own soul because I know I don’t have that much longer to live. I live in the day. I practice the presence of Christ in the day. Even though I am no longer so person-ally active in our ministries, what we do, we do as a community. We say “we” all the time. That means so much to me. It’s how I think and it’s how I pray… for the com-munity, and the Church, and the world. We are not separate individuals or groups or nations. God intends for us to be one.

Br. John Mathis: Yes, I pray that we be “one” with one another. I am most often praying for the poor. I know the ways in which I am poor and needy, and this opens my heart for the poor who surround us in our own neighborhoods and around the world. And then I pray for the SSJE community and for the Church, for our government and industry lead-ers, to open our hearts and hands to care for the poor. This is Jesus’ central issue: our being channels of healing and help for the poor. Jesus calls us to the poor; Jesus comes to us in the face of the poor.

Brs. John Mathis, Bernard Russell, and Paul Wessinger

How are you praying for the Church and the world?


On the Side of Hope:A Soldier’s Testimony

James Meeks

Around my seventh month of ser-vice in the Iraqi town of Baqubah,

a college friend wrote me a pointed email. Having read about a wave of violence in my area of operations, he asked me, “What good is religion if it inspires such hatred and causes such suffering?” On a good day this question is challenging, but in those days it cut me to my core; receiving that email I had just returned with my platoon from a market scene where a Sunni suicide bomber had taken his life and the lives of fifteen Shi’a pilgrims. My power to provide answers – for my friend, for my soldiers, for the Iraqi people – had grown weak. In the evenings, when I could find a quiet moment to myself in between midnight patrols and mortar attacks, I would pull out a postcard of the Cambridge chapel sent to me by the brothers of SSJE. Photos of European cathedrals would have been more im-pressive, but at that time nothing was more beautiful than the thought of that faithful congregation gathered around the altar in communion. Though I went without the Eucharist for one year in that hardscrabble Army base, I knew I was not without communion. For in a country that often seemed bereft of God, I could never forget my experi-ence in a community that, as Paul said

to the Corinthians, proves the presence of God better than any of our attempts with words of ink or tablets of stone. If one so chooses, an individual can search history and find abundant exam-ples of religion’s inhumanity. But, if we want to be on the side of hope, we can pierce through the wasteland and find those places where God’s love is blind-ingly present. For this reason Christ offered us the promise that everyone will know his disciples by the love they hold for one another. And witnessing that love, being invited into that love and the fellowship it represents, is the great gift the brothers of SSJE offer us. As they no longer conform to the world, we who partake in their fellow-ship become transformed with them. This gift was with me in Iraq, and is with me now, and I trust will be with me whenever my heart grows weary amidst a fallen world. I pray that all who wrestle with doubt and despair will find a community whose compassion helps remind them of the existence of God’s unfailing love; in my prayers I give thanks that such a community has found me. James Meeks came to know SSJE while an undergraduate at Harvard. He served two tours of duty in Iraq as an Army of-ficer and now studies at Stanford Business School.


The Fellowship of SaintJohn (FSJ) is comprised of men and women throughout the world who desire to live their Christian life in special association with the Society of Saint John the Evangelist. They have a vital interest in the life and work of the brothers, and support our life and ministries with their prayers, encouragement, and financial gifts. The brothers of SSJE welcome members of the FSJ as partners in the gospel life, and pray for them by name in our daily prayers, follow-ing a regular cycle. With us the FSJ members form an extended family, a company of friends abiding in Christ and seeking to bear a united witness to him as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” following the example of the Beloved Disciple. For more infor-mation, please contact Br. Jonathan Maury, the Director of the FSJ, at the monastery.

The Ven. Christopher Pappas was received as a member of the Fellowship of Saint John at the monastery on September 1. Chris serves as Archdeacon of Yellowhead in the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton, Canada. His wife, Elisabeth Thompson, a medical doctor and newly-ordained priest, was a recipient of a seminary scholarship from SSJE’s Canadian “Canon Young Schol-arship Fund.” He is pictured here with Br. David Allen.

The guesthouse garden


Book Review The Rev’d Maria deCarvalho

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Unwrapping the Giftsby Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE (Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2006)

Through her ministry, Another Way, The Rev’d MariaDeCarvalho works with individuals and leaders in organizations to become more authentic, compassionate and effective.

When you pick up a copy of Curtis Almquist’s book, The Twelve Days of Christmas, you will be tempted to course through it in one sitting. You will be impatient to harvest the great profusion of insight it contains. Don’t do that. Although the chapters – each a meditation on a precious gift that comes with the territory of being alive – are brief, this is not a book to be swallowed whole and then consigned to a shelf. This is a book you keep reading over because you recognize your own life in the pages; one that you stuff into your pocket or purse so you can refer to it during a period when things are falling apart; one that you then pull out while saying to your friends, “Listen to this.” The Twelve Days of Christmas functions first as a pause but-ton for all of us who are typically conscripted into the annual lurch first towards and then away from Christmas Day. Thich Nhat Hanh, the great Zen teacher, would call it a “bell of mindfulness” – an instru-ment that reclaims our attention for what is real and good and true. Opening this book is a way to step

out of the holiday frenzy and into the holy season that is Christmas. Those of us who know Curtis as a compelling teacher and spiritual director will expect to be met by questions that intertwine comfort and challenge: “Can you believe these words: that you are a blessing to God, and that God is intent on your being a channel of blessing?” Neither will we be surprised by his utter lack of sentimentality, or how far he is willing to push us: “What don’t you believe any longer?” Almost ev-ery illustration of the obstacles to the spiritual life and the blessings that flow from it comes from the grit of his own experience. Some of them are breathtakingly frank (“My friends adore me; my enemies expose me”) and some are genuinely funny. He ends each meditation with practical steps for how to receive each of the gifts, from for-giveness to hope to gratitude. Curtis introduces The Twelve Days of Christmas by suggesting that no really essential gift can be found under a tree. Make him wrong by wrapping this book and sliding it under yours.


Jesus and Things As They Are

Jonathan Maury, SSJE

The August 27th New York Times Magazine featured Brenda Ann

Kenneally’s photo essay “Children of the Storm.” Its juxtaposition of black and white photographs of children and their families displaced from their homes and communities in Louisiana and Mississippi’s Gulf Coast with the usual Sunday fashion spreads and ads for luxury homes and estates was jarring and disturbing. Jason DeParle’s accom-panying article describes vast land-scapes of destruction which remain a full year after the storm and an escalat-ing child poverty rate, with the number of children “at risk” already two and a half times the national average. Re-opening schools, just 38% full, signify that more than 80,000 of the city’s children are still gone. Mounting anger at inadequate governmental response to the material and human devastation became clear in the outrage provoked by a local politician’s expressions of gratitude to God for having “finally cleaned up the problem” of (now ru-ined) public housing. Insensitive denial of reality, however, is being given the lie by the work of local church orga-nizations, with contributions and vol-unteers from around the country. (The efforts of the Louisiana and Mississippi dioceses, in partnership with Episcopal Relief and Development, have been particularly notable.)

Reflecting on these reports, I’ve been praying with Jesus as he wept over Jerusalem, and the human degrada-tion resulting from political—and religious—blindness to the social and economic injustices which contributed to that city’s destruction. Jesus sees matters as they really are and is moved to tears of grief. But his is not a grief which gives way to hopeless despair. From the intimate depths of his prayer, Jesus passionately expresses God’s personal solidarity with the suffering and needy in the striking metaphor of the mother hen who gathers a brood of chicks beneath her wings—even those who turn away from such protection and nurture. The Fourth Gospel reports “many believed in [Jesus’] name because they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus…did not entrust himself to them…for he himself knew what was in everyone.” Yet, “seeing the world as it is, not as we would have it,”* Jesus con-tinues to pray, teach and act to relieve the suffering, calling upon the healing power of God, and finally offering even his own life in self-emptying love for the conversion of hardened hearts. The birthing of the reign of God in a suffer-ing world, through our lives in Christ, is “things as they really are!”

* quotation from Reinhold Neibuhr


“With Sighs Too Deep For Words”

Bruce Neal, n/SSJE

I remember vividly a certain dark night in my past. I was in my early

twenties and my life was not going so well. I was fresh out of college and had just moved to Los Angeles, where I had few friends and felt quite alone. I was this young kid from rural Kentucky who was now living in the hectic world of Southern California. I had started an exciting and demanding job in manage-ment at The Walt Disney Company, and I was completely overwhelmed. On this particular night I woke up around three in the morning, as if from a dream. I found myself curled up on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. I re-mained there for several minutes, until finally the sobs dried up and I crawled back into bed. I was so bothered by the incident that the next day I called my former parish priest back in Kentucky and told him about it. “I’m afraid I might have had a ner-vous breakdown,” I said. My priest asked, “Do you feel better or worse after the incident?” “I feel better,” I answered. “I feel more calm and at peace.” “Then you were not having a nervous breakdown,” he replied with a smile in his voice. “You were praying.” You were praying. The words struck me immediately because I knew they were true. I had been praying. To use

the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, I had been expressing my need with “sighs too deep for words.” Prayer, like life, can sometimes be messy. Often our attempts to articulate our prayer utterly fail. These are mo-ments when we communicate with God on a deeper level, through desires that can often be unconscious. There are times when prayer is like a strong wave that simply carries us along. This can be frightening because we realize that we are not always in control of our prayer, just as we are not always in control of our lives. It is important to let go and embrace these moments, allowing the grace of God to take us where it will. So dive into the messiness and exuberance of prayer. Allow yourself to go deep into your life, fully living its joy and desire, its sorrow and despair. Those crying fits in the car on the way home from work; those moments when you get so angry that you just want to scream; those times when you turn up the stereo and dance wildly in the privacy of your own room because you know no one is looking; all of these are moments of prayer. Engage fully in these intimate moments with God, know-ing that no matter how inadequately you express your desire and need, God understands.


“Seek My Face”: Finding the Presence of Christ

Timothy Solverson, SSJE

I long for union with the divine also, so I pray. Sitting in choir chanting

the psalms, I pray. Listening to the lessons, I pray. Working in the garden, I pray. In my cell, with the door shut, in silence, gazing at an icon of Christ’s face, listening as the traffic goes by on Memorial Drive, I pray. I hear crew teams practicing their drills, motorists, joggers, and wild Canadian geese, and I pray. I pray that I would “see the face of God” – well, more to the point, that I would know the presence of God in my life. This has been the prayer of monas-tics throughout the centuries – that somehow they might, through their austerities and their sacrifices, “see God.” Even so, they, like me, often found that in spite of their zeal, their prayers were met with silence rather than beatific visions, with sore knees and distracting thoughts rather than glorious epiphanies, or even more disturbing, with memories of things that made them sad or angry. This is

my experience as well. Prayer, which is meant to be an intimate source of communion, becomes a chore because we forget that, hidden in silence, in the distractions, in our discomfort, and even in our painful memories, is Christ’s invita-tion to understand the truth of God: that the power of Christ is understood in weakness, that love is found in the unlovely. Finding the presence of Christ in prayer begins with all that we find uncomfortable and unlovely in ourselves and in our lives, because the kingdom of God is within our hearts and Christ desires us to know all truth – beginning with the truth about ourselves.

Br. Timothy Solverson will make his Profession in Life Vows in the context of a celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Sunday, January 28, 2007, at 6:00 p.m. in the Monastery Chapel. We welcome you to join us on this wonderful occasion for the liturgy and for the reception that follows.

“Seek my face,” God speaks to the heart of the psalmist, and the response follows: “Your face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalm 27:11), echoing the call and response of prayer that transcends religious traditions. In every tradition spiritual people long to satisfy their heart’s deepest desire: we Christians call it “union with God.”


Friends

n

Mr. Phillip Petree, the Rev. Daphne Noyes, Br. Roy Cockrum,

the Rev. Anoma Abeyaratne, Br. Bruce Neal

The SocieTy of

SainT John The evangeliST

An Invitation to JoinThe Friends of SSJE

The SocieTy of

SainT John The evangeliST

An Invitation to JoinThe Friends of SSJE


“I could not begin to articulate how I have grown as a person because of my relationship to the community. I also know that the ‘business’ of offering retreats, spiritual direction, and publishing does not provide an income. The brothers depend on the generosity of those that they serve so that they can continue in their ministry.”

Mr. Phillip Petree

“I have been given so, so, so much by the community. I want this community to thrive and to grow and spread as best it is able, not necessarily in terms of numbers but in terms, perhaps, of lives touched and transformed. If I can be a part of that through financial support and through prayers I will do that and I will do that for as long as I am able.”

The Rev. Daphne Noyes

“I love to worship at the monastery and take retreats there because I feel it is a safe place, such sanctuary … It gives me permission to be who I am, as a more contemplative person.”

The Rev. Anoma Abeyaratne

Friends of SSJEThe Society of Saint John the Evangelist

980 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02138Tel: (617)-876-3037 ext. 24E-mail: [email protected]

www.ssje.org

Friends

Becoming a FriendPlease consider becoming a Friend today. A tax-deductible contribution may be made by check (payable to “SSJE”), credit card, or a gift of securities. Gifts may also be made online through our website.

What SSJE Means To Us


SABBATH DAYS

We announced in the previous issue of Cowley that the community has extended its weekly Sabbath rest to include the entire day on Mondays. Our Sabbath time begins following Evening Prayer on Sunday and our normal schedule resumes with Morn-ing Prayer on Tuesday. The following prayers were written by the brothers to be included in the two services that mark the beginning and end of the Sabbath time:

A Prayer for the Beginning of Sabbath

Gracious God, you have sanctified days of rest for all your people and have called us to bear witness before the world to the graciousness and wisdom of the

Sabbath: Be with us now as we lay aside our work; hallow our rest, our recreation, and our leisure; and bring us to the new week refreshed and restored in body, mind, and spirit. We ask this in the name of Jesus, in whom we find our true rest, and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Prayer for the End of Sabbath

God of all creation, we thank you for the gift of our Sabbath rest; keep company with us as we take up our work again, and help us to know that, even in the

midst of busy lives, our hearts rest in you. We ask these things in the name of Jesus, who is himself our True Sabbath, and who abides with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

An invitation to Sabbath rest at Emery House


COMMUNITY NEWS

Archbishops Desmond Tutu (of South Africa) and Michael Peers (of Canada), long-time friends both of each other and of SSJE, were with us at the monastery during the last week of June.

Brs. Mark Brown (left) and Timothy Solverson hosted a group of youth on pilgrimage from St. Augustine’s Episco-pal Church in Wilmette, Illinois, who visited the monastery in August.

Archbishops Desmond Tutu and Michael Peers

Mr. Elphas Wambani, a teacher at St. Philip’s Theological College in Maseno, Kenya, was with us at the monastery in July for a month of study. He is do-ing research for his Master’s thesis on the spiritualities of traditional African religions and Christianity. Brs. David Vryhof and Tom Shaw met Elphas this past January in Kenya, when they led

Br. Mark, and the group outside the chapel.

a retreat for the students and faculty of the seminary. Brs. David and Roy Cockrum plan to return to St. Philip’s in January, 2007.

Brent Was, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, is working full-time at Emery House helping us maintain and steward our 125 acres of woods, pastures, and meadowland, along with our 1745 main house and our ten her-mitages and cabins. Brent and his wife, Windy, live on the property.

Br. David Vryhof and Mr. Elphas Wambani

Brent Was

Jamie Coats began work with SSJE in June as the Director of the “Friends of SSJE.” The Friends are vital partners to SSJE, providing financial support to sustain the SSJE brothers’ life and ministries. Jamie is British born and educated, and has worked most recently as a communication and stewardship consultant to Trinity Church, Bos-ton, and the Episcopal City Mission.


He serves on two committees for the Diocese of Massachusetts: the ‘Trustees of Donations’ and the ‘Jubilee Commit-tee for the Relief of AIDS in Africa.’ He brings experience in both non-profit fund raising and for-profit financing.

This summer Br. Kevin Hackett repre-sented the Society at the annual meet-ing of the Hymn Society, held in Green Castle, Indiana. He led daily worship, sang at a recital by Marilyn Kaiser, (a long-time friend of SSJE), and was tenor soloist for the closing cantata, conducted by Alice Parker.

In July we were very pleased to wel-come Todd Smith as a postulant (a six-month time of introduction to the SSJE community prior to the novitiate). Todd is a native of Arkansas. He gradu-ated from the University of Arkansas at

Todd Smith

Jamie Coats

Little Rock with a B.A. degree in Eng-lish and a minor in Pre-Law. He comes to us from New Orleans, where he was an active lay minister at Christ Church Cathedral and where he was employed by the United States Court of Appeals.

Dr. John McDargh

Dr. John McDargh was the leader of the SSJE brothers’ annual retreat at Emery House August 14-21. He offered daily meditations for our reflection and prayer focused on “The Practice of Awareness.” John, who is a member of the Fellowship of Saint John, is As-sociate Professor of Theology at Boston College, where he has a particular interest in the psychological study of religious development.

Seth Lancaster and Br. Roy Cockrum, Guesthouse Brother

On September 1st, the community welcomed Seth Lancaster as a long-


term resident in our guesthouse. Seth is a native of West Virginia and a recent graduate of Tufts University, where he earned a degree in Civil Engineering. He has been worshipping with us on a regular basis for several years and will be living with us for the coming aca-demic year. He hopes to spend the year exploring a possible call to ordained ministry in the Church.

Br. Eldridge Pendleton

Br. Eldridge Pendleton is taking a sabbatical this autumn from his normal responsibilities to complete the writing of a biography of Charles Chapman Grafton (1830-1912), one of the found-ers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist and Bishop of Fond du Lac. Br. Eldridge is an historian by training, and serves the community as archivist and librarian.

Ecclesia Ministries National Event – On the weekend of September 14-18 the brothers were pleased to welcome to the monastery for the second year in a row the Ecclesia Ministries Come and See, a national gathering of those interested in the work and ministry of Ecclesia Ministries to homeless here in Boston/ Cambridge, around the coun-try, and as far away as Brazil. Drawing

on her many years of experience since founding the “Common Cathedral” on the Boston Common eleven years ago, the Rev. Debbie Little, founder of Ecclesia Ministries, led the participants through some of the practical, orga-nizational and spiritual challenges of working with the homeless. The brothers are very glad to be able donate room and board for these participants so they may pursue this important work which is consonant with the Millenni-um Development Goals adopted at this year’s General Convention. Br. Roy Cockrum participated in the program and acted as SSJE host.

Following the 5:15 pm Eucharist on September 26, the brothers at the mon-astery welcomed students from local colleges, universities and seminaries, to join us for a barbeque supper in the cloister garden.

Brs. Kevin Hackett and Bruce Neal were spiritual directors for the “Ways in the Wilderness” pilgrimage September 19-October 4, focusing on the historic and contemporary practice of monas-tic life in biblical lands. The pilgrims visited Wadi E-Natrun in the Egyp-tian desert, Saint Anthony’s cliff-cave hermitage near Suez, the biblical roots of desert spirituality in the Sinai wilder-

Roy Cockrum, SSJE


ness, Saint Catherine’s Monastery, and Petra, across the Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan. These travels took the pilgrims to Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Syria.

Brs. Kevin Hackett and Bruce Neal

The SSJE Community will host a meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition at Emery House, Thursday, October 5 through Sunday, October 8, 2006. Br. Robert L’Esperance serves on the board as treasurer. The board is study-ing resolutions passed at the last Gen-eral Convention requesting that NEAC develop a church-wide HIV awareness campaign and training mechanism in-tended for clergy and lay leaders in The Episcopal Church.

Br. Robert L’Esperance

Br. Curtis Almquist was a speaker at the Clergy Conference for the Diocese of Texas, October 9-10. He led pro-grams for the staff and parishioners of the Christ Church Cathedral, Hous-ton, October 11-12. The weekend of October 13, he led a parish retreat at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Austin – “Living on the Edge: The Quest and Adventure of Praying Your Life.” These three events were hosted by members of the Fellowship of Saint John: the Rev. Canon Andrew Doyle of the Diocese of Texas; the Very Rev. Joe Reynolds, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, and the Rev. David Boyd, Rector of St. David’s, Austin.

Br. Curtis Almquist

Brs. Mark Brown and Robert L’Esperance were spiritual direc-

Brs. Mark Brown and Robert L’Esperance


Brs. David Vryhof and Gerald Beauchamp

tors for “Pilgrimage and Spirituality” retreatants, October 10 - 23, 2006, exploring the sacred landscapes of the biblical desert. Pilgrims shared a chal-lenging “Exodus Experience” and a guided, reflective retreat in the beauti-ful hill country of Galilee. The pilgrim-age also included historic and archeo-logical studies in the Jeru-salem area. The pilgrims were especially mindful of the urgent quest for justice and peace in this land of conflict and hope.

Br. Kevin Hackett traveled to Atlanta to represent Cowley Publications at a meeting of Episcopal Publishing Minis-tries, October 16-18.

Canadian Brs. John Goldring and James Koester

Canadian readers who wish to support the Society’s ongoing work in Canada may do so by sending a cheque to: The Society of St. John the Evangelist, c/o The Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Company, P.O. Box 430, Stn. First Ca-nadian Place, Toronto, ON, M5X 1K1, CANADA.

Visit our website at www.ssje.org for information about our community, a listing of retreats, workshops and other programs being offered at the

monastery in Cambridge and at Emery House in West Newbury, texts of recent sermons, and much more.

Upcoming Missions:Br. Roy Cockrum will answer an invitation to speak to classes at Carson Newman College, a small Southern Baptist college in Jefferson City, Ten-nessee, on October 12-15. Br. Roy will speak to the students about the history of monasticism, our life and practice in this community, practices of prayer, and ecumenical relations in the world today.

Br. Curtis Almquist will be in Alexan-dria, Virginia, the weekend of Decem-ber 1-3, to lead an Advent retreat for Christ Church. More information will be available through Christ Church: www.historicchristchurch.org

Brs. David Vryhof and Gerald Beau-champ will be leading a weekend pro-gram at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, Florida, on the weekend of December 1-3. For more information, visit the church’s website at: www.bbts.org


The Holy Land2007

Join the SSJE Brotherson pilgrimage to

SSJE brothers serve as course chaplains. We lead in the daily prayer and worship, offer meditations and spiritual reflections, and give guidance to the pilgrims on how to “pray their own lives” amidst the sacred landscape where the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ unfolded. Outstanding faculty, gracious accommodations, and delicious meals are provided through Saint George’s College, a continuing education center for the entire Anglican Communion.

For more information and to register for a course, contact:Saint George’s College, Jerusalem

www.sgcjerusalem.orgemail: [email protected] telephone: 011 972 2 626 4704

January 5 - 18, 2007 THE PALESTINE OF JESUSBrs. James Koester & Jonathan Maury

Program, accommodations,& all meals - $2,180

■

July 19 - 28, 2007THE PALESTINE OF JESUS

a pilgrimage for seminariansBrs. Curtis Almquist & David Vryhof


■

October 17 - 26, 2007ABRAHAM, YESTERDAY AND TODAY

an interfaith pilgrimageSSJE brothers



Retreat Programs and Workshops:

Monastery Guesthouse, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Emery House, West Newbury, Massachusetts

The Society of Saint John the Evangelist

The brothers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist have for years offered hospitality to those seeking a place of quiet and renewal. At the monastery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at Emery House in West Newbury, Massachusetts, we invite you to find space to pray and renew your spirit. We are pleased to welcome you to these sanctuaries of beauty and reflective stillness.

We offer a variety of retreats and other programs:

“Nourishing the Soul” weekends offer individuals the chance to make a weekend retreat on their own or with the assistance of a spiritual director. Retreatants typi-cally join the brothers for meals and worship services, but use the remaining blocks of time as they desire – for praying, reading, writing, taking walks, resting, or simply enjoying the beauty of our buildings and grounds. These weekends offer an opportu-nity to step away from the demands of our day-to-day responsibilities to ponder the meaning and direction of our lives in the company of God.

Five-Day Companioned Retreats are offered for experienced retreatants who wish to make a slightly longer retreat. In addition to joining the brothers for meals and worship, each retreatant is companioned throughout the retreat by a brother, with whom he or she meets every day. The brother acts as a companion and a guide, lis-tening with the retreatant for the invitation of God hidden in their prayer and life.

Programmed Retreats are offered around particular themes or for particular audi-ences. Retreatants may, for example, learn to write an icon, explore Christian healing practices, participate in an Advent retreat as a way of preparing spiritually for the coming of Christmas, or join in a retreat with others who may be involved in similar ministries.

Saturday Workshops are one-day teaching seminars held at the monastery from time to time. We are offering six workshops this year. They are listed and described on page 31.


Our guesthouses in Cambridge and West Newbury are also prepared to receive guests during the week. Call or write us with the dates you have in mind.

The Guesthouse Brother Monastery Guesthouse980 Memorial DriveCambridge, MA 02138-5717Email: [email protected](617) 876-3037 x 10

For complete descriptions of all our programs, visit our website at www.ssje.org.

The Guesthouse BrotherEmery House21 Emery LaneWest Newbury, MA 01985-1333Email: [email protected](978)462-7940 x10

Friends of SSJEThe Society of Saint John the Evangelist980 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02138Tel: (617)-876-3037 ext. 24E-mail: [email protected]

“The reason I put the Society in our will is that I believe that the work the brothers do is very important, not just for the Church, but for the world.

“I like their mission and outreach work to East Africa. They go out into the world to help resolve the problems of the world. They go out to be spiritual healers by being witnesses to God’s love in the world.

“I am the successor of a strong group of ancestors, especially the women in my family, who were loyal to the Church and loved the Church, and I feel privileged to have inherited that tradition. What I can do with possessions that I have accumulated? I can help perpetuate those faithful values – love of the family, love of the Church and loyalty to the Church’s mission – by leaving some of my possession to groups in the Church that I believe reflect those values.”

Dr. Colin Johnstone A Friend of SSJE

Please let us know if you would like a copy of the Ways of Giving brochure to learn how you can include SSJE in your estate planning.

Friends


SATURDAY WORKSHOPS AT THE MONASTERY980 Memorial Drive • Cambridge, Massachusetts

Workshops begin at 10:00 a.m. (registration begins at 9:30 a.m.) and end by 3:00 p.m. The fee for a Saturday workshop is $75 ($40 for full-time students), which includes lunch. To register, call or write the guesthouse office at: Tel: (617) 876-3037 Email: [email protected] web: www.ssje.org

FINDING GOD in SEMINARY – a workshop for seminariansSeptember 23, 2006 (Saturday, 10 am – 3 pm)One of the ironies of theological education – engaging in study of and about God – is that God often seems to disappear in the process. This workshop will offer practical guidance for those who wish to deepen their relationship with God in prayer in the context of their seminary education. Led by Brs. CURTIS ALMQUIST and DAVID VRYHOF

DISCERNMENT in PRAYER – a workshop especially for young adults (though all are welcome)October 21, 2006 (Saturday, 10 am – 3 pm)One of our most popular programs, this workshop offers practical guidance for praying about significant life choices drawn from the wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola.Led by Brs. DAVID VRYHOF and ROY COCKRUM

FORGIVING and BEING FORGIVEN February 3, 2007 (Saturday, 10 am – 3 pm)Forgiveness is central to Christian living, yet it is one of the most challenging aspects of discipleship. This workshop will explore the biblical basis of God’s forgiveness as well as the practical dimensions of forgiving and being forgiven.Led by Br. KEVIN HACKETT

CENTERING PRAYER March 10, 2007 (Saturday, 10 am – 3 pm)A day of teaching, discussion and practice on Centering Prayer, based on the principles taught in Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, by Cynthia Bourgeault (Cowley Publi-cations, 2004).Led by Br. ROY COCKRUM

HEALING TOUCH April 28, 2007 (Saturday, 10 am – 3 pm)Using a Christ-centered approach to healing touch, and employing prayer, meditation, scripture, reflection, and “hands on” practice, this workshop invites participants to experi-ence God’s healing love and to be channels of that love and healing power to others.Led by Br. JONATHAN MAURY and Ms. PATRICIA WARREN. (Noted Christian healer Patricia Warren has traveled the world studying and teaching Buddhist, Sikh and Christian methods of healing for the past twenty years).Suggested fee for this workshop: $100 (half-price for full-time students)

RECONCILIATION: The Art of Hearing ConfessionsMay 26, 2007 (Saturday, 10 am – 3 pm)This one-day workshop is intended for priests, seminarians and other ministers who are (or will be) engaged with the ministry of reconciliation. It will explore the meaning of the Rite of Reconciliation, offer practical guidance for hearing confessions in a sacramental context, and explore ways of introducing the rite in parishes where it is not widely used.Led by Brs. CURTIS ALMQUIST and DAVID VRYHOF

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Documents

Cowley Magazine - Autumn 2006