| Finding Monks
In Br. Cuthbert's wide-ranging and well-received article in the
last 'Abbey Letter' he explained why we changed the dates of the
Summer Vocation Program from June, July and August to just the
month of July,
"... the trend over the past thirty years has been
a decrease in the numbers of vocationers. Such a trend is not
unique to St. Gregory's, but in fact monasteries all over the
United States have seen a similar decline. This being the case,
having the Vocation Program spread out over three months meant
that sometimes only one or two vocationers would be here at once,
hardly enough for them to develop a sense of 'vocationer
community.' By concentrating the Vocation Program in the month of
July, our hope is that more vocationers will be here at the same
time, making it easier for them to form an idea of what life in
community is like."
A community discussion of how well this approach worked was
opened by Fr. William, the Guest Master, when he asked at a daily
chapter in early August about scheduling guests next summer. This
is because St. Anthony's guest house is reserved exclusively for
the use of vocationers during the Summer Vocation Program, and
thus the availability of guest facilities is dependent on the
duration of the Summer Vocation Program.
We had a total of seven men apply for the program, but we
had only four men attend, since three canceled. One did so
because he felt he wasn't ready yet in his spiritual life,
another because he had a summer orientation program for the
university that he was attending in the fall and the third
because he managed to find a summer job which he needed to help
pay for his college education.
So how did things work out with the four men who did attend?
Not very well, actually. Only one stayed for the entire time
scheduled. The others all left early because of work or family
matters.
Although we do not expect that every participant in the
Program be considering a monastic vocation, we do rely on the
Summer Vocation Program to expose prospective monks to the
monastic experience, and I think it is fair to say that all seven
of us in the community were disappointed by the outcome of this
year's Summer Vocation Program. Certainly it was far different
than in my early years when we had some twenty monks and upwards
of thirty vocationers each summer.
In spite of this disappointing result, I told Fr. William
and the rest of the community that I was in favor of staying with
the one month length for the Summer Program since none of the men
who contacted us said that they would have liked to participate
but were not able to attend during July. So there is no evidence
that extending the Program would have made any difference.
Why are there so many fewer men coming to our Summer
Vocation Program? One reason is probably because thirty years ago
we were at the peak number of the "baby boomers" being young men
and the size of that group is a demographic reality affecting
everything. It is also true that the problem of school loan debt
has become much worse than it used to be.
But the difficulty in the declining number of vocations to
monastic life is not a problem restricted to St. Gregory's.
Recently, Notker Wolf, the Benedictine Abbot Primate, talked
about possible reasons why the monasteries of Europe and North
America are failing to maintain their numbers. He sees the
prevalence of secular culture as largely responsible, with its
relativism (monastic life demands shared values),
anti-institutionalism (monasteries are institutions), and the
high value placed on individualism (which is not bad, but when
pushed to an extreme makes community life impossible).
This is not just a theoretical situation, but has had a real
impact on monastic life in this country. In the three decades
that I have been at St. Gregory's, five American abbeys have been
suppressed, essentially for lack of new vocations and the median
community age has increased substantially.
And there is an another aspect of monastic vocation that is
almost never discussed in religious literature, the fact that
most monks and nuns are introverts. People who do not appreciate
times for silence and prayerful reflection are simply not going
to be drawn to monastic life. The fullest discussion of this
point that I have ever encountered is in Pieternella van
Doorn-Harder's, "Contemporary Coptic Nuns," a sociological study
of the monastic life of modern Egyptian women. Many of the
sisters she interviewed talked about being interested in quiet
and prayer and solitude when they were children.
This becomes a factor when looking for prospective vocations
among young people in the church because most church events are
completely geared to extroverts. If we had the numbers and time
to go out to recruit prospective new monks, Church Youth Groups
would be the last place to look.
Another factor here is that most of the monks of St.
Gregory's weren't Episcopalians when we were "youth" anyway. Only
two of the monks are cradle Episcopalians. Like most active
Episcopalians, most of the monks are adult converts. So, if
church youth groups are probably not the right place to look for
prospective monks, where should one look?
About thirty years ago the Order of the Most Holy Trinity
decided that the best way to reach the demographic that they were
interested in was to run an ad in Playboy. They knew that they
weren't interested in the sort of men who pore over the ads in
religious newspapers and magazines -- they were interested in
ordinary young men and at that time, most ordinary young men saw
Playboy. And from what I heard, it worked. They received more
inquiries than ever before and accepted so many applicants that
they had to transfer their novitiate to a larger facility. Most
of the new men did not persevere, (that is generally true,
anyway) but it gave the community a much needed and encouraging
boost at a difficult time.
We discuss this story from time to time with considerable
amusement. We could never afford an ad in Playboy and I doubt
that as many young men see that magazine as was once the case.
Our entire culture is much more compartmentalized or fragmented
than it used to be. No longer do generations share supper or
watch television together or listen to the same radio stations.
In any case, there is probably no one place that anyone could run
an ad that would have as broad an impact as was once the case.
So how do we reach men who might be suited to the monastic
life but have never considered the possibility and very likely
don't even know that it is an option? Well, I keep hoping that
bishops and diocesan standing committees will not automatically
assume that everyone who expresses an interest in vocation is
automatically judged solely on aptitude for parish ministry, but
tell people who feel called by God that there are other ways of
serving God, including the religious orders in The Episcopal
Church.
And then there are you readers. Look around you. If you see
a prospective monk, tell him about us. That man might find it to
be Good News.
- Prior Aelred
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