New Skete Monasteries News

At the height of the Northeast’s fall color, ten students and two spouses arrived in the late afternoon of October 17 for an overnight visit. They are taking Dr. Paul Meyendorff’s Liturgy class on “The Sanctification of Time” and came to participate in the monastery’s observance of Vespers and Matins. The seminarians were able to sing with the monastics for some of the short refrains, and they sang their own arrangements for a couple of hymns. Professor Meyendorff, a long-time friend of New Skete, has brought students for such “field trips” numerous times over the past decade and a half. He is the Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tuckahoe, New York, directly south of us by a little over three hours. He has also authored several books on various aspects of Byzantine and Russian liturgical history and practice, has translated additional works in the field, and has been Visiting Professor at Yale Divinity School a...

by Brother Stavros Brothers Christopher and Stavros spent Columbus Day weekend in Washington, DC as guests of St. Nicholas Cathedral parish and made slide presentations during the two-day Fall Bazaar festival. Br. Christopher, our prior and a priest-monk, also served the Sunday Divine Liturgy with the Metropolitan and cathedral clergy, during which he was blessed by His Beatitude to preach the homily. Our National Cathedral is small in floor space but was built in the lofty Novgorod-Vladimir style, and the entire interior is covered in very handsome early Russian style frescoes. It has a very prestigious location at the height of Massachusetts Avenue, a mere half block from the Vice-President’s residence at the Naval Observatory and a short walk from the Episcopal National Cathedral on Mount St. Alban, which has a commanding view of the Nation’s Capital, and across the avenue from St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The main campus of the Russian Embassy is also a short dista...

Reflections by Brother Luke      It is sometimes hard for me to believe as I think back that Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lived around the corner from us in Los Angeles when I was a kid growing up. My sister was in the same grade as their kids; I was two years behind. Those of you who were also kids at that time may remember the ending line of their TV show theme song: “Happy Trails to you until we meet again.”      When I take my dogs out onto our trails in the woods, they are truly Happy Trails for them. They have great fun running around, and these days I have to struggle a bit more to keep pace with them. But I’ve always enjoyed hiking our trails ever since I was first introduced to them back in 1980s during a retreat visit. In those days Brother Stavros put in many hours of work on the trails, grooming them and putting blazes on trees along the trails to help visitors enjoy their hikes. I remember one year a family was out on the trails and got to ...

An update from Brother Christopher We have come a long way, but the journey continues! As we approach the one-year anniversary of the groundbreaking for the Monks of New Skete Dog Training Center, Capital Campaign, we are so very thankful for the support, encouragement, progress, and accomplishments that we have been witness to during this exciting and challenging time. It is through the generous spirit of so many, including the Maurice Sendak Foundation, that we have been able to move forward on this important project. We are pleased to report that, with the help from many friends, the generous matching pledge/challenge by the Maurice Sendak Foundation for the Monks’ Capital Campaign has been met, and the foundation has very generously donated $250,000! This exciting challenge presented by the foundation ignited a call to action for many old and new friends of the Monks! In the months following the March 2014 announcement, we were humbled by the outpouring of generosity from the many...