New Skete Monasteries News

 Brother Stavros John Benson and Jeanette Warner first came to New Skete from reading In the Spirit of Happiness in 2000.  After their first visit with the Companions at Emmaus House, they started going to St. Nicholas Parish (OCA) soon afterward, where they were pleased to learn of Fr. George Gray's connection with New Skete. Fr. George was ordained in our Transfiguration church here at New Skete some thirty years ago. He came to know the monastery through his wife, Daria, whose school chum was a daughter of one of New Skete’s earliest families. John and Jeanette were core members of the New Skete Synaxis at St. Nicholas. They considered becoming Companions in residence at New Skete, and although moving from the Pacific Northwest did not prove realistic, they did make frequent visits and became especially close to Sr. Melanie and Br. Stephen, the last resident members of Emmaus House. John had a professional landscape business in Portland and helped Sr. Melan...

 Ida Williams, Director of Marketing and Communication On Tuesday mornings I meet with the brothers who run the training program for our weekly dog training meeting.  At these meetings, we review the week’s schedule: dogs being dropped off, picked up, any calls to be made.  The brothers review applications, answer questions from training clients, and direct me on any correspondences that need to go out. Dog training meetings are held after Matins.  Brother Christopher typically grabs a quick breakfast of toast with almond butter, and Brother Thomas has a cup of coffee.  Bora (Brother Thomas’s dog) joins us.  Brother Christopher sits on my right at the head of the table, and Brother Thomas across from me.  The meetings are so familiar that if the brothers switched chairs, I would feel that I must have shown up to the wrong meeting.  Each meeting starts with a prayer. “…let us be mindful of your presence... Amen.” I am going to make a ...

 by Brother Christopher             Cancer is a word that immediately scares us. While all of us understand intellectually that many people have to deal with various types of cancer and their treatment, few of us sit around thinking of the time when our number will be called. Instead, we go on with our lives, try our best to live as healthfully as possible, and don’t stress over whatever frightening possibilities may occur down the road. Some may deem this a subtle form of denial, but it is how most of us cope with life while still being able to celebrate the joyful, beautiful, and humorous moments of each day. And it is entirely understandable.             However, all of this changes when the “C” word is spoken to us personally, in the form of a diagnosis perhaps, or the news of a close friend or family member having to suddenly face such an illness. Cancer is ...

Brother Luke If There Is Life I Want to Live It . Nikolaos, Metropolitan of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki. Montreal: Alexander Press, 2015. 120 pages. Series: Orthodoxy in Dialogue with the Modern World, Volume 11.             It is sometimes easy to imagine that people in the “Old Country,” in this case Greece, are somehow born into their national religion. To speak of Greece is to imagine not only the Parthenon and ancient times, but also Mount Athos, and all the beautiful Orthodox churches and chapels scattered all over the mainland and the Greek Islands. One might assume that Orthodoxy is somehow in the peoples’ blood; an unquestioned reality that all accept. But this is the 21st century, and many people in Greece, as in all of Europe, are imbued with the secular spirit and see the church as an antique, a cultural relic, but hardly something that offers anything of value to help people negotiate the unstable reality of ...