New Skete and Ecumenism

By Brother Christopher

 

 

It’s no secret that within the Orthodox Church monasticism has often been extremely critical of the Church’s involvement in ecumenism. Particularly since the Orthodox Church’s participation in the World Council of Churches and the renaissance of Athonite monasticism in the 1970s and 1980s, there have been strong anti-Western and anti-ecumenical voices coming from Orthodox monastics who see engagement with non-Orthodox on social, cultural, and religious levels as leading the Orthodox Church down a perilous path of betrayal, departing from its inheritance of being the one true Church of Christ. The thinking goes that since the Orthodox Church is exclusively the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church on earth, possessing the fullness of truth, the only possible justification for Orthodox involvement in the ecumenical movement is one of witness with the aim of converting non-Orthodox to Orthodoxy. Since that hasn’t happened and the likelihood of other Christian churches becoming Orthodox is remote, they see nothing to justify continuing involvement in ecumenism. Certainly, they reject the notion that we can learn anything of value from non-Orthodox regarding the faith. Such a view reflects a narrow, exclusive ecclesiology that unfortunately has broad appeal in many Orthodox (predominantly male) monasteries. With respect, I’d argue that this reflects a mindset, a phronima that is out of step with mainstream Orthodoxy and, more importantly, the Gospels and Pauline epistles.

            Given this, I think it’s important to state that while many Orthodox monastics are anti-ecumenical, by no means is this a monolithic view. There are, and have always been, monastics both here and abroad who have strong pro-ecumenical beliefs. New Skete is certainly in this camp. Without apology we take a very different view towards ecumenism than the neo-traditionalist one described above, believing it to be an essential work of the Church and, by extension, of our community. It is beyond the scope of a short essay such as this to theologically justify this position, one that could fill a book; however, I’ll merely say that we’re following the lead of the Gospels (cf John 11:51,52; 17:11; 17:20-23; Mark 9:38-40); and St Paul’s understanding of the Body of Christ (cf Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Galatians 3:27-29; Ephesians 1:22-25; 2:15; 4:15-16; Colossians 3:15). Additionally, it is essential to note that the foremost Orthodox theologians of modern times (Bulgakov, Afanasiev, Florovsky, Evdokimov, Zizoulas, Nissiotis, Khodr, Schmemann, and Meyendorff, just to name several) have all stressed the importance of ecumenical engagement, both as a witness and as something we can benefit from as a Church. To varying degrees they see the inspiration of the Holy Spirit working beyond the institutional boundaries of the Orthodox Church and therefore as something we must humbly and gratefully acknowledge.

            In our own case, our approach to ecumenical activity arises largely out of our history. Initially, New Skete was a Byzantine Rite monastery that became canonically Orthodox in 1979, when it joined the Orthodox Church in America. Our reasons for becoming Orthodox can best be summarized by saying that we wished to put the right label on the bottle. We believed we were already living an Orthodox life, and we believed that we could best serve the unity of the Church from within Orthodoxy. Seeing this as an important part of our mission is written into our monastic Typicon: “Let us work tirelessly for unity: unity among our sisters and brothers and the unity of the churches... Ecumenism for us should be the work of every day, taking place naturally on a grassroots level.”

            We don’t have any illusions about our role as a small monastic community. While we have drawn inspiration from contemporary monastic communities such as Taizé in France and Bose in Italy, our focus is more modest, taking place locally, fostering what we’d describe as “grassroots ecumenism.” Within the context of our monastic life we have tried to make New Skete a safe place where people feel welcomed regardless of their faith background. A lot of what we do is what you’d expect from any monastery: daily worship, retreat work, spiritual direction, and the like. Further, because we’re well known for our work with dogs (and cheesecakes!), we draw an abundance of guests and visitors who come to New Skete for tours and routine visits. I believe our contact with people from diverse backgrounds is the primary reason we’re sensitive to grace working broadly within the Church and, for that matter, through other faith traditions. We experience it, and we have been enriched by these connections.

            Given this, I’d like to briefly expand on several of the unique ways New Skete has been inspired to witness to a broader vision of the Church from our dialogue with those outside of Orthodoxy.

1)      The Companions of New Skete, which was formerly our married community, has now transformed into an expanded non-residential community. These are Christians who wish to be more connected to New Skete and to use the resources of the monastery to help support their spiritual life. They follow a flexible rule of life and receive digital meditations three times a week that come from within the monastic community. When Companions come to New Skete on retreat they also have greater access to the monks and nuns. At present, there are well over 200 members, and they are evenly divided between Orthodox and non-Orthodox.

2)      We now offer a Resident Volunteer program in which individuals can live with us for an extended period of time to get a more intensive experience of monastic/contemplative life without necessarily thinking of monasticism as a life vocation. These individuals, coming from both Orthodox and non-Orthodox backgrounds, join us each day in work and prayer, and they usually stay with us for at least a month.

3)      We have two churches at New Skete: the Church of the Transfiguration and Holy Wisdom. In the latter, from both sides of the nave up into the altar area, there is a procession of saints similar to those at Ravenna. Most are saints of the undivided Church. However, since we get so many visitors from other denominations, we wanted to honor also examples of holiness from outside Orthodoxy. And so we have included frescoes of several Catholic saints, as well as unhaloed frescoes of several contemporary models of holiness, both Orthodox and Catholic. Finally, we wished to honor and include the three hierarchs that did the most to facilitate ecumenical reconciliation and understanding: Patriarch Athenagoras, Pope Paul VI, and Archbishop Michael Ramsey.

4)      In our daily synaxarion in addition to our own saints we also commemorate an increasing number of representatives from outside Orthodoxy whose lives exemplified authentic sanctity. 

5)      We foster ecumenical understanding through a variety of gatherings. For example, before the Pandemic we hosted an ecumenical seminar on the environment entitled “Caring for our Common Home,” which featured presenters from Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Episcopal traditions and attracted about 35 attendees.

It is not hard to see our underlying conviction about Christian unity and the role monasticism should play in healing division. New Skete believes that it is vital for Orthodox monastics to both support and be involved in ecumenical work in a manner that is consonant with their monastic life. We believe that there is so much to share from our tradition, but also so much to learn from others. Whatever we can do to help facilitate healing and reconciliation with the Body of Christ is something to which we will lend our energies.