From the All-American Council

 The week of July 14th, Br. Christopher, Sr. Cecelia, and Carl Patka, a chapel community member, traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to attend the 21st All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America. The reasons for a Council of the Church are many. One that affected us specifically as monastics was a request to report what we had done for ourselves and the rest of humanity in the previous three years since the last council. We also were asked to describe our plans for the next three years.

Since many areas of church life were giving their reports, the three Stavropegial monastic communities were requested to keep their reports to only five minutes each for the Monks of New Skete, the Nuns of New Skete, and St Tikhon’s. Br. Christopher gave his spoken report first, and it follows.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to share briefly with you a bit of the pulse of our life at New Skete, focusing on the monks’ community. We are taking seriously the challenge to create a viable future for ourselves, one that is faithful to the monastic vision expressed in our typicon and which has the possibility of attracting and inspiring new members. Since the last AAC we have completed an extensive renovation of the upper cloister, bedroom section, and library that addressed important structural issues as well as mold. It was a successful project, long overdue.

We have always been a small, close-knit community, and currently we number nine. We’re grateful to have several newer members in formation, one a riasaphore and the other a novice, plus two serious inquirers who are currently living with us. We believe a vibrant monastic community is one that needs to be committed to ongoing renewal, and we strive to express that in all of the elements of our life: in our personal prayer and liturgical life, in offering hospitality, and in sharing the fruits of our monastic life in a variety of concrete ways. Outreach is important to us. The Companions of New Skete is a non-resident fellowship of people who have a desire to stay spiritually connected with New Skete. They follow a flexible rule of life, and receive spiritual meditations three times a week to supplement their prayer. During their personal retreats they have closer access to the community. Currently there are approximately 280 companions. More generally, we host several day-long spiritual retreats during the year, one during Great Lent and one in the fall, which are well-attended. Occasionally we also host retreats for parishes. Another ministry of New Skete is that of spiritual direction, with several members seeing people regularly on a monthly basis. Each year on the Saturday of the octave of the Transfiguration we host a pilgrimage, a day-long celebration that includes the Divine Liturgy, various activities and workshops, as well as a guest speaker. This year our guest speaker will be Fr. Geoffrey Ready, a theologian of the OCA who teaches at the University of Toronto. His topic will be “How Then Shall We Live: Improvising Faithfully in a Broken World.” Vespers and a healing service conclude the day. Another new initiative we are currently investigating is a connection with the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, England, in which we would provide the possibility for students here in the United States to come for a time in which they could do research in an Orthodox monastic environment that simultaneously feeds their spiritual lives. 

We continue to support ourselves by breeding and raising German Shepherd dogs and training dogs of all breeds. An additional aspect of this work is hosting two-week long training seminars for owners and their dogs who seek to learn our methods on site. Finally, since the last AAC we have written an additional book, The Joy of Playing with Your Dog, put out by Countryman, a division of Norton.

Next was Sr. Cecelia’s report, which follows: 

Fr. Christopher has mentioned a number of our initiatives from both the past and our future plans. We join in most of these in welcoming all to the monasteries. 

 Because we are a “working” monastery, our common liturgical services are two or three times daily. During the weekdays we have our morning prayers in the nuns’ chapel, and the rest of the liturgical services are held communally in Holy Wisdom temple with the monks. Monastics pray in the secret of their hearts, fostering a spirit of silence and recollection, which permeates all other aspects of our lives. Personal prayer is nourished by and benefits from the choral worship of the entire community.

Almost everything we are trying to achieve—union with God, wisdom, interior freedom, enlightenment—is what all humankind is called to achieve. How we go about this is usually different than the person on the street. Our attitude toward creation is that God made everything good. Abusing created things is where evil comes in. Understanding our relation to and use of creation is not achieved in a day. To help us we promise obedience, poverty, and chastity, with all the implications of such, to our superior/spiritual guide and to the community.

In obedience, we aspire to relate to one another more like loving members of a family rather than a hierarchy of an army in both giving and receiving directions.

We do not consider poverty to be destitution but rather detachment from not only material goods but glory, honors, and our own way. Interior freedom is attained only through this detachment. This interior freedom enables one to be free to be united with Divinity.

Monastic chastity is being celibate in order to have time to devote ourselves to the things of God, especially to achieving purity of heart. To understand what “to pray always” means is what we are striving to do. All our works, whether iconography, directing retreats and retreatants, bakery work, cheesecake making, gardening, household maintenance, welcoming visitor or seekers, are means to achieving purity of heart. 

This involves a “living response to God’s voice at the present moment, a direct and personal meeting, here and now, with Christ in the Spirit. Living the Orthodox tradition authentically involves, not an imitation of the past but a courageous effort to discriminate between the transitory and the essential. The Orthodox response to the issue of the ministry of women in the Church can be seen as an example of the continuing effort to articulate and live the authentic tradition of the Christian faith. 

The truth revealed by the Holy Spirit is lived and witnessed through the faith of the Church. Christianity positively affirms the revelation that women and men are created equally in the image and likeness of the Trinitarian God.

Of note in the report from St. Tikhon’s Monastery by Fr. Sergius was their recently begun iconography classes and the choir director classes, which involve understanding the liturgics involved.  One of the projects for last year’s iconography class of four or five persons was the acceptance of making the 4 x 5 foot icon of the Deisis and the 19 canonized saints of America that was displayed in the conference room. 


Metropolitan Tikhon emphasized that only one woman so far is among those saints, and he indicated that we need to recognize that there are more women who could be included.

Saint Olga of Kwethluk, Wonderworker, Matushka of All Alaska


All of the recordings of 21st AAC Plenary Sessions are now available at the website for the OCA: www.OCA.org



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