Canonical Visitation of Papa Stronsay

Official statement from Fr. Michael Mary

From 23rd to 26th April, 2012 a Canonical Visitation of the community at Papa Stronsay was undertaken by the local Ordinary, the Rt. Rev. Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B. accompanied by the Very Rev. Benedict Hardy, O.S.B.

The Visitation was positively received by the community. Its outcome will be formally announced in due course, pending canonically required consultations.

fr.michael at the-sons.org

Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer

Golgotha Monastery Island

Papa Stronsay, KW17 2AR

Orkney (Scotland, U.K.)

Ordination of new Bishop of Aberdeen

Fr. Hugh Gilbert, former Abbot of Pluscarden will be ordained Bishop ofAberdeen at St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen on Monday 15th August.

From the Episcopal Ordination Bishop Hugh Gilbert will become the leaderof the geographically largest diocese within the UK. He spent 37years as a contemplative monk, and was Abbot of the PluscardenAbbey, near Elgin.

Speaking before the ceremony, Bishop-Elect Hugh said:"It is a privilege and a joy to be asked to serve the Church, and thewider community, in the beautiful diocese of Aberdeen, where I havealready lived as a monk for 37 years. I am grateful for the warm welcomegiven me, and, trusting in the grace of the Holy Spirit, look forward toworking with others for the building-up of the Body of Christ."

The retiring Bishop of Aberdeen, Bishop Peter Moran, said:“I am very pleased to welcome Bishop Hugh Gilbert as my successor. Hisrich spiritual experience will guide the people of the diocese in thatsearch for personal holiness on which Pope Benedict has laid such stress.After nineteen years as abbot, his fatherly leadership skills will supportand empower the clergy of the diocese in their often isolated pastoralappointments. I am confident that I am passing our diocese to an excellent successor and I wish Bishop Hugh every blessing.”

Bishop Moran added:“neither Pluscarden Abbey nor its Abbot are remote from the pressures andconcerns of the contemporary world, which so much needs God, and needs toknow god’s love. Hugh Gilbert’s wide-ranging friendships and contacts willensure that the Diocese of Aberdeen remains very much in touch with ‘thejoys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties’ of the Church and the worldof today.”

The President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, Cardinal KeithO’Brien, said:“The Bishop is aware more than most Bishops of the need of the Diocese ofAberdeen having been a monk in this Diocese for so long. He himself as awilling servant of this Diocese already has been willing to travel onsupply to various parishes in the Diocese and his Monastery has presented an opendoor to priests, religious and people of the Diocese of Aberdeen andindeed people who come seeking advice and help from all over our countryand throughout the world."

Cardinal O'Brien continued: "Through his very beautiful writings, manybased on the addresses to his community at Pluscarden, he has had amaginificent outreach in helping to build up the spiritual lives ofothers. And because of the outreach from his own monastery to othermonasteries throughout the world he realizes the needs of those incountries which are less prosperous than our own."

The Cardinal concluded: "One might say that a new Bishop for Abrdeen could not have had a betterpreparation than to have been the Abbot of Pluscarden Abbey within thisDiocese, for such a period of time, before his call by Pope Benedict XVIto be the Bishop.”

Congratulations also came from the former Bishop of Aberdeen,Archbishop Mario Conti, who said:“I am delighted that Abbot Hugh has been chosen to be my second successoras Bishop of Aberdeen. He is a wise and holy man who knows the diocesewell and who is much respected by the people and the priests.”

Archbishop Conti concluded: “I had the joy of ordaining him priest and soit will be a special pleasure to be there when he is ordained a bishop.”

(source: SCMO)

2009 Pluscarden Pentecost Lectures

from the Sisters of the Gospel of Life

The 2009 Pluscarden Pentecost Lectures

2nd - 4th June 2009 at Pluscarden Abbey, near Elgin

Holistic Ambiguity: A Western Theology of Nature

This years series will be given by the Rev. Dr Tom Herbst OFM, lecturer at the Franciscan International Centre in Canterbury.

1. Tuesday 2nd June at 2.45 pm
A critique of Western empirical views of nature. The foundations of the Christian Tradition

2. Wednesday 3rd June at 10.15 am
The Fathers grapple with a Greek conundrum

3. Wednesday 3rd June at 2.45 pm
From a negative to a positive view of nature in the medieval period

4. Thursday 4th June at 10.15 am
The post-modern challenge to the Western theological synthesis

Each year the Abbot and Community of Pluscarden Abbey sponsor a series of four lectures by an invited Theologian on an aspect of Catholic Theology. Previous Lecturers have included Bishop Michael Evans, Fr Aidan Nichols OP, Fr Thomas Weinandy OFM Cap, Fr Anthony Meredith SJ and Fr Paul McPartlan.

The Lectures are held on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after Pentecost in St Scholastica’s Retreat House at the Abbey. They are open to all who wish to attend and are free.

Limited accommodation is available at the Abbey and those who wish to stay should book as soon as possible. There are also many places to stay in the Elgin area: contact the local tourist office: 01343 542666.

The Lecturer
Dr Thomas J. Herbst received a BA in History at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a M. Div. from the Franciscan School of Theology and a MA in Theology at the Franciscan School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He obtained a D.Phil. in Theology from the University of Oxford in 2001.

His academic interests include various disciplines of Historical Theology with emphasis in the Patristic and Medieval eras, Christian iconography, exegesis with special reference to the Gospel of John, and Systematic Theology with particular emphasis on Christology and the Theology of Nature. He is also interested in various fields of Franciscan Studies, especially Franciscan Christology and the writings of Francis and Clare.

Publications include:
The Way of Union: Sources and Reflections on the Johannine Dimension of Bonaventure’s Christology (Grottaferrata, Rome: 2005)

The Lectures

Introduction

Grappling with an understanding of nature has been a concern of all world religions and Christianity is no exception. At no time has this been more acute than in the modern era in which we find ourselves. The emerging importance of ‘eco-spirituality’, and the sense of crisis that serves as an impetus, has assumed great importance in Christian apologetics in relation to science, technology and (Western) secular attitudes. At the same time, a theology of nature is increasingly important as a focal point within inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogue. The Western Christian tradition of natural theology is a rich one. It is impacted by, and a part of, the broader traditions of systematics, spirituality, mysticism and, especially, philosophy. Extending from the Judeo-Christian roots of scriptural revelation and the philosophical synthesis achieved by classical Christianity and the Greek intellectual tradition; maturing in depth and complexity in the Middle Ages, and jarringly challenged by modern and post-modern thought, a Christian theology of nature is a multi-valent exercise. A truly holistic view of the world and the human person within it is mandated by the Incarnation, yet often seems ‘just out of reach’. Simplistic solutions are rarely sufficient. The complexity of nature is matched by the complexity of its relationship with the Creator. In this year’s Lectures, Fr Tom Herbst will trace the developments towards an integrated Western theology of nature from pagan philosophy through Scripture and Patristics to a modern and post-modern understanding.

Lecture 1: A critique of Western empirical views of nature. The foundations of the Christian tradition

Introduction: A 20th century novel: Stephen King’s, The Stand; a theological response to the ecological crisis, engendered by the modern rationalist view demands a new paradigm, or at least a redemption and fresh interpretation of the old.

Part 1: Critique of Western empirical views of nature in terms of a narrow definition of rationalism. Reality = what can be manipulated. This presupposes that: 1. reality is anthropocentric, 2. there is no God and, 3. there is no spiritual animation of nature, 4. nature does not have a consciousness, is inanimate or simply biological necessity.

Part 2: The foundations of the Christian tradition; a scriptural response:
- Creation in Genesis and the implications of imago Dei.
- An examination of ‘the Fall’ and its implications on the Christian world view. Dualism in the West: A holistic metaphysics (taking account of the positive AND negative).
- Cosmic redemption in Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
- Ambiguous dualism and holistic eschatology as the implications of the hypostatic union are applied to the entire universe in the Book of the Apocalypse.

Lecture 2: The Fathers grapple with a Greek conundrum

Patristic Fathers grapple with a Greek conundrum- Plato solves one problem and creates another: ‘Union soteriology’ and the problem of ‘proximity’.

- The radical assertion of Nicea…
- to the radical assertion of Chalcedon: God and nature are utterly separate and inextricably unified.
- The pervasive problem of dualism (ex: Docetism/Gnostics).
- Origen: an encounter of objective and subjective. Where does one find God?
- Augustine: Illumination, caritas, and the archetype of the Two Cities (Civitatis Dei).

Lecture 3: From a negative to a positive view of nature in the medieval period

Christian iconography as a hermeneutic: the angry God of the Dark Ages.
- Global warming and the second coming of Aristotle.
- Three characteristics of the re-claimed holistic theology of nature: 1. History. 2. Affectivity and 3. Naturalism.
- The scholastic dream of a redeemed City of Man.
- Hugh and Richard of St. Victor, Bernard of Clairvaux, and the theology/spirituality of the 12th century.
- The Franciscan synthesis of old and new theologies of nature: Cosmic fraternitas in Francis of Assisi, the kenotic God of Clare of Assisi, and Christ in medias res in Bonaventure.

Lecture 4: The post-modern challenge to the Western theological synthesis

Prelude: The synthetic tradition of Scotus and Ockham to the fracture of Western intellectual unity in the fourteenth century.

The post-modern challenge to the Western theological synthesis:
- Nietzsche and nihilism
- Sartre and existentialism
- Radical subjectivism
- Radical determinism
- Human freedom and responsibility…etc.

For further information contact the Abbey at:
monks(at)pluscardenabbey(dot)org

To book accommodation at the Abbey contact the Guestmaster at: guestmaster(at)pluscardenabbey(dot)org

news from Papa Stronsay

On 31 October 2008, the Rt. Rev. Peter Moran, Bishop of Aberdeen, granted faculties to Fr. Michael Mary and to Fr. Anthony Mary, FSsR (Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer) at Golgotha Monastery on Papa Stronsay^(?). These faculties include jurisdiction for the sacrament of Penance in both Papa Stronsay as well as the monastery chapel on Stronsay.

The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer are a group of traditional monks -- Fathers and Brothers -- in full communion with the Holy See., based on the Orkney island of Papa Stronsay