Companions of New Skete

[Justin]

Does anyone know where I can find some information on the Companions of New Skete (http://www.newsketecompanions.org/) "married monastic community"? Has anyone had any experiences with this group? I would really appreciate anything anyone could share!

[David Galloway]

I don't have any real information. It seems that New Skete is seen as the "evil modernist threat" to Orthodoxy, but from talks with fellow parishoners who have spent time at New Skete, it seems as though the monk's hearts are in the right place if their rubrics are not.

I'm not a fan of their edition of the Divine Liturgy, and I don't care for their practice of displaying icons of Non-Orthodox saints, but perhaps due to their origins(they were orignally a Roman Catholic monastery) the Holy Synod of the OCA made a special dispensation.

If you find more information, please post it as I am interested in finding out more information regarding this community as well.

[Richard McBride]

Beloved of God, David:

I enjoy very much your messages and your rapid mastery of Orthodox practice.
Also, I am delighted that you have received the Grace of Orthodoxy at such an early age; I may only dream of what it would haved been like to have spent so many decades in the true Church, as I spent in sin outside the Church.

And you will appreciate one small correction: In Orthodoxy there is, according to my understanding, no "dispensation", as in "Papal dispensation"; our presbyters, generally under episcopal guidance, may offer oeconomia; but this is no substitue, but quite different from Roman dispensation.

richard mcb

[Owen Jones]

A rose by any other name should smell as sweet.

oaj

[David Galloway]

Richard,

Thank you for your kind words. I agree with your last point, I just did not stress that I was not using the term dispensation as ecclesiastical jargon, but rather as a general term. I guess was not as precise as I could have been. Thank you for pointing out that out for me. I hope that you are well, and will endeavor to remember you in my prayers. Thanks again.

[Gideon]

I’ve read one of their books, “In the Spirit of Happiness.” It was a book that prevented me from converting at that time to the Orthodox faith. It was full of modernism and Western ideals.

[Justin]

I would say that you prevented you from coverting ;-)

One doesn't reject the Church of Christ based on one modernist book, one can, at most, use such a book as an excuse for not converting.

[Justin]

Note-- There should be a semi-colon after "book", not a comma.

[Gideon]

Mr. Kissel,

The book in question at the time of my reading of it, gave me the impression that Orthodoxy was trying to follow the foot steps of the Latin Church. I wanted no part of it. That is why I say it pervented me from converting. (as for the semi colon; this is internet english, it doesn't matter english is changing because of the net;-)

[Isaac David]

I also read one of their books a number of years ago before I became Orthodox. It might have been "In the Spirit of Happiness" mentioned earlier. At the time, I rather got the impression they were Buddhists or Buddhist influenced from the tone of the book, so it's something of a surprise to find that they are supposed to be Orthodox.

[Richard McBride]

Beloved of the Lord, Isaac:

Very nice aphorism:

"This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it on vain pursuits."
- St Isaac of Nineveh

Can you read more of Saint Isaac's work online?

richard mcb

[Justin]

Fair enough :-) Sorry if I sounded confrontational... I still am working on keeping my mouth shut and thinking first ;-)

[M.C. Steenberg]

Can you read more of Saint Isaac's work online?

There are about 40 of his brief 'sayings' here in the database that seeds the A Word From the Holy Fathers (http://www.monachos.net/quote.shtml) page. Perhaps I shall have the time to add a page containing a collection solely of his.

INXC, Matthew

[Isaac David]

Beloved in Christ, Richard

I don't know of any online editions of St Isaac's works, alas. I have a copy of his Ascetical Homilies published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, but, due to some legal dispute, this book is no longer available, except second-hand. As it belongs to my Godmother, I am currently copying the homilies onto my computer in HTML format. I would dearly love to make this available online once it is completed, but I suspect I would be breaking copyright law if I did so.

[Marvin Vann]

I read In the Spirit of Happiness a couple of years ago. I thought their approach offered a refreshing counterbalance to a misunderstanding of ascetical spirituality that might degenerate into a Zoroastrian-type mind/body split, a misunderstanding to which I think we Orthodox can be prone. (I think of some comments and narratives I have read by self-described, mostly convert "traditionalists"; and of the figures of the disagreeable elder and visiting monk opposed to Fr. Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov.)

I do not recall the monks of New Skete in their book to have preached a desire for ecumenical "fusion," or any such silliness, and certainly do not recall any Buddhist teachings (though there may be points of similarity between some strands of Orthodox hesychastic practice and some Buddhist teachings).

I do share others' discomfort at the idea that they continue publicly to display icons of Francis, though, if it is true that they do. While I revere the latter's holiness of life, the fact that he lived out his mission in the context of Papal supremacy seems to offer cause for confusion to the Orthodox faithful.

PS: Note to Isaac David: Thanks for referring me to this web site.

[Stephen Keeler]

An interesting thread. Marvin writes:


"I do share others' discomfort at the idea that they continue publicly to display icons of Francis, though, if it is true that they do. While I revere the latter's holiness of life, the fact that he lived out his mission in the context of Papal supremacy seems to offer cause for confusion to the Orthodox faithful."

You, and presumably everyone in this group, are not confused. Who are these Orthodox faithful who would be? Seems somewhat patronizing. I've never read books from this group. The sense that I do get from people who have visited there is that New Skete is taking an different approach to spreading the Orthodox faith. It might work, and it might not, but given the Church's track record in America, we have yet to find a winning formula that's wowing people, so being unconventional might work.

Ye gods. A monastic community that's unconventional and stirring up the pot. Who ever heard of such a thing?

[Marvin Vann]

Christ is in our midst!

Hi, Stephen.

Your general point about the monks of New Skete is well taken.

But, I actually find the St. Francis thing tremendously confusing: What reverence should one show, and in what manner, to an apparently holy man (certainly far more holy than I), a great, ascetical lover of Christ, who expressed enormous devotion to His Church, but who, we have good reason to believe, mistakenly took that Church to be embodied by people who were actually in schism with the apostolic, Catholic Church?

If it is permissable to write and reverence icons of Francis, could one do it for the Baptist, Martin Luther King, Jr? For the Hindu, Mohandas K. Ghandi?

Is it right to hold up as a "window into heaven" the icon (which, let us keep in mind, holds a more immediate relation to its object than a mere "picture") of a man who, albeit through no direct fault of his own, was out of at least visible Communion with the Church?

If so, are we not then led to believe that the Church subsists in some sense among the Catholics?

But, then, is that not to hold that Christ's body has been torn asunder, that the Church is no longer One, as we profess in the Creed?

And, if we hold that Francis was in some sort of "invisible Communion," is this not to ascribe to a theology according to which the Body of Christ is an "invisible" reality, not necessarily to be confused with its material, visible incarnation? Is that not tantamount to a Calvinist ecclesiology?

Maybe that doesn't confuse you, but it sure does me.

[Stephen Keeler]

I don't believe I have the answers for you, Marvin. I personally don't pray to St. Francis, but I would put some distance between him and the modern folks you mention. Of all the Catholic saints not in the Orthodox pantheon (ouch, that could get me in trouble) I happen to like Bernard of Clairvoix the best.

A saint is a saint, why? If I understand correctly, it is because the Church says so. There are many devotions different people have to the dead, some recognized as saints by local churches - and maybe some when push came to shove that other churches would reject. Orthodox are, I would surmise, not inclined to rush to pushing and shoving in this regard (as opposed to, say, trampling over each when we want our Pascha baskets sprinkled first). Who knows, maybe if St. Francis attracts a large following among the Orthodox, it might come to push and shove. Then we'll know. Hey, I just received in the mail a CD from an Orthodox choir group from St. Anthony of Padua Church! Go figure.

Not that this has the crispness and clarity it seems you seek. But perhaps that isn't necessary, and that the muddleness is in fact a gift.

[Miguel]

Is'nt it funny that icons seen throughout Greece St. Francis is often seen painted in the corner or background?

[Olga]

Dear Miguel

Are you sure it's St Francis? Do you have a copy of such an icon, or could you provide a link to one? I'd be very interested in seeing it!