A Beacon For Old-Growth Humans
Parzival (Parts Four & Five)
Dear St Mary of Egypt & St Seraphim of Sarov up in the Monastery chapel
Morning friends, a quick update on the monastic situation (The Monastery of St Anthony and St Cuthbert in the Stiperstone Hills). There’s been a lively response for donations, and I’ve been combing through the emails and having conversations. However, as I emphasised last time, there will be other offers for the trustees, some taking months at least to be realised. They are meeting later in May to mull all this over.
Importantly, I hear there may still be a way they can keep it within the church and it remain as a monastery. That would be no bad thing at all, it could be exactly the right thing. In the meantime I will be having a good and steady look under the hood of this possibility. Methodical like. Wise as serpents and all that, rock not sand.
Just to confirm a few thoughts: my plan is not that it’s a community with lots of room for folks to live permanently and even retire there. That’s a beautiful idea, but not this one. It would be a hub for courses and retreats that I and other teachers would lead, and God willing, a bright beacon for people interested in Orthodoxy, myth, the saints and how they grow in the wilds of Britain.
My prayer is that it would help shape us into Old-Growth human beings.
I would be asking for donations to buy it for those straightforward reasons. Its function is twofold: one to preserve the chapel and the turning-wheel of prayer that has existed there, and two; to be a lively ongoing vessel for those wishing to study, learn and pray in a deep kind of way.
Thank you so much for the comments and emails, they’re wonderful. I will keep you updated.
CODES FROM THE OLD WORLD - A LIVESTREAM
On a different note: Last year, over three weeks, I made my way from one side of Canada to the other. Dreaming away. The only nights off were flight days. There was no set plan for the evenings other than around 25 stories and ideas that were floating about in the back of my head somewhere. Each night was a roll of the dice imaginatively. High stakes, great personal rewards. I felt alive all right. The second to last night, in Victoria, was filmed. If you’d like to see what happened, it’s available to stream from the link. One of my travelling companions for the last leg was Ian MacKenzie of the School of Mythopoetics over there, who made this lovely little film. Having had a year to absorb the experience, I’ll have an eye to go back to Canada soon enough.
The link to livestream:
Codes From The Old World livestream
We still have a few places left for The Skinboat & The Star over in Devon. I’m delighted to say we have Orthodox scholar Robert Button joining us in person on the first weekend, and thinker the mighty Mark Vernon for the second, along with the wonderful caravanserai of guest teachers who are visiting us in person or virtually.
THE EPIC OF PARZIVAL
A double dose of Parzival this and next time, otherwise we will simply never get to the end! Never let it be said we don’t provide value for money.
Parzival Notes: On Cundrie
Nothing wakes us up like menace—menace refreshes.
Tony Hoagland