A Vision For A Monastery
“Unfurl the sails, and let God steer us where He will.”
St Bede the Venerable
A glimpse of the chapel
Listen to the audio of this post, A Vision For A Monastery:
Hello friends,
Ok. The rather earnest title is for a straightforward situation. My friend the iconographer Aidan Hart has been deeply involved in an Orthodox hermitage in Shropshire these last thirty years. He’s done all sorts of incredibly hard yards getting it into shape and creating a small absolutely stunning fresco chapel. The last monk left about a year ago, and they are low on funds for the monthly bills. Last week I took a trip up with Aidan into the Shropshire hills to behold it. It’s a Grail jewel, I tell thee.
Some brass tacks: It’s likely they will have to sell and it’s priced at a pretty reasonable £350k. I think it needs about £75k in tender loving care. It would need big-hearted volunteers and a few professionals to have it ready by next spring.
It has almost twenty acres and a decent pond. Aidan has planted thousands of trees, with bluebells erupting under them in the spring. It’s ferociously beautiful, untamed. It’s like Tolkien had a pint with St Mary of Egypt and they dreamt this up.
Every now and then something comes along that is both thrilling and alarming in equal measure, and this would be that. The thrill is that I can see a very clear picture of what could be a new season for the place. In short, I’d like to buy it. Because I feel prompted to do so.
What’s alarming is that wonderful things, rare things, things of real merit, often send us far out from the usual comforts. This I know from experience.
The main farmhouse
My seeing would be this: the small monastery would become a Christian centre with an Orthodox core. We would run courses, enable vigils and retreats in the woods (there are several cells), have the joyful labour of stewarding of the land, maybe a wee bit of a small holding. We’d have volunteers coming through in the summer and winter seasons, and likely a rotation of permanent staff.
Groups would probably be smaller than I’ve worked with for some time, and I would bring in all sorts of friends to teach – many of whom you’d know already. Summer would have monthly courses and space to camp, winter would naturally be more contemplative, with likely longer retreats with relatively modest-sized groups. It’s wild up there: to process through the snow by candlelight to attend a midnight service in the chapel, well there’s no words really.
I have a feeling that there’s a great deal in the lives of the early saints that are talking to us right now – in a time of tremendous spiritual peril. This would be a place where we are not just thinking about their lives but actually get to walk in their footsteps a little. Holy Spirit goes where he wills, with not so much attention to which century he’s in. This would be no kind of re-enactment fair but a jump into the big and rare adventure bequeathed to us. I am very interested in the liturgical year and how we could creatively dwell within it.
Woodland cell, stream running underneath
I have decades of experience as a storyteller and teacher that I’d like to offer as we lean into the embers of rehydrating the Christian mythos. I’ve led a community for twenty-one years, conferences, endless courses academic and otherwise. But I can’t do this alone. I’d be hoping for fledgling storytellers, growers, iconographers, soup kitcheners, artists, writers, thinkers, mechanics, musicians, gardeners, scientists and boat builders to get inspired, even created in such a place with God’s help.
Important and exciting detail:
The WIFI’s terrible and there’s barely a phone signal.
I don’t have the money to buy it outright, or I would. I’m looking for folks with deep pockets and resources to help. I don’t want to be fundraising for the next ten years or asking you to send me the family silver, please don’t, God bless you. But if you think you can substantially assist (or know an organisation that can) in this rare adventure, please write to me direct via:
tina@schoolofmyth.com
We would only have a few months to get this together, and there will be other bids I’m sure, but it’s my Christian duty to have a crack at it. It may be God has entirely different plans for it, in which case I will cheer them heartily on.
But I can’t keep talking about Camelot then ignore it when it actually turns up.
Please consider sharing.
A conversation with Aidan below – this is our man with a portrait of younger days.
Listen to Martin and Aidan’s conversation:
This place has your name on it!! Definitely crowd fund. If each of us who subscribe to your substack gave £30 (if 12k subscribers is an accurate number as it says) you'd be well on the way to raising what you need.
Oh, this makes me so incredibly happy. Our family had been looking at this need for few weeks, and the kids even unanimously voted on an international move to save the monestary. As that was unlikely to work, we are delighted it has found it's way to you. We would love to help however we are able. Hubby and I will be talking about what that might look like.