Monasticism

A friend told me the other day that he was so isolated, he might as well join the monastery. So, perhaps we should take a moment to reflect on what is often called the “religious movement” or monasticism.

From Britannica.com, “Monasticism, an institutionalized religious practice or movement whose members attempt to live by a rule that requires works that go beyond those of either the laity or the ordinary spiritual leaders of their religions.” Many world religions have monks although Islam rejects monasticism and criticizes it. Wikipedia defines it as “a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work.” The monastic movement is strongest in Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions. It has been “recovered” in the Episcopal church.

In the late third century, individuals fled to the desert to be away from the sinfulness of humanity in the cities. They lived by themselves in very harsh conditions. Some of these “desert saints” were considered to be wise counsel like the much earlier Greek oracles. They were consulted by kings and nobility. Eventually these practices of living alone coalesced into entire communities whose chief objective was to draw closer to God in prayer and works of mercy.

The founders of these communities developed written rules for living together. The rule of St. Basil is possibly the oldest while the Rule of St. Benedict is the most widely used. Some people are surprised to learn that the Episcopal Church has monastic orders.

The English crown under Henry VIII needed additional funds. When Henry separated the Church of England from Rome and declared himself the “sovereign head of the church in England,” he was faced with the problem of what to do with all the monasteries in England. The monasteries were much better organized than the rest of England, so their farms and manufacturing were the best in the land. Henry solved his solvency problem by selling the monastic lands which in turn put tens of thousands of monks and nuns on the street. Little is written about their plight, but I suspect it was not a happy circumstance.

Three centuries later, in England and the United States, monastic communities began to form in the Church of England and the United States. While in seminary, I often walked a few blocks to 6:30 am Morning Prayer at the Episcopal monastery of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. Today we have a variety of different monastic orders and styles of communities in the Episcopal Church. Our canons state “a religious order is a society of Christians in communion with the See of Canterbury who voluntarily commit themselves for life or a term of years to holding their possessions in common or in trust, to celibate life in community, and to obedience to their rule and constitution.”


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