Sustainability at Mucknell Abbey

Clare Bryden, 4 January 2011

In November 2010, the Benedictine Community of monks and nuns from Burford moved into their new home at Mucknell Abbey. Here is a potted summary of the story of the move and the motivations behind it.There were two main reasons for leaving Burford: the effort and expense required in upkeep of the grounds and the centuries-old cluster of buildings; and the new Health & Safety legislation, which would have been extremely costly and disruptive to implement. But the possible move was also an opportunity to rethink the community’s vocation and the message we are sending by the way we live.The Benedictine way of life has a strong emphasis on the environment. The Community was originally founded with a charism for reconciliation between Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox. For some years now, the Community has interpreted ‘reconciliation’ more widely, and nowadays it could be understood to include reconciliation between humanity and the rest of creation. In addition, individual members of the Community have interests in various aspects of sustainability, including minimising resource use, climate change, biodiversity and forest gardening.Out of these motivations arose our new vision: to show in our lives some echo of God’s delight in creation; to affirm that we exist in relationship to God, to each other, and to the rest of creation; and to live in a way that gives justice to our neighbours in developing countries and for other species and ecosystems. So, in moving to Mucknell Abbey, we are seeking to live more simply, more sustainability, more lightly on the earth.  We want to become more aware of the web of relationships, and how our common life is lived as part of a wider ecology.  We want to live our lives in celebration of God’s creation, in deep gratitude and humility, with generosity and hospitality.Of course, this is a work in progress!  We sold Burford in 2008, and moved to Broad Marston Manor between Stratford-upon-Avon and Evesham while the designs were being developed, planning permission was sought and granted, contractors selected, earth moved, the old farmhouse demolished, the other farm buildings renovated, and the new community building, oratory and out buildings constructed. We have been on a long journey, and at the time of writing in January 2011, it feels that we have barely arrived. The image that was given to us at Broad Marston was of a chrysalis. The butterfly has emerged, but it cannot yet be seen what the butterfly will look like, and it needs to take time drying its wings before it can fly.What we can describe now are the sustainable aspects of the building.Where practicable, the existing buildings were retained for re-use.  Materials from demolished buildings were recycled and re-used in construction. Other recycled material used included power station fly ash, used to make breeze blocks; and crushed glass in paving slabs. Natural materials with low embodied energy were used in the Oratory, such as timber and lime render.Heat loss has been minimised through high standards of insulation – and the recent arctic conditions has provided substantial evidence that it works! Under-floor heating has been installed to deliver heat to where it is needed.  The lighting and appliances are low-energy models.We meet most of our energy demand through the use of renewable energy technologies and renewable fuel sources, including: solar water heating; solar electricity from photovoltaic panels; and a wood chip boiler, with the chip coming from local sources and eventually from our own woodland, hence minimising carbon emissions from transport.  We purchase the grid electricity we need from a green supplier.The building design incorporates a rainwater harvesting system, which feeds a 50,000 litre underground tank.  The water is used in toilets and outside taps, supplemented by water butts in the kitchen garden.  The taps, toilets and showers in the building are water-efficient. A sustainable urban drainage system handles the ground water.  Foul water is disposed of using an on-site biological treatment system and reed beds in swales. We minimise waste as much as possible through re-use or recycling, and we compost all organic waste.Our intention is to live as sustainably as we can, with our day-to-day needs provided on the site as much as possible.  We have created a large walled kitchen garden and will shortly be planting an orchard to provide food for the community and our guests.  The garden will be organic, but we suspect that the growth will be organic in many other ways.

For more on our vision, how we are trying to achieve it, and what this means in practice, please see the article on our website [link to http://www.mucknellabbey.org.uk/soul-food/articles/sustainability.html].

News Items for the site: The Kingdom is Yours                   July 2010

Wantage Sisters offer regular website retreats with individual guidance by a Sister.

The Community of St Mary the Virgin, the women’s community near Oxford stream their worship live on the internet, five times a day. This is clearly appreciated across the world as people join in the Community’s worship through their laptops.

A weekly video is produced offering meditations and also a series of retreat material available on video . Presently, at the planning stage, is a nature watch page, to share the beauty of the gardens and the animals who live alongside the Convent.  All contact details are available through their exciting and imaginative website:   www.csmvonline.org.uk

Burford becoming Mucknell
In 2008, after 60 years at Burford the Benedictine nuns and monks sold their expensive to maintain and run building and bought the derelict ‘Mucknell Farm’ in Worcestershire. Set in 40 acres of land, the farm is being transformed into a well insulated and ecologically ‘sustainable’ monastery. The building materials are largely locally sourced and/or made of ‘recycled’ components, photo-voltaic cells, solar panels and a biomass boiler will provide the energy, rain-water will be harvested and grey–water re-used, and the effluent be treated in a bio-digester and run off through reed-beds in a series of swales. A large organic kitchen garden and orchard should provide a substantial amount of food, while the rest of the land will be wooded or grazed and kept as wild flower meadows. The Community hopes to take possession of its new home in October and resume its ministry of hospitality in the Spring of 2011.
This Benedictine Community is the only one in Britain in which there are both women and men. Together they are currently a community of nine, During this interval they have a temporary home at Broad Marston Manor near Stratford on Avon. Look them up under www.mucknellabbey.org.uk

Novices train together
It is usually accepted that those testing their vocation in a Convent or Monastery will be considerably helped by there being others doing the same thing, and asking the same questions. Recognising that if a programme of training brought together new sisters and brothers there would be more scope for organising imaginative programmes and generally more buzz.
Sr Clare-Louise, SLG has responsibility for the current form of inter-novitiate study days. Eventually she is hoping for several of these courses each year with a ‘rolling syllabus so that Novices could join in at any point in their Novitiate. She said, ‘I hope that we might be able to have a trial run next January and see how we go’.
Meanwhile the Franciscans have been thinking ‘world-wide’ and Novice representatives from their five provinces met in New York with the Brother and Sister Ministers General to identify a basic curriculum. This is to serve new members in whichever country they join, though clearly the opportunities may be different in Papua New Guinea and Plaistow, East London. A second gathering in the Solomon Islands is taking place in July 2010. There are, encouragingly, groups of novices joining in each of the five provinces throughout the world.

Oratory News (OGS)
The Oratory of the Good Shepherd is a Society of priests and laymen in Europe, North America, Australia and Southern Africa, numbering over 50, who are bound together by a common rule and discipline and are celibate.
At the end of April, Fr Alex Bennett, OGS, returned safely from a tour of duty with the 3rd Rifles in Afghanistan.  Fr Peter Ford, OGS, is Chaplain to Las Palmas Gran Canaria and there is a regular Anglican Eucharist celebrated on Fridays at Noon during summer months in the small chapel of San Fernando in Puerto de Mogan.

Learn more about this Community on their website: www.ogs.net
 A new Anglican Community for women, called to live the religious life in a similar dispersed style began to come together in 2004 in St David’s, Wales. Check them out at www.sistersofthegoodshepherd.org

SOCIETY OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, BURNHAM ABBEY (SPB)
The eleven sisters of this Community, founded in 1905 at Taplow, near Maidenhead, are a contemplative Order living under the inspiration of St Augustine who wrote in the 5th Century “The reason you have come together is that you may have one heart and one mind entirely centred upon God” and in response many have felt called to open their hearts to the needs of the whole world in prayer.

Prayer is work to which the Sisters are especially called – essentially an inner journey with the Holy Spirit as guide. The whole of life should become prayer, including the times of work, but set times are needed to act as a focus. The Eucharist and the Divine Office are communal times of prayer and each Sister also takes her turn at the Watch of Intercession before the altar each day to intercede for the whole world and for those for whom our prayers have been asked, remembering the life-giving blood of Jesus poured out for all.  You will find further information under www.burnhamabbey.org

Anglican Single Consecrated Life (SCL)
Sr Judith Smith has recently constructed a website to offer a connecting and encouragement link for those who have made an act of consecration as a single person making private vows. There is also a regular magazine “Grapevine” which offers news of those living under this personal disciple which  can be obtained from Secretary, Revd Susan Hartley – suemhartley@btinternet.co, or through this new website www.singleconsecratedlife-cofe.org.uk 
About a dozen of those expressing this vocation have met annually at Alum Rock, Birmingham; the next meeting is scheduled for 14th May, 2011.  A weekend has been set aside in September 2011 at Offa Retreat House, 3 miles outside Leamington Spa. Further information about these events may be obtained from the addresses above. General information about the vocation is set out in the Advisory Council on the Relations of Bishops and Religious Communities A Handbook of the Religious Life ISBN 1-85311-618-1, or please write to Sue.

Community of St Francis (CSF)
Following the sad closure of the Franciscan house at Compton Durville, Somerset earlier this summer, the Sisters have just acquired a new home in the Lincoln Diocese at Metheringham which they hope will be functioning by the Autumn 2010. This Community are First Order Sisters with other active ministries in Birmingham, Leicester and London (Southwark and Plaistow) with an American Province centred in San Francisco. See the website for the Sisters and the Brothers at http://www.franciscans.org.uk/Page38.htm.

Hilfield Friary (SSF)
The men’s branch of the Franciscan Order also offer a specific  website for its House in Dorset known as Hilfield Friary; www.hilfieldfriary.org.uk  The brothers here, together with currently 16 volunteers, are well into establishing a community combining prayer, hospitality and a serious attempt to create an Godward atmosphere which promotes the Franciscan values of care for creation, working for peace and justice, and seeking respectful dialogue with peoples of other faiths.

Benedictine Sisters at Edgware
The Anglican Benedictine Sisters of St Mary at the Cross announced in early 2010 a two year plan to modify their community life.  Since then, the sisters’ plan has evolved into the following: The sisters will be retaining a portion of the abbey including the chapel and are converting part of the building to live in. The main Abbey building is now on the market and the sisters would very appreciate everyone’s prayers that this process will proceed smoothly. Different management options for Henry Nihill House Care Home are being explored by the Community and they hope to be able to announce plans for this by September 2010.  Their annual Foundation Day will now be held on Saturday 23rd July 2011 (a new date to the one originally given) which will be for a celebration of thanksgiving for 145 years of their Community at Edgware.
The three Sisters remaining are much in the prayers of other Anglican Religious.

New Communities Explore Monasticism
A second meeting in May 2010, representing new Communities that have found inspiration from the traditional Monastic Orders, came together at CMS House in Cowley, Oxford on 27th May. They met with Bishop David Walker, Chair of the Advisory Council and Bishop John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford, Abbot Stuart OSB (Broad Marston, formerly Burford), Fr Colin CSWG (Crawley Down), Sr Rosemary CHN (Derby) and Brs Samuel and Damian of SSF (Dorset).                                                                                                           
The meeting was informally structured to give maximum opportunity to network and explore what we share in common and how the best of the insights of the traditional communities might be shared with those developing under this wide umbrella described as New Monasticism. This may be best reported here in two extracts from the Day in May, a write-up of the homily given by Sr Rosemary.

Church Mission Society:
‘Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Community aims to be an inspirational model of mission service’. Their five foundational policies, shaping its mission strategy in practice, are

• Follow God’s lead  
• Put prayer first and money second
• Success depends on the quality of those appointed
• Begin small
• Rely on the Spirit of God

Several hundred members of CMS have made a new commitment with its seven newly stated membership promises. Connect with the CMS community online www.cms-uk.org  for details of how all this is developing. 

Church Army:
In their booklet Encounters on the Edge seven sacred spaces are identified – all taken from the setting of a traditional convent or monastery. These, together, express a community life in Christ which can be translated into so many alternative secular settings: Cell, Chapel, Chapter-room, Cloister, Garden, Refectory, Scriptorium.  Members of this Community try to see and live out these places which together make a Christian community. It is also a reminder that behind these imaginative responses by Christian societies that have been long established, is the dawning of the need to live and express community as a way of deepening a commitment to Christ and belonging to the Body of Christ.
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Sunday 25th July, 2 - 6pm - Mirfield
The Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield have given so much to the
Church at large in its one hundred or so years. Today it is best known for
its Theological College which runs alongside the fraternity. At the heart of
it all, our church is our place of worship and home for many other events. 
It is now in need of major refurbishment: structural repairs, a new heating
system, rewiring, new lighting and sound systems, a new floor, redecoration
and much-needed disabled access. 

If all our activities here are to flourish, we need a church able to meet the needs of today. We need your help to safeguard what makes this place special and to create a church that can serve and sustain its many users for another century.
This is just one element of the wider development of the site at Mirfield. Plans are afoot for the building a new monastery to be situated next to the church, and this will be separately funded.