Brought Together by Benedict

It is an honour to be invited to contribute to the blog for this week celebrating the impact and legacy of St Benedict patron of Europe. I am an Anglican priest in Rochester Diocese and oblate of St Mary’s Abbey West Malling. I’ve sought to live a Benedictine spirituality for over 20 years ago and have found it to be a way of living a Christ-centred life. I am responsible for the lay formation in Rochester Diocese and have a passion for lay ministry, having been a lay minister my self for 20 years before being ordained. It is important that you know this, so you have the context from which I am writing.

Kent is a transient county. Historically people coming from mainland Europe landed in Kent and then journeyed on through England. Christian tradition influenced by Benedict arrived in England through this route. Gundulf, originally a monk at Bec migrated to become Bishop of Rochester and prior of the cathedral Benedictine community. He established the original Benedictine community of nuns at Malling Abbey, and ties between the two remain strong. Rochester Cathedral retains its Benedictine foundation, which is central to the way in which it seeks to witness and serve today. Malling Abbey remains a place of deep prayer and welcome. The St Benedict’s Centre in its grounds is a place where ordinands and lay ministers spend time in learning and formation - Benedict continues to shape the spirituality of our church leaders.

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Kent is a transient community. Today high numbers of migrants attempt to make the crossing to Dover despite all the preventions that are in place. Kent can feel very welcoming and also dream-dashingly hostile. Current political shifting leans toward the latter. What might Benedict’s message be for this out-post of Europe, a country conflicted within itself about its relationship with the mainland following Brexit, and in the light of constant transiency?

I am reminded that Benedict quietly set about recalibrating his life in accordance with Christ, and through his example drew others to do the same. The movement of monastic living grew and his influence spread, satisfying a deep societal desire for more than infighting, greed, economic success and culture wars between communities. Benedict offered a different lifestyle that was attractive because it reached where nothing temporal could reach. It touched the soul. ‘Listen my child to the voice of a master who loves you’ - hardly the propaganda slogan that would win election votes and convince vying communities to peaceful living, but it hit deep and continues to hit deep today.

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Our souls, individually and corporately are crying out to be heard and to hear. In all the factionalism we read about, see and perhaps are even part of, there is a deeper cry to belong well with one another. Benedict offers the Christ-way which meets that need. Benedict still invites us to listen, not to him but to Christ. Benedict offers a lifestyle response that recalibrates what it means to be human in relationship with God, one another and ourselves held in a balance of worship and work, interrelated - not compartmentalised. In a world where pendulums swing from one fad to the next, one plan to the next, one policy to the next, Benedict offers a still point where work, rest and leisure interrelate in compatible harmony around worship.

Perhaps the most significant offering Benedict might present to the Europe of today is the recognition that living with others who are different to ourselves is never easy, but is essential if we are truly to be the people we are created to be in relationship with one another. This is what makes us human, our diversity is what makes us united, not our similarities. Benedict’s monastic houses were not always places of calm, they were real homes where people kicked against the goad, ganged up against one another and battled with selfish desire against the common good. Stripping away individuality that judges the other in favour of the self is painful, but necessary if we are to bring our true selves into relationship with others.

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In the transiency of North Kent and two outer London boroughs, Rochester Diocese seeks to serve communities growing in diversity as people from across Europe and the world come to make this land home. We can choose to oppress and expel or we can choose the harder way of truly welcoming the giftedness of God found in the stranger. I suppose Kent will always be transient, the shape and infrastructure of the county is designed to make transiency easy. That is no excuse for not welcoming. Benedict stresses that each guest is to be welcomed as if welcoming Christ. In the Cathedral each day we pray that we may be true to our Benedictine tradition, that all will be welcomed and everyone valued.

In transient living, communally and individually, stability in Christ, hospitality and the discipline of deep listening are Benedict’s wisdom offered for our part of Europe in our time and season.

Reverend Canon Jane Winter

2025