A Brief History

Turvey Abbey belongs to the Vita et Pax Foundation, founded by Dom Constantine Bosschaerts. From the very beginning he wanted his monasteries to be places where people of all denominations and even all faiths would feel at home. In the early 1920s this applied mainly to East-West Christian relations, and to Christian-Jewish dialogue. The young Foundation was known for its work in these areas and especially in East-West dialogue.

Later years saw the dawning of Interreligious dialogue in a wider sense, with Buddhists, Hindus, and more recently Muslims. The Turvey Abbey communities are deeply concerned to work and pray for a growth of unity of understanding between Roman Catholic Christians and people of other Faiths, and an acknowledgement of the deep unity that already exists among all humankind, created in the image and likeness of the one God.

Christian-Jewish Dialogue

Christian-Jewish dialogue continues at Turvey Abbey. Each year a seder meal is prepared jointly by the Jewish community of Milton Keynes and a group of people centred on Turvey Abbey. We have also had Christian-Jewish weekends, and presently host the meetings of the Bedford Council of Christians & Jews three times a year in the Monastery of Christ our Saviour.

The Council of Christians and Jews : www.ccj.org.uk

Monastic Interreligious Dialogue  Commission

In Turvey Abbey we are members of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID) Commission of Britain & Ireland. This is part of the international DIM/MID Commission. Both communities have a contact member on the British/Irish Commission. Contact members attend meetings of the Commission twice yearly and contribute to the biennial newsletter of the Commission called Monastic Encounter Bulletin. One of the nuns edits this bulletin, which goes out all over the world as part of the International DIM/MID Bulletin.

Monastic Interreligious Dialogue Commission, Great Britain and Ireland:  www.mid-gbi.org

International Monastic Interreligious Dialogue Commission, Europe:  www.dimmid.org

Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, North America:  www.monasticdialog.com

Contacts with Buddhists and Muslims

Both communities are on friendly (visiting) terms with the Buddhist communities of Amaravati and Chithurst. Monks and nuns have attended each other’s monastic ceremonies of profession (Christian) and ordination (Buddhist). There have also been individual visits for periods of rest and retreat. In 2003 several members of Amaravati community (monks and nuns) attended the AGM of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue at Turvey Abbey, when a Muslim speaker gave two presentations on the affinities between Meister Eckhart’s teaching and Islam, under the general title of “Meister Eckhart and the One”.

Amaravati Buddhist Monastery: www.amaravati.org

The Eckhart Society: www.op.org/eckhart/default.htm

Interreligious Retreats and Courses at Turvey Abbey

The dimension of Interreligious Dialogue is reflected in the Weekend Events section of our yearly programme of Retreats & Courses. Each year we offer three Christian-Buddhist weekends, jointly led by a lay Buddhist or a Buddhist nun, and one of the Turvey nuns. We have a clear sense that Interreligious dialogue is not so much about discussion of the different teachings of our faiths, particularly where these separate us, as of growing to understand what we all believe, and how we live out the expression of our different faiths. It is not about proselytising or evangelising, but about each group witnessing to the way we live our faith. The Eckhart weekends have been extended by incorporating insights from a Muslim Interreligious scholar whose work on Meister Eckhart is becoming well known.
The weekends generally take the following pattern:

Inner Silence & Awakening 1: Meister Eckhart 

Using texts from Meister Eckhart we aim to enter more deeply into our inner silence, and to open ourselves to a greater awareness of Life and (as we Christians would say) to God’s work in our daily lives. It is a contemplative weekend. It takes the process of Interreligious dialogue deeper than words, into a living silence.

Inner Silence & Awakening 2: Spirituality

Similar to the above, this draws on a wider spectrum of spiritual teachers of different faiths, (including Eckhart) and some of the discoveries of quantum science we try to enter into our own inner depths. It follows the same pattern as Part 1 weekend and is contemplative in its approach

Meditation and Mindfulness 

This weekend is led jointly by a Theravada Buddhist nun and one of the Turvey nuns. It is an exploration of the teachings of Christianity and Buddhism on meditation and mindfulness (or as Christians would put it: contemplative prayer and the practice of the presence of God). It gives us an opportunity to learn from each other and practise together.

Weekend Events at Turvey Abbey

Interreligious Retreats Elsewhere

Apart from offering Interreligious weekends in our own monastery, one of the nuns has worked as co-leader in a Buddhist-Christian retreat at the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, a community of men and women Buddhists of the Theravada tradition.

Amaravati Buddhist Monastery: www.amaravati.org 

Interreligious Conferences

The contact members of our communities are usually invited to attend Interreligious conferences. For further details of conferences, please visit the MID website: www.mid-gbi.com