Interreligious Dialogue

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 all faiths would feel at home. In the early 1920s this applied mainly to East-West Christian relations. The young Foundation was known for its work in these areas and especially in East-West Christian 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

For details, please contact the Monastery of Christ our Saviour: www.turveymonks.org.uk

Monastic Interreligious Dialogue

Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique / Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIMMID) is an international monastic organisation that promotes and supports dialogue, especially dialogue at the level of religious experience and practice, between Christian monastic men and women and followers of other religions.

An international website is maintained by Fr William Skudlarek OSB,
Secretary General of DIMMID:
www.dimmid.org

The European branch has a website (in French):
https://www.dimmid.eu/

Contacts with Buddhists

Both communities are on friendly terms with sevearal Buddhist communities. 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.

The nearest Buddhist monastery to Turvey is Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, located near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire:
www.amaravati.org

In 2009 a group of nuns from Amaravati made a foundation the Sierra Foothills of California, Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery:
Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery

In the same year another nun from Amaravati made a foundation, Milntuim Hermitage, near Perth in Scotland:
Milntuim Hermitage