Ecumenism & Synodality
Associates of Kopua Monastery, Aotearoa New Zealand
Avila 2025 – Bosco Peters
Adapted for the website liturgy.co.nz from an address at an international conference in Avila of people associated formally with Cistercian monasteries
In this talk, I want to reflect on my journey with Kopua monastery, the Associates, the shared life of ecumenism that Kopua fosters, and reflect on the relationship with synodality.
My Journey with Kopua Monastery
I live in Christchurch – in the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. It isn’t easy to get to Kopua Cistercian monastery which is in a remote area in the middle of the North Island. I have been going on retreat to Kopua for fifty years. In those early days, it was slightly easier to get there – the train stopped nearby. It no longer does.
The poetic language of New Zealand’s indigenous people, the Maori, has a word, Tūrangawaewae. This literally means “a place for our feet to stand”. It can describe the place from where you draw your (spiritual) strength. Kopua monastery is my Tūrangawaewae.
I have been an Anglican priest for about 35 years. I have been part of the Associates of Kopua since the foundation of this group on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on 14 September, 2002.
I was looking for a way to be more formally, more deeply, more committedly connected to Kopua monastery and to its Benedictine spirituality. Initially, the monastery did not think it had the resources to support such a group.
I did explore some other options. The Order of the Holy Cross (an Anglican/Episcopal monastic order) in USA had, in 1977, agreed to work together with Roman Catholic Camaldolese monks. From 1979, these two orders lived in a shared monastery, Incarnation Priory. The Order of the Holy Cross had a strong community of what they called “Associates”, and the Camaldolese were strongly following the Rule of St Benedict.
Because of this shared life in a monastery, the Order of the Holy Cross more clearly made the Rule of St Benedict foundational, and the Camaldolese revived their tradition of having oblates. There are Associates of the Order of the Holy Cross and Oblates of Camaldolese in New Zealand, and I considered joining one of these groups.
But in 2002, Kopua decided on a sustainable way of having Associates: there would be a National Coordinator, not one of the monks, in the group of Associates. Since that foundation, there have been four Coordinators. The first three were all Anglican priests; currently, Mike – here at the Conference – is a Roman Catholic layperson.
Having a significant number of this group being ordained, was one of the reasons for choosing the term “Associates” (rather than something like “Lay Cistercians”).
As well as Associates, who live away from the monastery, Kopua Monastery also has “Companions”. These individuals commit to living for a period, on the monastery land, participating in the worship life of the monastery and sharing in some of the monastery’s ministry (especially with providing hospitality for guests).
A historical framework
Anglicanism fits admirably with the Cistercian/Benedictine charism.
It is worth remembering is that St Benedict and his Rule predate not only the divisions of the 16th Century Reformation but even the split between the Eastern and Western lungs of the Church in 1054. The Cistercians were founded just after that schism, but, again, well before the Reformation.
Anglicanism traces its roots, in large part, back to St. Augustine of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk who was sent to England in 595 by Pope Gregory the Great. Augustine, who had been the prior of a monastery founded by Gregory, travelled with a group of fellow monks to establish Christianity in England.
The vast majority of monasteries in England were Benedictine. Half a century after the foundation of the Cistercians, there were already over 50 Cistercian monasteries in England. The pre-Reformation English Church (including Wales) had a number of significant Cistercian abbeys: Waverley, Rievaulx, Fountains, Tintern,…
Monasticism had a tumultuous history in Britain. It had nearly died out by 900AD, being revived by Archbishop of Canterbury Dunstan (909 – 988 AD), with King Edgar, essentially restoring monasticism.
Then, by 1300, the standard of living in most Cistercian monasteries abbeys was the same or better than the standards of nobles.
After that, it is important to acknowledge the heinous tragedy of the dissolution of the English monasteries and the martyrdom of so many monastics. On the other hand, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, himself also a martyr but on the other side of this polarising division, in his Book of Common Prayer provided a vernacular prayer book with a simplified Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer and a Eucharist for every Sunday and significant festival.
In some way this Book of Common Prayer approach could be seen as seeking the whole church (the whole nation) to share in the monastic charism. Cranmer also hoped for wide uptake in lectio divina. His collect (opening prayer at Mass) is a prayer we can well use at the start of in lectio divina:
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
And Archbishop Cranmer, in his “Homily on the Reading of Scripture,” (in his First Book of Homilies) concludes:
Let us night and day muse and have meditation and contemplation in [the scriptures]. Let us ruminate and as it were chew the cud, that we may have the sweet juice, spiritual effect, marrow, honey, kernel, taste, comfort, and consolation of them. Let us stay, quiet… Let us pray to God, the only Author of these heavenly studies, that we may speak, think, believe, live, and depart hence according to the wholesome doctrine and verities of them.
Vatican II made many changes similar to the English Reformation: liturgy in the vernacular, reading a larger fare of the scriptures and more systematically, encouraging the Daily Office for all the faithful – not merely clergy and religious.
In England, some 17th Century forms of religious communities, akin to the monastic tradition, did spring up after the 16thCentury English Reformation. Most well-known, in the 17th Century, is Little Gidding, a religious community famous for praying the whole psalter daily in their daily offices. In the 18th Century (through into the 1840s), members of the “Clapham Sect” lived communally, gathering for worship, prayer, and mutual support, much like a monastery.
Anglicanism, world-wide, has continued some of the Benedictine traits that I highlighted came with St Augustine of Canterbury: Anglican cathedrals have a “Chapter” to govern their life (drawn from monastic “Chapter Houses”, themselves originating from monks gathering to hear a chapter of St Benedict’s Rule). Choral Evensong is a strong Anglican tradition: Cranmer’s combination of Vespers and Compline ,with chanted psalms, commonly led by a robed choir facing each other as we are used to in Cistercian monasteries.
This monastic architecture, of a choir facing each other and a nave with pews facing East towards this choir area, is quintessentially Anglican. This layout is also characteristic of most Cistercian monasteries, including Kopua.
In the 19th Century, several forms of monasticism and religious life sprang up within Anglicanism all over the world. Many of these revived pre-Reformation charisms. There are a good number of Anglican Benedictine monasteries, Anglican Franciscans are thriving, and there was even an Anglican Cistercian monastery from 1966 to 2022. These Anglican orders and monasteries usually have some form of Third Order, oblates, associates, companions, and/or “friends”.
The Anglican Cistercian community I mentioned (Ewell Monastery) was founded by Fr. Aelred Arnesen in West Malling, Kent (England). The community was officially recognized not only by the Church of England but also by the Roman Catholic Cistercian Order. However, like many Cistercian monasteries, Ewell Monastery struggled for vocations. The community never grew beyond about five vowed brothers. Associates of the Order, staying as temporary residents at the monastery, helped to enlarge that community. By 2004, numbers for a monastery had become unsustainable, and Fr Aelred finally lived as a solitary Cistercian until his death in 2022.
In 2006, an Anglican Cistercian Association was founded to encourage the Cistercian charism within Anglicanism. Drawing on the Cistercian heritage and the experience of Ewell Monastery, members, in 2010, founded the Order of Anglican Cistercians (OCist), later renamed the Order of Cistercians (OC).
They describe themselves as: “We are an uncloistered and dispersed Anglican religious Order of ordained and lay men; single, celibate and married, and we have been formally acknowledged by the Church of England under the patronage of Mary, Our Lady of Hailes.”
I have highlighted that monastic life is found in Anglicanism alongside Roman Catholicism. It is also found in Eastern Orthodoxy; it is found in ecumenical expressions such as Taizė. I have been blessed to have been enriched by each of these.
Being an Anglican Associate
For most of my ordained life, I was chaplain at Christ’s College – an Anglican secondary school for boys. Incidentally, this is the school where the father of Thomas Merton, Owen Merton, received his education, growing in his love of and skill in art.
The school, like so much Anglican architecture and structure looks like a medieval (Gothic) monastery. Around the main quadrangle there is the administration building (Abbot’s quarters), dining hall (refectory), chapel, hospital, library (scriptorium), dormitories, and hall (Chapter Room). Out the back is a large field which in a monastic setting would have been cultivated for food.
I was chaplain there for quarter of a century. Such a long-term ministry in a single context is relatively unusual. The Cistercian/Benedictine vow of Stability played a part in my continuing – through the good times and difficult moments – and learning and growing to be a lover of this place and of this community.
The Eucharist (the Mass) is central to my Christian life and my priesthood. The Eucharist is the jewel in the crown, but I am also very conscious of the Daily Office as being the crown in which this jewel is set. I have been praying some form of the Office since teenage years – perhaps for half a decade before I first went to Kopua.
It is important, in my life as an Associate, and for feeling at home at Kopua, and the monastery with us, that our beliefs about the Eucharist are akin. Our New Zealand Anglican Prayer Book expresses this shared belief well in a prayer:
…you make our bread Christ’s body
to heal and reconcile
and to make us the body of Christ.
You make our wine Christ’s living sacrificial blood
to redeem the world. [page 541]
Many people may not realise, Anglicans and Roman Catholics essentially read the same readings at the Eucharist (weekdays and Sundays) on the same day. We regularly commemorate the same saints (Anglicans have no issue about commemorating holy people beyond Anglicanism – St John Bosco, for example, is on the official Church of England calendar. New Zealand Anglicanism commemorates famous people associated with the Cistercians, Thomas Merton, whom I’ve already mentioned, Bernard of Clairvaux, Mechtild of Magdeburg; not to mention St Benedict himself and a plethora of Benedictines). Anglicans and Roman Catholics regularly pray the same collects (opening prayers at Mass), drawing on shared Western traditions. We have similar, sometimes identical, Eucharistic Prayers. In many ways Anglicans and Roman Catholics worship in tandem.
Receptive Ecumenism and Synodality
Internationally, there has been a strong move towards receptive ecumenism, where each tradition receives what is best from others and shares the riches of their own – an exchange of gifts. The present movement within Roman Catholicism to a more synodal church is a good example.
Anglicanism has synodality as part of its DNA. At the most local level (parish, cathedral, school, etc) there is always a consulting bodies for dialogue and sharing of power (vestry, parish council, chapter, board,…). At the diocesan level, synod makes governing decisions, usually having two or three houses (bishops; clergy; laity), but regularly making decisions by consensus rather than dividing into houses.
Provinces have a General Synod. In the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, our General Synod Te Hinota Whanui not only needs agreement of the three houses (lay, clergy, bishops); there also needs to be agreement of the three cultural streams (Pakeha, Maori, Polynesia). Again, generally conversations and decisions are made with all together – but caucusing can be part of the process.
For something to become an agreed teaching or practice, there is a process that involves General Synod, all diocesan synods, and back to General Synod.
Electing a bishop involves the diocesan synod – meeting as an “electoral college”. And that nomination from the diocese is then ratified by the wider province through General Synod.
Internationally, Anglicanism has consulting meetings that are (generally) respected but have no binding force.
I have appreciated following the methodology that Roman Catholicism is using for synodal conversations and decisions: referred to as “Conversations in the Spirit” (or also the “Canadian Method”) three rounds of listening respectfully to people in a group on a certain topic, concluding in clarifying “convergences” and “divergences” of opinions from their conversations, along with any proposals or open questions they wanted to raise. This approach, for me, echoes that of Lectio Divina when done in a group (and our way of practicing Lectio as a family).
Anglicans can also learn from this inclusive, listening approach to synodality.
Synodality is based on the equality of all the baptised, an insight and a way of living that we, as Cistercian Associates, can offer to each other and to the wider church. St Benedict was not a priest. In his Rule (Chapter 60), a priest can serve within the community in sacramental ministry, but there is an eschewing of a pyramidal structuring based on ordination. Instead, the views of all of the community are sought – God may often speak through the youngest (Chapter 3). This highlights communion of all, and the mission and ministry of all, a precious reality and a true living-out of Vatican II.
Conclusion
The authentic and open hospitality of Kopua’s monastic community has enabled the natural flourishing of ecumenical relationships, sidestepping clericalism (in accordance with the stress in the Rule of Benedict) and making room – in a synodal manner – for shared leadership across traditions.
Finally, my own life is not a tension of patching together Cistercian insights and disciplines onto priesthood served within Anglicanism. Rather, my life is a tapestry with the weft of priesthood within Anglicanism woven onto the warp of Cistercian living with its deep praying of the psalms and obediently listening to the Word in the scriptures, a life of stability, and of ongoing conversion.
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