Benedictines Of The Immaculate Conception

[Gemma]

[url="http://cloisters.tripod.com/uk_osb_oulton/"]http://cloisters.tripod.com/uk_osb_oulton/[/url]

"Unofficial" in that a discerner and I put the site together as a gift to the nuns.

Blessings,
Gemma

[Laudem Gloriae]

That was very kind of you to make a website for these Benedictines nuns! It's a very good site and I hope it helps them with vocations. Their church and abbey are gorgeous! So beautiful! Do you know if the discerner you know mentioned how many hours a day the nuns spend in the Playgroup or nursing home? Probably a few hours? With them praying the 7 times of the Divine Office, I can't see them being there for long stretches at a time!

[Gemma]

[quote name='Laudem Gloriae' post='1680676' date='Oct 18 2008, 02:59 PM']That was very kind of you to make a website for these Benedictines nuns! It's a very good site and I hope it helps them with vocations. Their church and abbey are gorgeous! So beautiful! Do you know if the discerner you know mentioned how many hours a day the nuns spend in the Playgroup or nursing home? Probably a few hours? With them praying the 7 times of the Divine Office, I can't see them being there for long stretches at a time![/quote]

Thanks.

I have emailed the discerner with your question.

I think they have a few hours in the morning, and a few hours in the pm, just as most monasteries do with their work. What did the horarium/timetable say about that? Mayhaps an edit is on the way to make that clearer.

Blessings,
Gemma

[Laudem Gloriae]

Thanks. I believe the horarium said "Work" several times but I wasn't sure how many of them were with the Playgroup or nursing home opposed to monastery work. And if ALL the sisters went to the playgroup/nursing home or did they take turns like some go for a few weeks then others go or what.

[puellapaschalis]

According to the 2008 Benedictine Yearbook there are four nuns resident at Oulton, two of which are actually professed members of that community. The other two are members of the old Fernham community which was "closed" a couple of years ago. A third Oulton nun is resident elsewhere.

How much work is able to be done by a community of four I'm not sure - but I think that there are some lay workers at Oulton too. That would help with the timetabling.

[Laudem Gloriae]

Somone asked about the Oulton Abbey Benedictines on the Colwich Novitiate blog (http://colwichnov.wordpress.com/ which is a great blog!) and the answer that was given is:

Hello Marcy and welcome, I’ve asked about Oulton and was told that they can’t keep enclosure in the same way as we do because there is a care home and a kindergarten or nursery in the grounds and very near the convent. Apparently the sisters are responsible for both but we don’t know if they ever work in them as well.
At the moment there are two solemn professed and a new postulant.
The address is St Mary’s Abbey, Oulton, Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 8UP and the phone number is 01785 812049, the superior is Dame M Benedicta Scott. There is no email address listed yet but they do have individual emails and have recently got a computer so are in the process of doing a new web site, if you write with your email address they may be willing to then email you.
They also have two elderly sisters from elsewhere living with them and their own chaplain - Fr Cuthbert who is from the Solesmes congregation of Benedictines.
They are very near to us and Sr Peter comes here for retreats so it would probaby be easy to visit both of us if you did come over and were interested."

Does anyone know if they are in mixed habits if 2 other sisters came from another community (as sometimes happens)?

[puellapaschalis]

The two are from Farnham which was also a Benedictine monastery, so I imagine that those two nuns have simply kept their habit (the differences I think are quite small, but I could be wrong). They are not part of Oulton, strictly speaking: the monastery "at" Farnham still exists in its professed members and will continue to do so until they have all gone to be with God.

But this is all speculation on my part, so please don't go quoting me or anything.

[Laudem Gloriae]

I asked about the different habits because I saw the Farnham site and they wear a modified Benedictine habit and I had thought that this community merged with Oulton and then it would be one of those mixed habit orders but it's different if they are there due to old age and not a pat of the Oulton community.

I, personally, don't like the mixed habit communities - it doesn't show unity or togetherness and such - but my opinion only!

[Gemma]

[quote name='Laudem Gloriae' post='1680676' date='Oct 18 2008, 02:59 PM']That was very kind of you to make a website for these Benedictines nuns! It's a very good site and I hope it helps them with vocations. Their church and abbey are gorgeous! So beautiful! Do you know if the discerner you know mentioned how many hours a day the nuns spend in the Playgroup or nursing home? Probably a few hours? With them praying the 7 times of the Divine Office, I can't see them being there for long stretches at a time![/quote]

Here's the reply:

"The timetable on the web-site should provide her with what she needs to know. The little hours (Terce, Sext and None) are only about 10 minutes each. The playgroup and the nursing home are fully staffed by qualified laity. So the sisters may leave their work for a short time to sing the offices when they are called. If a sister is truly unable to leave her work, then the remaining sisters will still sing the office. Our primary work is the Divine Office and prayer."

HTH.

Blessings,
Gemma

[Gemma]

[quote name='Laudem Gloriae' post='1680743' date='Oct 18 2008, 07:20 PM']I asked about the different habits because I saw the Farnham site and they wear a modified Benedictine habit and I had thought that this community merged with Oulton and then it would be one of those mixed habit orders but it's different if they are there due to old age and not a pat of the Oulton community.

I, personally, don't like the mixed habit communities - it doesn't show unity or togetherness and such - but my opinion only![/quote]

The discerner and I have discussed the mixed habit situation. I told her that, here in the States, whenever one community is suppressed, and the nuns disperse to other monasteries, they take the habit of the host community.

Since Oulton wears the full habit, the full habit will be given to those who enter the novitiate.

HTH.

Blessings,
Gemma

[praxedes]

Best part of this website are the links. Thank you.

Pax

[Gemma]

Sorry to say that I received what was essentially a "cease and desist" email from Oulton today. Consequently, the website has had to be unpublished.

They say that one is in production.

Blessings,
Gemma

[EWIE]

[quote name='Gemma' date='Oct 18 2008, 10:15 AM' post='1680605']
I put the site together as a gift to the nuns.

At their request, I hope.

[Sister_Laurel]

Hi, while I can appreciate your desire to give the nuns a gift, the website does not sound like it is "their own" if you know what I mean. It speaks of "them" and "their life" rather than "we" or "us" or "our", and for that reason also does not reflect the spirit of charism of the community. Were the nuns able to give you any real assistance or have any input in this? I would think they would like to do that before anything was published, even if the site IS a gift.

best,
Sister Laurel M O'Neal, erem dio
Stillsong Hermitage
Diocese of Oakland

[Sister_Laurel]

[quote name='Gemma' post='1683363' date='Oct 22 2008, 04:49 AM']Sorry to say that I received what was essentially a "cease and desist" email from Oulton today. Consequently, the website has had to be unpublished.

They say that one is in production.

Blessings,
Gemma[/quote]


Oops, I posted my comment on the website before seeing this post. Gemma, I hope you are aware that the link above STILL pulls up the "unpublished" website. Websites are generally very personal matters and not something one can easily do for someone else without their input and permission. They are meant to reflect ourselves, our congregations and the life and love which inspire these and it would be very difficult to compose one FOR someone without assistance from the person/congregation. Publishing it without permission is, at the very least, unlikely to be appreciated despite the generosity of the intention. Perhaps you can offer to assist in the construction of the official site if they need it, or to be available for consultation at no charge in the future. In any case, the website link you first provided still works so that needs to be changed.

Sister Laurel M O'Neal. erem dio
Stillsong Hermitage
Diocese of Oakland

[Gemma]

We were given permission to write about the nuns' life at Oulton Abbey. We were asked to stop the site because the nuns decided they were going to build their own official website. So our website on Oulton Abbey was changed into the "Unofficial" website and will remain so.

There were other factors involved, but Prudence forbids that we discuss it on a public forum.

The Franciscan Sisters Minor--or something to that effect--in MA do not have an official website due to their vow of poverty, but their friends built them a website without the sisters' permission or knowledge for the sake of vocations.

The Marbury Dominican nuns also had an "unofficial" website built for them.

The discerner with whom I worked on the website has this to say to those who have questions about Oulton's enclosure:

"Oulton Abbey does keep enclosure. It just doesn't keep enclosure in the playgroup or nursing homes obviously, but the residents and staff within those places do not have access to the actual convent which is off limits as the official enclosure and home of the nuns."

The way Phatmass has treated me personally in the last several months has scared a number of potential posters away--including those with good vocational discernment information. Vocational discernment always accentuates the positive in discerners. I hope there are eyes to see and ears to hear what I'm saying.

Blessings,
Gemma

[Carmeliteheart726]

[quote name='Gemma' post='1704098' date='Nov 18 2008, 01:48 PM']The way Phatmass has treated me personally in the last several months has scared a number of potential posters away--including those with good vocational discernment information. Vocational discernment always accentuates the positive in discerners. I hope there are eyes to see and ears to hear what I'm saying.

Blessings,
Gemma[/quote]

I personally agree with this statement.

[TotusTuusMaria]

[quote name='Carmeliteheart726' post='1704106' date='Nov 18 2008, 03:21 PM']I personally agree with this statement.[/quote]

Yes, I do too. If I were you Gemma I don't know if I just would have left altogether. I am glad you didn't, however.

[Laudem Gloriae]

An unofficial website doesn't do any harm I believe if the order doesn't have one and especially when it is prepared by someone who has spent a lot of time with the sisters discerning, living-in and going to enter. Also, I know taht the Motehr Abbess asked for the website down at first because she is totally clueless about the internet and websites - thank God SOME abbess is! She was so unaware of the internet that she thought it would hurt the order! But she is aware now and that's maybe why the test is make up. They had to use archive photos I was told.

How many times have any one of us been told about an order and it was THEIR experience and not "ours, etc. - meaning as coming from the sisters and it got many people interested in this order where they contacted the order too. An unofficial website is just a clearer and different way of telling someone of a great place tha you visited and that needs vocations. As long as the unofficial website doesn't give false, misleading or wrong info it is helpful. I personally know a few women who never heard of Oulton Abbey but know have because of this unofficial site and they are planning to write to the Mother Abbess.

For some to dictate and TELL Gemma to take down the website is wrong and non of their business - it is between Gemma, the woman who is entering with the order who did the site with Gemma and the Mother Abbess.

[Carmeliteheart726]

[quote name='Laudem Gloriae' post='1704357' date='Nov 18 2008, 08:49 PM']An unofficial website doesn't do any harm I believe if the order doesn't have one and especially when it is prepared by someone who has spent a lot of time with the sisters discerning, living-in and going to enter. Also, I know taht the Motehr Abbess asked for the website down at first because she is totally clueless about the internet and websites - thank God SOME abbess is! She was so unaware of the internet that she thought it would hurt the order! But she is aware now and that's maybe why the test is make up. They had to use archive photos I was told.

How many times have any one of us been told about an order and it was THEIR experience and not "ours, etc. - meaning as coming from the sisters and it got many people interested in this order where they contacted the order too. An unofficial website is just a clearer and different way of telling someone of a great place tha you visited and that needs vocations. As long as the unofficial website doesn't give false, misleading or wrong info it is helpful. I personally know a few women who never heard of Oulton Abbey but know have because of this unofficial site and they are planning to write to the Mother Abbess.

For some to dictate and TELL Gemma to take down the website is wrong and non of their business - it is between Gemma, the woman who is entering with the order who did the site with Gemma and the Mother Abbess.[/quote]

I couldn't agree more. I think it's wonderful that Gemma wanted to provide the nuns with a website so they would attain more vocations. I have never heard of this abbey until now, and I think that many more women will be able to find out about it because of the unofficial site. If the Abbess agreed in the first place, then it should be ok, and Gemma shouldn't be chastised for trying to help out. God bless you, Gemma!