An abbatial cross

The Portsmouth Abbey monastic community asks the prayers of all as it moves soon into an abbatial election, scheduled for this Monday, January 17. Our next issue of The Current may well be reporting on the outcome of that electoral process. As Prior Administrator, Father Michael, appointed by the Abbot President, has been guiding the community through a transitional period that has seen the addition of several monks of Saint Louis. Joined by Father Edward Mazuski and Brother Sixtus Roslevich, Fr. Michael and his confreres transferred their stability this past spring to Portsmouth, becoming fully monks of Portsmouth. The election of an abbot is an important next step in the movement forward for this monastic community. The community has since welcomed several novices and has had one monk, Br. Benedict Maria, make his Solemn Profession, allowing him to participate in the abbatial election.

The visit from Abbot President Christopher Jamison entails the current superior of a community actually stepping down provisionally, fostering an election process that is impartial. While each monastery in the English Benedictine Congregation retains a good deal of autonomy, the Abbot President oversees and advises monastic communities on a variety of matters, and he has visited Portsmouth on numerous occasions. Abbot Christopher was, in fact, born in Australia, though his family soon returned to England. He attended Downside School and Oxford University, focusing his studies on Modern Language. He entered Worth Abbey in 1973, later working in its school and serving as Headmaster from 1994 to 2002, and later was elected its abbot. More recently, he became a well-known personage in British media as part of a BBC TV series called “The Monastery,” and has frequently commented on BBC Radio. He is also a published author, whose titles include “Finding Sanctuary: Monastic steps for Everyday Life” and “Finding Happiness: Monastic Steps for a Fulfilling Life.”

Christopher Jamison, Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation

The election of the abbot is crucial to an abbey. Saint Benedict turns quite early in the Rule to discussion of the abbot: “To be worthy of the task of governing a monastery, the abbot must always remember what his title signifies and act as a superior should. He is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery, since he is addressed by a title of Christ, as the Apostle indicates: ‘You have received the spirit of adoption of sons by which we exclaim, abba, father.’ Therefore, the abbot must never teach or decree or command anything that would deviate from the Lord’s instructions” (Ch. 2). The role includes significant authority within a community vowed to obedience. “…anyone who receives the name of abbot is to lead his disciples by a twofold teaching: he must point out to them all that is good and holy more by example than by words, proposing the commandments of the Lord to receptive disciples with words, but demonstrating God’s instructions to the stubborn and the dull by a living example” (Ch. 2). With such admonitions and exhortations, Benedict illuminates the great significance of the abbatial role, and indicates what is at stake for a community in the selection of its leader.