Abbot Michael Brunner and Bishop James Conley with St. Paul’s Boys Choir (Humanitas 2022)
The Portsmouth Institute, under the leadership of new executive director Darryl De Marzio, continues to develop its array of programs to foster “faith and culture.” As an apostolate of Portsmouth Abbey, the Institute’s outreach includes not only friends and oblates of the monastery, and not only the School with its faculty, students, parents, and alumni. While originating within this broad circle often named “the extended monastic community,” the Institute has gained a voice in the wider church community and in the contemporary world. Exploring some of the programs it has offered, one discovers several tailored primarily to students, some that are more regional in their appeal, and some for faculty and those in secondary or higher education. While many of these programs draw people here to our monastery, others engage us beyond our own grounds, and even send students, faculty, and monks abroad to engage internationally in the “study and prayer” that define monastic life.