History

The testimony of Brother Nicolas Stebbing, CR, former president of CIIR

It sounds much better in French or Spanish! What follows is my personal story of involvement in the CIR but a brief historical introduction would be a help.

The CIR began in 1976 in Spain. A remarkable Spanish (well, Basque) priest, Fr Martin da Zabala, fired up with the ecumenical spirit of Vatican 2, decided one way forward with ecumenism was to invite religious to come together to seek unity on the basis of their common vocation. From the start the Congresses flourished. The first two were held in Spain, at Loyola; then they began to move around Europe, meeting every two years in a different country. Unfortunately, Fr da Zabala, wonderful, inspiring ecumenist though he was, proved not to be a good organiser. The 1987 Congress was so chaotic that no one could face organising another. However, in 1990 Fr George Guiver decided CIR was too good a thing to die, so he encouraged us at Mirfield to restart it, and, more or less to underwrite it. We began at once and had a wonderful Congress here at Mirfield in 1991. French, English, German, Spanish religious came together with a couple of Romanians and a Hungarian, as the Iron Curtain had just come down. We met for four days. Three days were devoted to formal papers, and discussions in different language groupings. One day was an outing to Durham.

Yet beneath this was the prayer and life together. The prayer together really was the priority. For the next thirty years, we made it our practice to meet always where there was an established Religious community. We prayed together at their offices. We celebrated the Eucharist, sometimes together, sometimes apart, (always a painful issue). We ate together and talked together. We made new friends and found a new enthusiasm for the search for unity. And we prayed. That was important. As Religious our common identity goes back to the earliest centuries, long before the tragic schisms. Many of us were astonished to find how much we shared. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Orthodox, Lutherans and Reformed Religious (Yes, they exist!) found the differences between us were much smaller than the common vocation we shared. It was a good basis on which to begin the search for, and celebration of, unity.

1993 St Benoit sur Loire. Fleury.

Fleury, in France, is a lovely place and we had a very happy Congress there. The organising committee consisted of Fr da Zabala, George Guiver, Johannes Halkenhauser (former chaplain of Casteller Ring) Fr Anselme Davril (Fleury) and myself. About this time we were joined by Sr Theresa of the Congregation of Jesus, York. After this, George decided he had enough on his plate and I became the sole CR rep. The principle we adopted was that we found a religious community with sufficient accommodation to take us all and let us be part of that community. We did not want to use a conference centre. We asked that a member of the resident community be the organising secretary. This system worked well.

1995 Christus Bruderschaft, Selbitz.

Our next Congress took place at Selbitz where we found a remarkable community of Lutheran sisters. This was our largest Congress ever as about 90 people came. Too many, really, though we had a lot of fun. The organising secretary was Pfarrer Hans Haselbarth, their chaplain. Sr Anna Marie had recently become Prioress. On our day out, we visited Casteller Ring Community near Wurzburg and also the remarkable basilica at Vierzehnheilige. For most of us, this was our first encounter with the Christus Bruderschaft. I came to love and respect them more and more over the coming years.

1997 St Andries, Bruges

This lovely Benedictine Abbey was our next venue. I remember Sr Anna Marie gave a very good paper on the sacraments, as did Bishop Serafim Joanta of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Our outing was to Bruges, partly to see the famous Beguinage there, and also, just to enjoy that lovely town.

At most of our Congresses, there was some dispute as to who should or should not receive communion. On this occasion, the local Catholic bishop celebrated mass and invited us all forward for communion. I also had a very moving encounter before celebrating the Anglican mass when Fr d’Avril and Fr da Zabala came to me in the sacristy almost in tears to explain that they could not receive communion. I knew them both to be passionate ecumenists; they were not at all unfriendly towards Anglicans but just felt they had to keep their church’s rule. I was content with that.

It was after this meeting that Sr Mirjam Zahn of Selbitz joined our organising group and we worked together very happily for the next 20 years.

1999. Durau Monastery Romania.

We had the preparatory meeting for this at Fleury, which was easier than going to Romania. Fr Dan Sandu, the chaplain to Durau, was our organiser. He was amazing as it was pretty complicated getting everyone up to the wilds of Moldavia. Durau is very beautiful and it was a happy Congress, and quite an adventure for most of the Westerners. I remember Srs Judith and Margaret Therese came from Fairacres, by car with Fr George. Sr Judith became a regular attender of CIR, and was a great asset. Fr da Zabala had retired from CIR and proposed me as President, a job which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed. I found the organising committee with its changing personnel, really good to work worth. In many ways, I preferred the preparatory meetings to the Congresses.

2001. Subiaco.

I think I remember the Subiaco Congress largely for its beautiful setting! We did visit Monte Cassino but that was a disappointment as it is (or appears to be) largely a tourist centre. Actually, we did make some good visits in Rome beforehand. Some of us went to the Romanian College which was lovely and I stayed there. We also met Cardinal Kasper. He told us that the recent ARCIC document, “The Gift of Authority” was the best ecumenical document he had ever read. By this time Fr Norbert from St Andries, Bruges was one of our team and he was very good value. He and I went to Cape Cod, to the Community of Jesus at their request to try to set up a CIR Congress there, but it never happened.

2003. Whitby

The Order of the Holy Paraclete had often sent sisters to CIR and it was a joy to visit them in their beautiful setting on the cliffs of Whitby. Sr Hilary organised the Congress very efficiently. Sadly, she already had cancer and died of it a year or two later. Whitby is a place that is redolent of the early Celtic saints. Their ascetical toughness and gentle love is reflected by the countryside. Our outing took us to Rievaulx and Mount Grace where we felt our prayers were joined and enriched by the prayers of the monks who had lived there before the Reformation. Br Pascal SSF celebrated for us at Reivaulx when, of course, the rain poured down through the consecration and we crouched under umbrellas. As an Orthodox monk remarked, the rain forced us into unity!

2005. Riehen

Our next Congress took us to Switzerland. The Deaconess Community at Riehen, was another great discovery. Their Superior, Sr Doris, was leading them on a journey from being essentially deaconesses, to something much closer to the Benedictine life. She had excellent contacts with Roman Catholic religious round about. Some of us on the preparatory committee visited the Abbey of Einsiedeln. As we approached this stunningly beautiful Abbey, I said to Sr Mirjam (or maybe she said to me!) “Aren’t we lucky to be able to visit places like this, and call it work?” That summed up much of my CIR experience. Riehen also enriched our CIR life by giving us Sr Gertrude to work on the committee for several years, and then Sr Sylvia.

2006. The Preparatory Committee visits Rome.

In 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger had become Pope Benedict XVI and surprised us all by his clear pastoral and ecumenical concern. We decided, therefore to visit him. The Committee then consisted of Sr Mirjam, Sr Paula, Fr Christopher, Br Pascal, Sr Theresa, Fr Norbert, and me. In Rome, we had a really good conversation with the Dicastery for Consecrated life, met Cardinal Kasper, then in charge of the Christian Unity Dicastery, and attended the Papal audience, though due to an administrative mix up, failed to get into the front row. Cardinal Kasper is one of the most delightful church leaders I have ever met, and his passion for unity inspired us all. He introduced me to the German saying “Wir alle kochen mit Wasser” (We all cook with water) which seemed to remind us not to be too precious about our differences. We also visited the Romanian College.

Rome is a wonderful place. The Vatican has a bad reputation but we found the people we met were always helpful, courteous and took us seriously. There is much sanctity in the Vatican and some very able and dedicated women and men.

2007. Belloc

To our great sorrow, Fr Norbert died of cancer rather suddenly just before this Congress. In his place, we asked Fr Jean Geysens from the Benedictine monastery of Chevetogne to join us. Both he and Norbert had an impressive grasp of several languages, which was enormously useful. Belloc is set in the Basque country of Brittany and gave us a small but moving encounter with that ancient culture.

2009. Simbata de Sus, Romania

Simbata de Sus is a beautiful monastery near Sibiu in Transylvania. Getting there was complicated but we managed it with help from the German Lutheran (or Saxon) community in Sibiu. Sadly, about this time we began to find Romanian attitudes towards the West were cooling off, especially amongst the monks. They were hospitable but kept a distance. This loss of the Orthodox to the ecumenical movement has deprived us of a rich mystical tradition and an experience of resistance to persecution. We need them back.

2011. Christusträger Brüderschaft, Triefenstein

Our next Congress was in Bavaria at the beautiful baroque monastery of Triefenstein where the Christusträger Brotherhood live. They were a very impressive Lutheran community with work in the Congo and Afghanistan. The brothers then had been in Kabul for 40 years, through all the troubles! One of my own happiest memories is of the Community’s jazz group who converted me from a jazz hater to a jazz lover in a single evening – and Maica Parascheva Sandu’s marvellous singing in their baroque church. Also of Sr Sylvia dancing in front of the altar to Sr Judith’s violin!

2013. Tyniets Monastery near Krakow.

The most moving part of this visit was, of course, the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the company of Germans, Poles, and one Anglican Hungarian sister who has lost 14 relatives there. She and her German sister friend went through Auschwitz hand in hand. Auschwitz-Birkenau was horrible. It was a terrible, but necessary reminder of just how cruel human beings can be. It was for all of us, also, an entry into the mystery of forgiveness and reconciliation. Even though most of us present had been born after the War, all of us found it important to remember and speak about hurtful events we had long tried to hide. It was also a place of reconciliation. I shall never forget the Polish Sr Margaret, after telling us of German atrocities against the Poles (she had been there in the War), turning to the German contingent with outstretched arms and saying, “You are welcome. We love you.”

2014.    Rome

At the end of our Congress at Tyniec, the organising group of CIR decided it was time for a visit to Rome, to meet with people at the Vatican and to see what we could do to push                forward our search for unity. We were there from 24^th – 28^th February 2014 and found it very worthwhile.

When we met at the Congregation for the Consecrated Life, we were told they had just decided a couple of days before, to organise an ecumenical symposium of religious in Rome during the week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This was announced the next day. We suggested some topics for this symposium and got in on the ground floor.

We also met at the Congregation for Christian Unity where Fr Keith Pecklers SJ suggested we should have a symposium of our own in Rome. Several others spoke to us about the new priorities of Pope Francis, and encouraged us to see hospitality as a major gift of religious to the search for unity. The marvellous thing about Rome is that there are so many well-informed and committed people in the Vatican who can teach us a lot quickly and open us up to other things that are happening ecumenically.

We stayed at the Benedictine Abbey of San Anselmo and met the Abbot Primate Notker Wolfe. When I turned up my nose at the idea of some CIR structure in Rome, he said “Remember, structures don’t give life, but they save life.” That is a maxim I have used many times since.

From the Anglican Centre came a rather different idea: The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches had decided that after 40 years of talking together they should do something together to attack the problem of human trafficking. Both Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury were firmly behind this. They would involve other churches and also Moslems and Jews where appropriate. Should we religious take this up?  This may mean finding out more about the problem: who is trafficked? Where do they go? What happens to them? We may think our best contribution would be to pray in a more sustained and informed way for these victims of a horrible trade. We may discover there are groups we could help near to home, or ways in which we could contribute financially to those who are working with the problem. Or perhaps we can offer hospitality to workers or victims.

2015. Mirfield.

My memory of this Congress is quite small. It was good to welcome such a mixed company of religious into our worship and enjoy the many languages. We took our day out in York. There we celebrated the Catholic mass with the Congregation of Jesus at the Bar Convent, and explored York Minster. I know I had a go at resigning as President but was persuaded to stay on. All good dictators make sure they have supporters to persuade them, and then give in reluctantly! Actually, I was happy to continue, as I loved the company.

2017. Casteller Ring, Schwanberg

I was delighted to come back to Casteller Ring, a Community I have always liked. They are Lutheran Benedictines and had been going through difficulties, but were very welcoming and excellent hosts. German hospitality is always good. On our day out, we went to the great Benedictine Abbey of Münsterschwarzach who have been strong supporters of CIR. Then we went on to Würzburg, an ancient town with beautiful buildings and Cathedral. Würzburg was bombed in 1944 and destroyed in twenty minutes with 4,000 dead. We explored the story of the bombing and spoke once again of the horrible destruction of war. Yet I was touched when a German brother said, “Don’t regret the bombing too much. We Germans did terrible things. Maybe we needed the bombing to shake us out of it.” Here Sr Mirjam made it clear she was not continuing on the Committee. I agreed to stay on until the working party met for the next Congress, which gave me the very happy chance to visit Montserrat, in Spain.

Some thoughts

I enjoyed my time on the Congress, and am very grateful to George for putting me on the Committee. I am especially grateful to the members of CIR, and especially my fellow committee members, for supporting me in what I tried to do. I never thought of myself as a good organiser, but other people were good at it and got on with it. I loved meeting old friends year after year. I loved the visits to other countries, other cultures, using other languages, enjoying other foods.

Before each Congress, I would wonder if it was really worth it. It cost so much for 60 people to stay in a one place. Was it just a glorified holiday? By the end of every Congress, I was sure it had been worthwhile. We had prayed a lot. We had met new people from different churches and different countries. Friendships were deepened across denominational boundaries. Some communities found us a strengthening and encouraging presence. I myself was constantly encouraged and moved by our Lutheran, Orthodox and Catholic brothers and sisters. They were so good and committed. So too were the Anglicans.

And Fr Martin da Zabala? He died full of years on the Feast of the Assumption in 2006 in his home city of Bilbao. That short, plump, passionate little priest with his enthusiasms, his griefs, his passions and his love for his fellow Christians has changed the lives of countless religious through the organisation he founded. Whenever my own faith in ecumenism grows weak, I think of him and he inspires me to go back for more.