By Cyprian Consiglio OSB Cam
This first period of my mandate as the secretary general of Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique · Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIMMID) has been a bit of a gentle whirlwind. Though the appointment was not official until 1 October, it felt to me as if it began when my esteemed predecessor Fr. William Skudlarek introduced me to the assembled abbots and priors at their congress in Rome on 17 September, when I gave my short introductory remarks after his final report.
Immediately afterward I found myself delightfully involved in many conversations with abbots and priors from around the world who expressed interest and gave me their contact information. I have technically been on a sabbatical year after a ten-year stint as prior of my community in California and had accepted a few scattered commitments for the last quarter of the year to allow me to return to the work I love in music, retreat work and dialogue.
I had to fly to my first event the day after the congress, in northeast Poland. I somehow had not realized it before then, but on the plane from Rome to Warsaw I was flooded with a wave of consolation knowing that I was on my way to give a three-day retreat on the thought of Bede Griffiths, since I had introduced myself the day before by saying that I considered myself to be in the lineage of him and Abhishiktananda.
The remaining few events burgeoned under the aegis of this new enterprise. My two events at Oxford stretched into meetings with Islamic scholars all week; the retreat I was to offer in Australia turned into a series of events including a wonderful day with the monks and oblates of New Norcia in Western Australia on the spirituality of interreligious dialogue; and two retreats and some music in the Philippines opened up to some work with the monks of Our Lady of Montserrat in Manila. And I am happy to say I ended that first period back in India with my brothers and sisters at Shantivanam, virtually the birthplace of interreligious dialogue in the modern church.
On 17 December, (auspiciously the day of O Wisdom and the birth anniversary of both Fr. Bede and Pope Francis), we had a very good online meeting of the DIMMID board of directors, my first as secretary general, which, for being online, was very interactive and positive. I laid out my aspirations to the members, how I hoped to visit places where there are commissions of DIMMID and perhaps use my presence as an occasion for a reinvigoration of some sort if the region has been somewhat dormant.
The increase of our members’ interactions with Islam around the world was notable and laudable. Fr. William organized and participated in a Shi’a-Monastic encounter hosted by Inkamana Abbey in South Africa in December, and it was especially heartwarming to hear how many of our communities are hosting their Muslim neighbors, sometimes for Friday services and even sometimes housing refugees.
I have plans to be in the USA, Korea, Belgium, and France in the new year, and hope to get to Senegal as soon as feasible. I do see at least these first years as pilgrim years. I described to Fr. William that I saw this role as being like an ambassador, and he said that was it exactly. For the coming years I will be based in Rome, which will make international travel easier and allow me chances to interact with the monks and nuns from around the world as well.
I will also be giving a five-day intensive course at Sant’Anselmo in the summer as part of their regular program. Abbot Jeremias has expressed his willingness for Sant’Anselmo to be a place of encounter and so board members and I have discussed plans to hold an in-person international meeting there, and perhaps a European version of a gathering we held in the USA three times called “Monks in the West”. Several have expressed the desire for the students at Sant’Anselmo to have more exposure to DIMMID and dialogue in general, so we will see what we can do about that as well. In the meantime, I hope to continue the work that I love to do, in music, in writing, in retreat work, most of which usually falls under the greater umbrella of this same theme.
I do not know if it is any worse, but the situation of division and violence in the world, sometimes in the name of religion, is certainly no better than I have ever known it. There is a perennial and urgent need for someone to be this face of Christianity, open, inclusive, and compassionate, and for the specific gift of deep spirituality that we monastics have to offer. So if DIMMID can be of any service to your community, your local church, or your part of the world, please reach out to me personally: sgdimmid@gmail.com.
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