Regional associations

Benedictine-Cistercian Association of the Caribbean and the Andes
AIM had existed for at least 20 years when ABECCA was created.

Thanks to the initiative of AIM, representatives of the many East Asian Benedictine and Cistercian communities met together for the first time in Bangkok in 1968. Present at the meeting were monks who had already become involved in interreligious dialogue. Among them was Thomas Merton.

Benedictine and Cistercian Association of Nigeria
BECAN is a forum for this on going dialogue of similarities and differences, on how to be Benedictine and Cistercian monks and nuns in contemporary Nigeria, and yet arrive at the same goal of every monastic life.

Benedictine Communities of South Africa
The Benedictine presence in South Africa dates back to 1906 when the Abbot of Affligem, Belgium, sent a team of monks to the Transvaal at the invitation of Bishop William Miller, the first Vicar Apostolic of the Transvaal.

Benedictine and Cistercian Union of East Africa

Benedictine Union of Tanzania
Following the example of BECOSA in South Africa, the 10 Benedictine monasteries in Tanzania founded the union with the name BUT on December 7, 2005.

Brazil Monastic Exchange Conference
November 17, 2009 marks the beginning of the existence of CIMBRA as a civilly recognized legal entity. During an assembly full of joy, the participants unanimously approved the new statutes, which seal the journey begun on August 31, 1967, in post-conciliar times.

The Indo-Sri Lankan Benedictine Federation is the outcome of and a further development of the Bangkok Congress of 1968 organised by AIM for the purpose of discussing monasticism in Asia.

Central African Monasteries

The Conference of Monastic Communities of the Southern Cone (SURCO) is an organization of Benedictine, Cistercian and Trappist monasteries, both male and female, in the area of Latin America usually called the "Southern Cone" (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay).