Monks homeless after wildfires
Lilly Fowler for Religion News Service
| 18 Nov 2008
Print This
TEXT
Top News...
- Latest
- Most commented
-
Holy Cross retreat house before the California firestorm reduced it to ashes.
-
International monastery reduced to ashes by California fires. Picture, Los Angeles Times.
-
Brother Joseph Brown walks through the rubble of his monastery after it was levelled by fire. Picture, Los Angeles Times.
For more than 60 years, Mount Calvary Monastery sat as a patch of holy ground high atop the Santa Barbara hills, home to seven Benedictine Anglican monks whose only jobs in life were prayer and welcoming pilgrims.
Now, after one of the most devastating fires to ever hit Southern California, visitors are left with a different kind of religious experience – a pile of charred ruins.
As drivers make their way to the monastery along narrow roads, banners hanging from side posts thank firefighters. Green vegetation turns to black-dusted earth.
Mount Calvary's guests no longer read or pray; they snap pictures of the remains of the retreat house. The tall, steel cross that framed the courtyard, the golden bell that called the monks to prayer, the painted archway that greeted visitors, are all still there.
There is, however, little else.
Charred cacti form a barrier between the parking lot and what was once a 20,000-square-foot, Spanish-style home. A narrow brick wall divides the property from the burned mountains underneath. And the hilltop provides a commanding view of the town that the fickle fire largely spared.
The ruins of Mount Calvary – a small pile of books and furnishings in a corner – are sad reminders of what once was. The vast heaps of rubble, the partially eaten walls, and the collapsed beams all call attention to the supremacy of nature, rather than the supernatural. Guests of the mountaintop now appear to be in awe ... not of God's power but the command of fire.
The recent California wildfires burned close to 40,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes. The cost of fighting the fires in Santa Barbara alone is said to be close to US$6 million. And yet it is the destruction of the home of a small Episcopal community that has captured the attention of so many.
"I'm touched with how concerned people are for us," said Brother Nicholas Radelmiller, the monastery's prior, as he sat at Saint Mary's Retreat House, a women's Episcopal community that has opened its doors to the seven homeless monks from Mount Calvary.
Editors' Picks
'Horrific' violence against women
Violence against women in the Pacific is “horrific” and must be addressed, says an Australian...
Back to the community – every day
What we need is a "Back to the Community" campaign, says the vicar of a quake zone.
Cathedral bells bound for UK
The ChristChurch Cathedral bells will soon be enroute to England for testing and repair.
New guidelines for marriage rites
A “consensus description” of Anglican theology on marriage rites is being finalized by the Int...
A unique and final honour
Sir Paul Reeves is accorded a unique last honour. He is laid to rest on the gentle north-facin...
Decision time on gay ordination
The question of whether openly gay and lesbian people can be ordained should be settled s...
© Anglican Taonga
ANGLICAN TAONGA is the communications arm of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia / Te Haahi Mihanare ki Niu Tireni, ki Nga Moutere o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa. TAONGA magazine is published three times a year and distributed to all Anglican ministry units and agencies. TAONGA also publishes occasional booklets on church, ministry and sacraments. The General Editor of TAONGA is accountable to the Communications Commission of General Synod / te Hinota Whanui, 200 St Johns Road, Meadowbank, Auckland 1742.
Comments on this story
Log in or create a user account to comment.