30th Anniversary of Vows

Gentle Readers, please join me in celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of my solemn and irrevocable vows, which were made on June 12, 1980, in St James' chapel in the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York. I was professed as a solitary religious for the whole church.

I am very grateful for the many people who worked to make this possible, although it is possible here to list only a few: The Society of St Francis, particularly the late Ray Cope; the Cistercians of Berryville, VA, many of whom have now gone to their greater reward, but particularly John Thelen, who is now living a different sort of monastic life in the wilds of southeastern Oregon; Bishop Paul Moore, Archbishop Rowan Williams and Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Dr Sebastian Brock; The Rev'd Professor John Barton and Professor Vincent Gillespie; Marion Glasscoe and Deborah Wilde. Several people have helped financially in the past year; I know that you want to remain anonymous, so I will only say thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

It wasn't my conscious intention to publish a new book near this anniversary, but Writing the Icon of the Heart: In Silence Beholding will be published in the UK by BRF in May 2011, and hopefully in the USA as well (I'm still waiting to hear). I also hope to have Silence: A User's Guide finished by the end of this year with an eye to publication late in 2011 or early in 2012.

Bless you all, and please pray for me.