July 31 – Authentic Monastic Service

 One of the strategic goals within our strategic plan is “To strengthen and maintain an authentic monastic culture at New Melleray Abbey committed to the contemplation of God.” To that end, we identified a need to look at the temporal departments and services that currently occupy our community and to evaluate what they contribute to an authentic monastic culture. An action step in the process requires us to “Distinguish and identify: primary/necessary, secondary/auxiliary, redundant/dispensible departments and services.” To get the ball rolling and spark community dialogue the Strategic Plan Steering Committee invited five brothers to reflect upon these distinctions and make brief presentations to the community. Today we met to hear the fruits of our brothers’ reflections. Each brother received a brief amount of time to present their individual perspectives. The sharings represented a good cross-section of the whole community and brought a number of valuable considerations into the light. We had time for a few questions and clarifications before adjourning for the office of Terce. Future steps in the process will build on this important first step.

 

about Strategic Planning Process

The purpose of this initiative is to facilitate a highly interactive strategic planning process that will enable New Melleray Abbey to study its current environment; reflect on its mission and core values; convene its community to develop a strategic plan; discover a greater sense of direction (vision); design an action plan for the first year; and ensure that the plan is implemented over the next 3-5 years.