Rebirth of a Monastic Community?

[Luigi]

Newark Abbey - Benedictine monks - in Newark, NJ was established in 1857. They opened a boy's school in 1868. They founded St. Anselm's in New Hampshire in 1889, and St. Mary's (also it New Jersey) in 1928. Even as Newark became more "urban" as they say these days, the monks stayed. They continued running their college prep school, but had to shut it down in 1972 - after the Newark riots of '72, their enrollment declined radically. The monks completely revamped their educational program and re-opened the following year, still serving their traditional students but also serving the lower-class students who live nearer the monastery. These are the monks, and this is the school, that are the subjects of the documentary film, "The Rule:" http://www.pbs.org/program/the-rule/   

An urban monastery is almost a contradiction in terms, but it's not unheard of these days. 

The community dwindled down to about 12 or 13 monks, although they've received a couple of vocations over the last decade. Abbot Melvin Valvano is the longest-serving abbot still on the job - 47 years at this point. In their Facebook photo, he's the tall thin one in the center.

They recently had a young monk, Brother Thomas Aquinas (who is an alumnus of the school), make solemn vows. In the Facebook photo, he's the second from the right. They also had two men enter the novitiate last year (first and third on the left). 

It seems that Abbot Melvin has give Brother Thomas Aquinas and his team the go-ahead to use social media for more consistently active vocational recruiting. They've had a Facebook page for a number of years, but they posted only every couple of months. Now they're posting daily. 

It's a story of tradition, struggle, creativity, stability, commitment. Here's hoping that Brother Thomas Aquinas and Company can use social media to revive, or renew, or rebuild the community that has been there so long and done so much good. 

https://www.facebook.com/newarkbenedictinemonks/?fref=ts

A (humorous) sample of their recruiting approach: 

Edited October 2, 2016 by Luigi