Can Communities Learn from Monastic Life?
The Monks of Pluscarden Abbey Understand Trust, Networks and Collaboration
I think many of us will agree that this is a time characterized by social fragmentation and declining trust. It’s a time when we look for answers to societies’ problems, social cohesion and strengthening communities is a challenge of our time.
I’m reading Peter Ross’s wonderful book Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church. It opens with his experience of a retreat at Pluscarden Abbey and as he shares his observations of and conversations with the monks a picture of the enduring model of monastic communities, or at least one monastic community, emerges.
The monastic life described has an emphasis on shared purpose, discipline, and mutual support. It is a form of communal living that has persisted for centuries. In fact, some of the chants practiced by the monks in daily worship go back a thousand years, and some far longer.
Peter Ross opens the book with the sentence:
“It was the hour of the owl, the hour of the men who wear the cowl, and the church was in deep winter dark.”
Monastic life is not an ordinary life, but is there value in searching for answers about “community” through the lens of Pluscarden Abbey, which is a Benedictine monastery in northeastern Scotland.
I think it’s worth examining its history, the daily lives of its monks, and the principles of community living, to see if we can discern valuable lessons for modern local communities aiming to build high levels of social capital, the networks, norms, and trust that enable collective action and well-being.
Let’s see if we can.
The Story of Pluscarden Abbey
Pluscarden Abbey’s origins trace back to 1230, when King Alexander II of Scotland founded it as a Valliscaulian Priory, dedicated to St. Mary, St. John the Baptist, and St. Andrew.
