CHOOSING A FUTURE TOGETHER

ABBOT ROBERT IGO, OSB

Asyou may imagine the 19 months since becoming Abbot have been an interesting learning curve. Not having been present for the Chapter of election in January 2021, and having lived away from the Abbey for 25 years, I have still to discover why the Community thought I was the person to lead them as Abbot. What has become clear however is that we are at a moment of change, a ‘kairos moment’. A moment where significant decisions must be made about who we are and what we desire to be as a monastic community in the future.

I would therefore like to make it very clear that I believe that this monastic community has a future - but it will only do so if we become protagonists of that future. Hence in January this year we launched our strategic plan: ‘Choosing a Future Together’. This is not a catchy ‘sound bite’. It underlines a fundamental necessity. We can only have a future if we choose to walk and work together. This is about a partnership, a relationship. We have had to engage in important conversations and make significant decisions about what is ‘core’ to our mission as we go forward. We have had to look at the size of our community, at its age profile and at what is possible. Already in 23 months I have buried five members of the community. We simply cannot continue to do what we did previously.

We set out our strategic plan in a document ‘Choosing a Future Together’. This shows our proposed direction of travel. We are a Benedictine community for whom prayer is essential, a fundamental element of our mission. Our desire is to point others to God and, through our hospitality, to create a place where others can find meaning and purpose, where people can find God. We were not founded to administer parishes, to run a school or even a private hall of residence in Oxford. These were part of the work that we responded to and that we have handed on.

Benedictines have existed since the sixth century and have had the ability to adapt to different circumstances and challenges. Our love for God is why we want to share that faith with you and others; to invite you to become an extension of this community of faith; to share in our mission of evangelisation of the nation, revitalisation of the Church and transformation of our society. Our relationship with you and our pastoral support of you is therefore important to us.

We are having to change. But our identity remains ever the same. We are a monastic community that seeks to create a place of faith, prayer, formation and encounter. Our doors are open to all who want to share in our ongoing search for God. We have a future because we choose to have one, because we see our way of Christian living as important for our world today; it is a world lost, confused, hurting.

And this brings me to something painful but important.

I take this opportunity as Abbot to offer my sincere and heartfelt apology to anyone who suffered abuse while in the care of our schools, parishes or other ministries. I take this opportunity to say I am sorry for the breach of trust to members of the Ampleforth Society who have supported us. We are deeply sorry, and I can assure you that we have worked hard to ensure that this could never happen again and have implemented credible change. We have put into place safeguarding policies and protocols that put children and adults who might be at risk at the very centre of what we do and the decisions we make. This includes a strong commitment to mandatory reporting of any suspected or actual case of abuse to statutory agencies.

We have been under ‘close scrutiny’ for many years from external regulators. We consider such ‘close scrutiny’ a valuable opportunity to listen, learn and move forward demonstrating integrity and transparency. There is no room for complacency.

In our strategic plan, ‘Choosing a Future Together’, we make demonstrating our safeguarding commitment a priority. Actions, not just words. Actions, not just nice bureaucratic structures. Ampleforth Abbey is committed to embedding a safeguarding culture that demonstrates care and respect for individuals. This is a basic tenet of our Christian faith (Matthew 18:5) and the Rule of St Benedict that forms the lives and attitudes of the Ampleforth Abbey monks and employees.

We ask ourselves “Is this enough?” Sadly, however much we strive to improve, it will never be ‘enough’. It is of course a work in progress, an extremely important work as we seek to untangle the web of abuse that is the cause of so much human suffering. We continue to listen, learn, and move forward with the help of those who engage with us and share their thoughts and stories. We seek to be a place of healing and recovery, and to be a place of safety where all our visitors can encounter the peace that Jesus longs to give.