Introduction
I have known Fr Michael Wood for over twenty years having met him in London when we were part of the Continuing Anglican movement. Or at least he was. I was still in the Scottish Episcopal Church hoping that events wouldn't drive me into the Continuum although they eventually did. We lost touch for a year or two until one day a mutual friend asked me, "Have you heard Fr Michael Wood has become Orthodox and started a monastery?" I hadn't but I was immediately interested and when that monastery closed so that Fr Michael could come to Scotland to be part of the same community as me I decided to write this brief but definitive account of it.
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| Fr Michael around the time I was received into the Russian Orthodox Church. |
As this is an ongoing project the layout of the site may alter in future so I will ask for your forebearance now.
In Christ, Our Lord,
Sr Margaret
Smythe
Edinburgh,
4th/17th September 2014
The
Translation of Saint Cuthberg, Bishop of Lindisfarne.
Please contact me at :: saintbridehermitage@gmail.com
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| Fr Michael (L) with Metropolitan Hilarion during the liturgy in Sydney, May 2014. |
Some background
When
Saint Petroc Monastery was formed it was the only Orthodox Western
Rite monastery in Australia and one of only three worldwide, the
other two being Christminster and Our Lady of Mount Royal in the
United States. It was started in Hobart, Tasmania, as an Anglican
monastery in 1992, briefly passing into the care of the Antiochian
Patriarchate, before finding its final home under the omophorion of
the then Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney in 1997.
Tasmania
is an island of half a million people mostly of western European
descent. Its religious composition is largely Roman Catholic,
Anglican and other Protestant with modest numbers of non-Christian
religions although today most of the population could probably be
described as secular. The Orthodox population of Tasmania is divided
largely between people of Russian and Greek heritage with a small
number of converts, mostly from English Roman Catholic and Anglican
backgrounds.
Two
of the major bodies within the canonical Orthodox Church, the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the Antiochian Archdiocese in the
US, have blessed the use of western rites in worship. Metropolitan
Hilarion, head of the ROCOR, has described it as a "missionary
tool" to reach those who might otherwise fail to recognise the
truth of Orthodoxy due to unfamiliarity with the eastern forms. Due
to immigration patterns it is the Russian Orthodox Church that is
most active in Tasmania, there are no Antiochian Orthodox.
The Beginning
At this time there was no thought of it doing missionary work but simply being a place of prayer.
In 1994 Fr Michael returned to England and met with Fr Michael
Keiser of the Antiochian Orthodox Church who introduced him to
Western Rite Orthodoxy. He was in England again in 1995 and 1996 by
which time Saint Petroc's was under the guidance of His Beatitude
Ignatius IV, the Patriarch of Antioch in Damascus.
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The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
In 1996 Fr Michael began talking to Metropolitan Hilarion (then Archbishop of Sydney) who was interested in and highly supportive of the Western Rite in Orthodoxy.
In 1997 he was received into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia by baptism and confirmation at the same time as Fr Barry Jeffries. They were ordained to the priesthood together in August the same year. The monastery then came under the care of Archbishop Hilarion where it remained after he was elected First Hierarch until its closure in 2014.
In 1996 Fr Michael began talking to Metropolitan Hilarion (then Archbishop of Sydney) who was interested in and highly supportive of the Western Rite in Orthodoxy.
In 1997 he was received into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia by baptism and confirmation at the same time as Fr Barry Jeffries. They were ordained to the priesthood together in August the same year. The monastery then came under the care of Archbishop Hilarion where it remained after he was elected First Hierarch until its closure in 2014.
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| Orthodox ordination of Fr Michael Wood, Fr Barry Jeffries and Subdeacon Peter Ball. |
Saint Petroc's was legally
incorporated and was housed in an eminently suitable building in south Hobart the layout of which made it particularly suitable for the semi-eremetic life in the form of small self-contained apartments. Metropolitan Hilarion was to later name it Saint Petroc's House. Over the following years several men came to try their vocations here before moving on to other things - some remaining in the monastic life, or becoming celibate priests or finding their calling in their secular careers.
The first major obedience given to the monastery by Metropolitan Hilarion was the task of compiling a complete Prayer Book for ROCOR Western Rite. The task started in 1997 took seven years and emerged with episcopal blessing as the Saint Colman Prayer Book in 2003. It included the Liturgy of Saint Gregory as Abbot Augustine (of Mount Royal) had worked on it, the Sarum Liturgy and the English Liturgy, as well as all the monastic offices and the occasional services which a parish priest might use in the course of a year. The book was heavily reliant on the Sarum services, many of which were incorporated in only slightly modified form.
The first major obedience given to the monastery by Metropolitan Hilarion was the task of compiling a complete Prayer Book for ROCOR Western Rite. The task started in 1997 took seven years and emerged with episcopal blessing as the Saint Colman Prayer Book in 2003. It included the Liturgy of Saint Gregory as Abbot Augustine (of Mount Royal) had worked on it, the Sarum Liturgy and the English Liturgy, as well as all the monastic offices and the occasional services which a parish priest might use in the course of a year. The book was heavily reliant on the Sarum services, many of which were incorporated in only slightly modified form.
A year later in 1998 Fr
Michael was appointed by Metropolitan Hilarion as Orthodox chaplain
at the University of Tasmania in Hobart. From around 2000
Saint Dyfan Monastery Mission was the name given to the Orthodox
chaplaincy work and began using the University chapel since its
members were mostly also staff and students of the university. In this way the monastery became involved in pastoral work and although it was never its raison d'être it was blessed with several converts, including a young man from a Hindu background, and another whose diaconal ordination Fr Michael was able to attend seven years later.
In 2001 Fr Michael and cell
attendant, David, spent some time in France conducting an
investigation into the Orthodox Church of France firstly living in a
flat attached to the bishop's house in Paris and, latterly, in the
disused monastery in Saint-Marcel-le-Bourge in Tarn, southern France.
The results of their investigation were written up and given to
Metropolitan Hilarion for the ROCOR Synod.
In 2007 Metropolitan Hilarion awarded Fr Michael the Nabedrennik in recognition of his work for the Church.
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An
interview with Fr Michael Wood conducted at the Saint Bride Hermitage, Edinburgh, on 31/08/14.
Q.
It seems a little odd to be interviewing a member of my own community
nevertheless let's start. Like many of us now you came to monasticism
later in life, may I have permission to write a little about your
Christian experience before you became Orthodox? I know it's a
tradition amongst Orthodox monastics not to talk about that but as
the impetus for revitalising the western rite in Orthodoxy came
largely from converts, with the exception of course of Vladyka St
John, it seems necessary.
A.
Of course.
Q.
And photographs?
A.
And photographs.
Q.
You said once that when Saint Petroc's was founded it was absolutely
not with the intention of evangelism. Would you mind explaining this
as I think a lot of people have difficulty with the idea of a
monastery that doesn't serve the church in some outward, visible
fashion?
A.
The “monastery” was really a hermitage, and of course a hermitage
is by definition, not an evangelistic endeavour. These days almost
every hermitage has some sort of web presence and therefore can have
an “evangelistic” effect on people outside. But when we set up
originally in 1993, there was no such web presence. I was a lone
eremitic monk, living on the lowest slopes of a mountain with the
front door onto a laneway and the back fence onto a mountain woodland
that stretched for a hundred miles. I spent my days doing the
Offices and working on carpentry projects. That was about it.
Hermitages and a lot of monasteries are about prayer and seclusion
away from the world and its busyness. They are not about social
service in any secularly recognisable sense. Hospitality is
incumbent on any monastic endeavour and that was undertaken, for example, there
were on several occasions homeless people camping in the back
garden, visitors living in the spare bedroom, and so on. Apart from that
the object is prayer on behalf of the community. Monastics often
undertake academic work, and that was done – mostly the work
on the Saint Colman Prayer Book which was intended to benefit the
whole Church. Way back when I read theology, I managed to scrape
through because of my interest in mediaeval Church history and
liturgics. I was rubbish at most of the theology, but those got me
through. I had been good at history at school before that, so
history is really my “thing”. Liturgics though too, especially liturgical history. I spent quite a lot of time in
further liturgical history study at York and Salisbury.
Q.
You were however appointed chaplain at the University of Tasmania?
A.
Yes. That was a very interesting undertaking because I am in no way
a parish priest and of course the university was effectively my parish from that time onwards. It became my daily 9.00 to 5.00
“job” and was so for thirteen years. I still lived in my cell,
but now I had a study in the university and a chapel there, so to
some extent it didn't interfere with my monastic round. It did
however bring me into contact with students and staff and often the
students were from Asian non-Christian backgrounds.
Q.
You also looked after the Saint Dyfan Mission though, didn't you?
A.
That was just an accommodation for the university staff their
families and students. Other people from outside the university
occasionally attended. It was the name of our chaplaincy activity.
Q.
I see, so the pastoral work was a by-product of you simply being
there, being for most of the time, the only ROCOR priest in town.
There's a fairly common belief that a hermit is someone who wholly
eschews society and lives in a cabin in the woods cut off from human
contact. I don't think many people are familiar with the idea of a
“semi hermit” so could you explain it for us?
A.
A semi-eremitic person is actually a true hermit – who lives
relatively close to some sort of town. One can never entirely cut
oneself off from other humans. The degree of contact varies. The
hermit nevertheless lives “alone” although hermitages are
frequently connected (even sharing the same land) as monasteries.
Q.
As it says in the Rule of Saint Columba, “Be
alone in a separate place near a chief city, if thy conscience is not
prepared to be in common with the crowd.”?
A.
Yes, exactly, since I follow the rule of Saint Columba, that is
very familiar to me.
Q
Apart from the chaplaincy, did you do Western Rite
elsewhere in the country?
A.
Yes, in Western Australia on a number of occasions with quite
large congregations sometimes. In victoria again with a large
congregation. And in Sydney we had a major celebration with
Metropolitan Hilarion pontificating and preaching.
Q.
Did you have a lot of contact with students and staff?
A.
Oh yes, we had a major pedestrian walkway going through the
chaplaincy so students were walking though our garden all the time.
I begged an antique park bench from the city council so I could set
up a nice shaded part of the garden so
students could sit there. Students held meetings on our balcony and
in our meeting rooms. We gave lectures and held a staff Bible Study
every Tuesday morning, and of course I celebrated the Divine Liturgy
every Sunday. We had people using the chaplaincy six days a week.
Metropolitan Hilarion brought the Kursk Root Icon to the chapel, and
we had a large crowd come for the service of veneration. He also
attended one of our Western Rite Liturgies there and preached.
Q.
Did you enjoy your time as chaplain?
A.
Yes, ultimately I did even though I didn't volunteer for it in the first place - it was an obedience - and I was sorry when it was closed; I believe it was a
very short-sighted decision by the university. I had been
apprehensive at first, coming as I did from eremeticism, and having
no parish experience (as an Anglican I had only really been
involved in administration) but I felt that with God's guidance I
was able to serve staff and people in the university. We did a
number of baptisms at the chaplaincy – even Hindus – so the
period there was not wasted.
Q. What did you do after the chaplaincy closed?
A.
Well, somewhat earlier in 2009, I was in England with Metropolitan
Hilarion. He had the previous day had a meeting with the Church of
England Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. So as we came out
of the ROCOR cathedral, he said to me “go and start Western Rite
missions in England'. So with the closing of the chaplaincy, I
already had another job.
Q.
Was that difficult?
A.
Yes, while I had a tiny amount of experience and ideas, this was
totally new territory. My many years in England meant that I know a
lot of people all over the country, many Church of England clergy and
laity. By happy coincidence, in 2007, I had led an Orthodox retreat
in Kent with people coming from England and the Continent, from that
retreat a few conversions were made, and these provided the core to
start the process. One of those converts, Dr. Meal proved a real
stalwart who has supported the missions ever since.
Q.
So what is your role now?
A.
Well I'm seventy-four now and since I am fit and well, God willing,
there are still some things I want to do. I am very keen to see the
Western Rite properly established in a thoroughly Orthodox manner,
with correct liturgical praxis. I think I can do this best
by writing books. With the Metropolitan having established for us new
Hermitage in Scotland, this provides the perfect venue for me. I
have been in Scotland now since the closing of Saint Petroc
Monastery, living in the Hermitage, getting a lot of preliminary
research done. I hope to lead Orthodox retreats on Iona as I did a couple of years ago. I also hope to help make known the other saints and holy places of Scotland. We focus on Iona quite rightly but there are sacred Christian sites all over Scotland.
Q.
How do you see the Western Rite developing within ROCOR?
A.
Well in the aftermath of the recent problems, with God's help and
guidance, I think things are going to settle down in a
well-disciplined fashion, progressing very quietly and at a very
serious, deliberate pace. Expansion must be based on a very
careful choice of people and extremely good training, combined with
tight liturgical control.
Q.
We both know a suburban house, even one on the edge of a woodland, is not ideal for a Hermitage. Where do you see your future now?
A.
I hope that some time in the near future we will be able to sell this property and move somewhere to the west, perhaps one of the islands. Of course I didn't appreciate the beauty of Scotland until I spent some real time here and now, having seen the islands and the lochs, I believe this is where God has been preparing me for all along. Nearly a quarter of a century ago I wanted to be a hermit but God - and my bishop - wanted me to do other things as well, now I hope to be able to concentrate on the one thing.
