Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Edwards in the USA: New Skete


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At the beginning of the month, I made a short trip to the U.S., as I had been invited by the Pappas Patristic Institute at Holy Cross School of Theology in Boston to give a paper on part of my dissertation topic. I used the opportunity to also visit New Skete, a unique Orthodox monastery in upstate New York (see map above). My professor here at the university specifically requested I write a chapter of my dissertation on this monastery, so I went there to do research.

The monastery is situated in the mountains very close to the border with Vermont and its Green Mountains. There was a lot of snow on the ground, and it snowed again while I was there, so it was quite beautiful. Above and below are photos taken just outside the main church.

Here you can make out the steeple of their small chapel dedicated to the Feast of the Transfiguration.

The outside of their main church, dedicated to Holy Wisdom.

The guesthouse, where I stayed, is just down the road from the main part of the monastery.

Here's a view of the main part of the monastery from the guesthouse as I walked up one morning.

A view of some of the scenery.

A photo of me with the monks inside their Holy Wisdom Church.

The branches and even the leaves were encased in ice. Above, the monastery is in the background.

The monks are famous from their dog breeding and dog training program, which have been the subject of several books and even a popular Animal Planet series calledDivine Canine. They took me on a tour of their kennels. Here, we visited a mom who had just given birth.

One day, we took a very peaceful hike in the woods through the snow.

Another view from just outside their main church.

For more photos, click here.

I'm happy to report that I got quite a bit of research done there, and I also enjoyed the quiet and peacefulness there during my 4-day stay. I'm now writing my chapter on New Skete.

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