The Orientale Lumen movement in England was initiated as a series of East-West Christian Monastic Meetings. The first took place in 1996 at St Mildred’s Priory, Minster Abbey, Kent; the second in 1998.
The third took place 29 September to 3 October 2000 also at Minster Abbey. The first addresses were given to a closed meeting of Greek, Coptic and Syriac Orthodox monastics with monks and nuns from the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions. These were:
- The Way of Silouan, Sister Marina, Community of St John the Baptist, Tolleshunt Knights
- Prayer of the Heart in the Syriac Tradition, Dr Sebastian Brock, Oxford University
On the second day of the Meeting, 70 other guests joined the monastic meeting to learn about the life and inspiration of three Benedictine Prophets for Reunion. These addresses were:
- 20th Century Prophets for the 21st Century, Dr John Wilkinson
- Dom Constantine Bosschaerts OSB and the Vita et Pax Foundation, Sister Esther OSB, Turvey Abbey
- Dom Lambert Beauduin OSB, Pioneer of Catholic Ecumenism, Dom Emmanuel Lanne OSB, Chevetogne
- Dom Bede Winslow, Sister Benedict Gaughan OSB, Minster Abbey
The Meeting included two monks from the Orthodox Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand in Lebanon. On the Sunday the Meeting attended the Eucharistic Liturgy of the Coptic Orthodox Church of St Michael at Margate in Kent and subsequently it made a visit to the Orthodox Monastery of St John the Baptist at Tolleshunt Knights in Essex.
The papers from the Meeting were privately published by Minster Abbey and are available from Sister Benedict Gaughan OSB, Minster Abbey, Minster, Ramsgate, Kent CT12 4HF. At the time of publication, Dom Emmanuel’s paper on Dom Lambert Beauduin was not available and an article by R. M. Slade from One in Christ, covering the same themes, was substituted.
A short account of the Meeting was subsequently given by Sister Benedict Gaughan OSB in One in Christ, volume 40, no. 3, April 2005.