Ealing Abbey is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastic foundation on Castlebar Hill in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was his ...

. It is part of the

English Benedictine Congregation The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) unites autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation. History and ...

. As of 2020, the Abbey had 14 monks.

History

The monastery at

was founded in 1897 from

Downside Abbey Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Both ...

, originally as a parish in the

Archdiocese of Westminster The Catholic Diocese of Westminster is an archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in England. The diocese consists of most of London north of the River Thames and west of the River Lea, the borough of Spelthorne (in Surrey), and t ...

. It was canonically erected as a dependent

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

in 1916 and raised again to the rank of independent conventual priory in 1947. Finally, in 1955 it was elevated to the status of an

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The c ...

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

The building

The architect of the Abbey Church, a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

Listed building, was F A Walters. Two or three bays in the nave were open by 1899 and part of the monastery in use by 1905. By 1915 the sanctuary and Lady Chapel together with more bays were completed. The west end together with the four western bays were completed by 1934 by Edward John Walters, the son of F A Walters. Two bombs damaged the church in 1940. The first destroyed the organ chamber and the War Memorial Chapel. The second destroyed the east end, including the sanctuary and choir. Only two stained glass windows survived, although damaged. Restoration of war damage was started in 1957 and completed by 1962. The church was enlarged and the transepts completed by

Stanley Kerr Bate Stanley Chave Kerr Bate (born 1906) is a British architect, the son of Commander Francis William Bate RNR, Surveyor Marine Dept, Board of Trade, and his wife Helen Maria Talbot Bate. Kerr Bate began his career with the inheritance of the architect ...

. The Monks Choir beyond the crossing and Lady Chapel were added in 1996-98 to the designs of Sir William Whitfield. The single

hammerbeam A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "...the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams ...

nave roof has a painted decoration, with the monograms IHC and SB (for St Benedict). The large west window, depicting the Coronation of the Virgin attended by the heavenly host, is by

Burlison and Grylls Burlison and Grylls is an English company who produced stained glass windows from 1868 onwards. The company of Burlison and Grylls was founded in 1868 at the instigation of the architects George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner. Both John Bu ...

. The window in the south transept, a memorial to victims of two world wars, is by

Ninian Comper Sir John Ninian Comper (10 June 1864 – 22 December 1960) was a Scottish architect; one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects. His work almost entirely focused on the design, restoration and embellishment of churches, and the des ...

and William Bucknall (c.1960). It depicts a beardless Risen Christ and Saints David, George, Andrew and Patrick. There is a painting of Peter’s Denial of Christ by

Jusepe de Ribera Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652) was a painter and printmaker, who along with Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referrin ...

Apostolate

Parish

One of the main apostolates of the Abbey is running a major parish in Ealing centred on the Abbey Church of Saint Benedict where both the parish and monastic

liturgies Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

take place.

Music

Ealing Abbey Choir of boys' and men's voices sings at the Sunday Conventual

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

. The choir appeared in the BBC television programme ''

Songs of Praise ''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK. The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Ta ...

'' in 2005. The Abbey has an active programme of music recitals, which include the choirs and the organ. Occasional concerts by other choirs are also held. The Lay Plainchant Choir gives lay people the opportunity to practise and sing chant. The choir provides opportunities for workshops and training. The choir has weekly rehearsals and sings monthly at a Sunday Mass. Those members available also sing periodically at a local care home for elderly people suffering from dementia.

Hospitality

The monks of Ealing accept clerical and lay men as guests in the monastery, on the understanding that guests will attend morning mass and evening vespers with the monks. Residential and non residential guests are welcome at the sung liturgy of the hours in the Abbey Church and the monks have a house for guests and retreatants.

School

A major work of the Abbey in the past has been teaching and administration in St Benedict's School, founded as Ealing Priory School in 1902 by Sebastian Cave. This is an independent day school for boys and, since 2007, girls at both the junior and senior levels. There is also a small co-educational nursery. Since 1987 the Abbey has engaged a

lay Lay may refer to: Places *Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada *Lay, Loire, a French commune * Lay (river), France *Lay, Iran, a village * Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community People * Lay (surname) ...

headmaster A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...

for the school having previously provided the headmaster from foundation. In 2012 the trust of St Benedict, Ealing created a new charitable trust, St Benedict's School, and passed school administration to a new

board of governors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

. As a result, members of the monastic community are more free to choose different apostolates. The Abbey also has close links with the nearby girls' school St Augustine's Priory, a former convent school.

Sex abuse scandal

In April 2006, civil damages were awarded jointly against David Pearce, a former head of the junior school at St Benedicts, and Ealing Abbey in the High Court in relation to an alleged assault by Pearce on a pupil while teaching at St Benedict's School in the 1990s, although

criminal charges A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority (usually a public prosecutor or the police) asserting that somebody has committed a crime. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can ...

were dropped. Pearce was charged in November 2008 with 24 counts of

indecent assault Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault. England and Wales Indecent assault was a broa ...

, sexual touching and gross indecency with six boys aged under 16, relating to incidents before and after 2003, the date when a new offence of sexual touching was created. Pleading guilty at

Isleworth Crown Court Isleworth Crown Court is a Crown Court centre which deals with criminal cases at 36 Ridgeway Road, Isleworth, London. History The site was originally been occupied by three large manor houses. However, following the Second World War, the Minis ...

to offences going back to 1972, Pearce was jailed for eight years in October 2009, subsequently reduced to five years, for sexual abuse offences at the school from 1972–1992 and for one offence in 2007 after he had ceased to work in the school. The conduct of the Ealing monastic community, as trustee of the St. Benedict's Trust, was examined by the

Charity Commission , type = Non-ministerial government department , seal = , seal_caption = , logo = Charity Commission for England and Wales logo.svg , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , ...

, which found it had failed to take adequate measures to protect beneficiaries of the charity from Pearce. In March 2011, Dom Laurence Soper, a former Abbot of Ealing Abbey,was arrested on child abuse charges relating to the period when he was a teacher at, and the

bursar A bursar (derived from "bursa", Latin for '' purse'') is a professional administrator in a school or university often with a predominantly financial role. In the United States, bursars usually hold office only at the level of higher education ...

of, St Benedict's School.Father Laurence Soper of Ealing wanted over sex abuse
BBC News 14 October 2011 In 2016, he was arrested in Kosovo and extradited to the UK to face trial. In December 2017, following a 10-week trial, Soper was found guilty on 19 counts of child sexual abuse including buggery, indecency with a child and indecent assault. He was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. Following these incidents and other alleged offences, Abbot Shiperlee commissioned a report from

Lord Carlile of Berriew Alexander Charles Carlile, Baron Carlile of Berriew, (born 12 February 1948) is a British barrister and crossbench member of the House of Lords. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Montgomeryshire from 1983 to 1997. Early life and career ...

with a view to making recommendations on the School's governance. As a result of the changes made the

Independent Schools Inspectorate The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) is approved by the Secretary of State for Education – under section 106 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 – to inspect independent schools in England. These schools are members of associations ...

said in its 2013 inspection report that the pastoral care at St Benedict's was excellent. In 2018-2019, the

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales was an inquiry examining how the country's institutions handled their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse. It was announced by the British Home Secretar ...

(IICSA) was investigating institutional failures to protect children from sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, including complaints about Catholic schools and specifically investigations at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s school. The Pope’s representative in Britain, archbishop Edward Adams, refused to co-operate with the enquiry. In February 2019, Martin Shipperlee, abbot of Ealing Abbey, resigned over a failure to investigate child sexual abuse allegations.

Benedictine Study and Arts Centre, renamed Benedictine Institute

The monks of Ealing also run the Benedictine Institute, which was originally suggested in 1986 by Francis Rossiter, the Abbot, and opened in 1992 by Laurence Soper, then Abbot. The present Abbot, Martin Shipperlee, has continued his support since his election in 2000. The Institute, which is endorsed and supported by the

, has developed and provides a Liberal Arts programme of adult education and a programme of Sacred Liturgy, with some officially validated courses. The studies pursued now focus upon Sacred Liturgy and the Liberal Arts, including theology (go to directory of institutions) and both modern and

classical languages A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large and ancient body of written literature. Classical languages are typically dead languages, or show a high degree of diglossia, as the spoken varieties of the ...

, of which the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

summer school has become a regular feature of the annual programme. The Benedictine Institute, an umbrella for The Liturgy Institute of England and Wales (Institutum Liturgicum), St Bede Library, Ealing Abbey Pottery and London Spring are housed in Overton House, a Victorian mansion property in Castlebar Road adjacent to the Abbey built by John M. Bartholomew, son of the founder of

John Bartholomew and Son Collins Bartholomew, formerly John Bartholomew and Son, is a long-established map publishing company originally based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is now a subsidiary of HarperCollins. History George Bartholomew (8 January 1784–23 October 187 ...

, the map-maker and publisher of atlases; the name of "J.M. Bartholomew" features in some carved stones in the walls of the garden. The property was purchased by

in 1930 and sold to Ealing Abbey upon its independence from Downside in 1955. The St Bede library contains three main collections for undergraduate liberal studies and graduate study in theology and liturgy, based on a collection assembled in Oxford, London and Rome from 1978 to 1992. These were subsequently supplemented by purchase and gift, in particular by donations from members of the

Alcuin Club The Alcuin Club is an Anglican organization seeking to preserve or restore church ceremony, arrangement, ornament, and practice in an orthodox manner. The organization was founded in 1897 and named after Alcuin of York. It was a reorganization of ...

. From 2002 until his retirement in 2015 the Institute's principal and head of Liturgy, James Leachman, served as professor and later as tenured professor of Liturgy at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy at Sant Anselmo in Rome. Throughout this period he directed the Institute's work; since 2010 Fr Daniel McCarthy OSB has shared much of the teaching and administration of the Liturgical Institute. The UK arm of the project, Appreciating the Liturgy (based on the

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...

Ecclesia de Eucharistia), founded and directed by James Leachman and Daniel McCarthy, a monk of St. Benedict's Abbey in

Atchison, Kansas Atchison is a city and county seat of Atchison County, Kansas, United States, along the Missouri River. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 10,885. The city is named in honor of US Senator David Rice Atchison from Missouri ...

, has been housed since 2009 in the former "Scriptorum" at the Centre, originally established by Bernard Orchard in 2003. The Centre publishes the periodical ''Benedictine Culture'' twice each year.

Monks of Ealing

Ealing Abbey was the home for parts of their careers of various notable monks.

Bernard Orchard Dom Bernard Orchard (3 May 1910 – 28 November 2006) was a British Roman Catholic Benedictine monk, headmaster and biblical scholar. Early life and education John Archibald Henslowe Orchard, the son of a farmer, was born in Bromley, Kent. H ...

, the

biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 ...

, was a distinguished monk of Ealing. Between 1933–1939, David Knowles, the monastic historian and later Regius Professor of Modern History at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

resided there and conducted the research for his

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

''The Monastic Order in England''. Cuthbert Butler also lived at Ealing following his retirement as Abbot of Downside from 1922 until his death in 1934.

John Main John Douglas Main Order of Saint Benedict, OSB (21 January 1926 – 30 December 1982) was a Roman Catholic priest and Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine monk who presented a way of Christian meditation which used a prayer-phrase or mantra. ...

, a proponent of Christian

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

, whose methods are now fostered by the World Community for Christian Meditation, was a monk of the Ealing community in the period 1959–1970 and 1974–1977. In September 2011, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered an apostolic visitation of Ealing Abbey. The Abbey's safeguarding policies and procedures formed part of the remit of the visitors.

Priors and Abbots

The following monks have served as Prior and, since elevation to the status of Abbey on 26 May 1955, Abbot:

Gallery

File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - geograph.org.uk - 1750462.jpg, South side of the church File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - East end - geograph.org.uk - 1750466.jpg, Towards the Altar File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - East end - geograph.org.uk - 1750470.jpg, View of the Sanctuary File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - West end - geograph.org.uk - 1750468.jpg, West end of the church File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - East end - geograph.org.uk - 1750465.jpg, Baptismal Font File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - West window - geograph.org.uk - 1750477.jpg, West Window File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - Window - geograph.org.uk - 1750474.jpg, South Transept Window File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - Side altar - geograph.org.uk - 1750481.jpg, Side Altar File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - Statues - geograph.org.uk - 1750480.jpg, Statues within the church File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - Statue - geograph.org.uk - 1750476.jpg, Statue of St Benedict File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - Painting - geograph.org.uk - 1750478.jpg, ''The Baptism of Christ'', painting within the church File:St Benedict's Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London W5 - Relief - geograph.org.uk - 1750479.jpg, A relief within the church

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Ealing AbbeyParish of St Benedict, Ealing AbbeyBenedictine InstituteLiturgy Institute of England and Wales
{{Diocese of Westminster Benedictine monasteries in England Monasteries of the English Benedictine Congregation Monasteries in London Religious organizations established in 1897 Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals in the United Kingdom Roman Catholic churches in the London Borough of Ealing Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster 1897 establishments in England 19th-century Christian monasteries Frederick Walters buildings Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Ealing Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England Violence against men in the United Kingdom 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom