Trips in Christian East and West
Precious occasions of formation and of encounter have been also the trips of study, of work, or of preaching that gave some members of our community the chance to visit European and other church communities. In mid-November br. Luciano went to Cracow to give a course on Biblical spirituality; br. Matteo spent two weeks in Taipei (Taiwan), where he participated in a conference on Italian sinology and for a few days was a guest in a Zen Buddhist monastery;
br. Adalberto and br. Norberto traveled to Vienna to admire the frescoes of the new Russian Orthodox cathedral, commissioned by our friend bishop Ilarion Alfeev; br. Vincenzo spent two weeks with our fraternity in Jerusalem and at the end of January accompanied metropolitan Emilianos to Greece, where he stayed at the Petraki monastery (Athens) and took part in the funeral of the archbishop of Athens Christodoulos; two weeks later br. Lino represented our community at the funeral of metropolitan Emilianos himself; sr. Laure, to improve her knowledge of English, spent a month in Ireland, for two weeks as a guest at Glencairn abbey, and also visited the Cistercian community of Mount Malory and Glenstal abbey; sr. Sylvie, sr. Lorenza, and sr. Chiara participated in a meeting organized by the Department of community research of the Protestant federation of France at Hautecombe abbey on the theme: “Ecumenical experience in our communities”; and finally, in mid-April br. Raffaele and br. Luigi made a short trip to Greece to revive contacts with the monasteries and church communities that are our friends: the monasteries of Meteora, Petra, Karditsa, Petraki, Megara and the dioceses of Chalkidia, Pireo, and Eghion, where they visited the tomb of our dear Emilianos.