Founding Inspiration
Daniel P. McCarthy – James G. Leachman
The founding inspiration for this new direction in our on-going conversation was given by Abbot Owen Purcell, osb, during a conversation with Daniel McCarthy over Christmas holiday in Atchison in 2012. A confrère was recounting how, for the cause of promoting vocations, he felt obligated to attend a conference of little interest to him and how his family rather than the abbey would pay his airfare. When the confrère left the room, Abbot Owen shook his clinched fists in the air and cried out,
See, that's exactly what I mean!
You will never form a whole monk like that.
You will only form a chimera.
This seemed a moment of truth-telling that cut through flesh and bone to expose the marrow, which in short order led to the Generative Communities Colloquium.
In further discussion Abbot Owen went on to explain that monks should not be pressed upon to attend conferences of little interest to them, even for the cause of promoting vocations. While the monk felt obligated to attend the conference, his medical condition prohibited him from riding the bus as a vocational inspiration to college students for the twenty-three hour journey. So the junior monk's family paid for him to fly to a conference of little interest to him, which he attended out of felt obligation. Abbot Owen's insight was that such a programme of monastic formation would produce only a chimera, a composite animal that is by different accounts part human, part lion, part winged, part goat, part reptile. Such a mess could not produce an integral monk whose monastic identity is generated from within the community itself.
At about this time Abbot Martin Shipperlee, osb, had come to a similar insight and decided that Ealing Abbey, London, would have to find the resources within itself to respond to the demands of its then current situation, and he decided to employ an external consultant to facilitate the needed conversation among the confrères.
Inspired by the insights of their respective abbots, James Leachman and Daniel McCarthy considered developing two previous colloquia and a study day on how human maturation is reflected in the liturgy and how the good celebration of liturgy promotes human maturation at all stages of life.[1] Those conversations centred on personal maturation. But what of communal maturation?
A community is generative when it incorporates new people into its membership thereby enhancing its world view, or when a community nurtures its members helping them to mature and develop throughout the stages of life.[2]Appreciating a member of a community for one’s unique contribution is another aspect of shared generativity, as is a community’s creative influence on the larger society. They convene this colloquium to discuss the generative quality of life together in community, about which little has been said.
On a theological level there is a tradition that describes the nuptial union of the church as spouse of Christ. The church is also described as fruitful mother who gives re-birth to people who enter her baptismal waters and rise re-born from this her womb. Christ nurtures these newly born on his own body and blood as they in turn grow to maturity, union and generativity. These meditations concern theological types, but what of a specific community’s healthful and generative way of life?
On a practical level much is said about forming a community’s identity and developing its mission,[3] but less attention has been given to the generative quality of life together in community. So, the specific focus here is by way of initial and necessarily concise proposal.
Upon reflection, James and Daniel produced a descriptor of the on-going colloquium they titled Generative Communities. You can find its entire text on the first page of this volume.
James and Daniel decided to approach the Benedictine superiors in Atchison and in London to propose a shared colloquium to discuss the generative quality of life together in community. Sr Anne Shepard, osb, Prioress of Mount St Scholastica, Atchison, encouraged the proposal and suggested that we also chat with Sr Mary Collins, osb. In the course of our discussion it became clear that Mary Collins intended the generative quality of a community as that which brings new life to its members at every stage of their lives. Thus the original focus on the initial formation of people joining a monastic community, gave way to a broader, collective project called Generative Communities. The newly elected Abbot James R. Albers, osb, of St Benedict’s Abbey, was also supportive and, after consultation with his council, agreed to sponsor the colloquium and to host its inaugural conversation on 7-8 January 2014 at the Abbey.
An account of these colloquia up to the present, including current plans for future colloquia, is recounted in chapter 1. The reader wishing to get to the heart of the matter presented in this volume may wish to read the summary accounts of the first two colloquia, IV, 1, p. XX-XX; IV, 2, p. XX-XX, and then continue by reading the papers themselves beginning with chapter 2 and following.
Footnotes
[1] “Human Maturation in the Liturgy”, (Liturgiam aestimare Colloquium alterum : Appreciating the Liturgy Colloquium 2), St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough (Hampshire) 11 September 2009; “Maturation in the Liturgy”, Study Day 2, St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough (England) 12 September 2009; “Fostering human maturation”, Colloquium tertium, Clement Manor, Greenfield (Wisconsin) 6 January 2010. Dom Leachman draws upon the work of Jeannine Guindon, a colleague of Erik Erikson, whereas Dom McCarthy draws upon the work of James W. Fowler, Stages of faith: the psychology of human development and the quest for meaning, Harper & Row, San Francisco 1981.
[2] Sr Molly Brockwell, osb, said that a community is generative, "When I allow it to influence who I am becoming".
[3] At the time of this writing the English Benedictine Congregation’s Theological Commission is developing a statement on Charism and Essence. See: "… the EBC has established a theological commission to examine the English Benedictines' charism and essence. The Abbot of Douai, in Berkshire, Geoffrey Scott, explained that traditionally this has been 'a unique blend of monastic and apostolic'. After the EBC was re-founded in England in the seventeenth century, the monks spent much of their time in a missionary capacity" (C. Lamb, “New Role for an Old Rule”, The Tablet [19 October 2013] 12); on Wednesday 12 October 2011 Abbess Paula Fairlie of Curzon Park Abbey, Chester, gave a paper, “Reflections on the Charism of the Benedictine monastic life”, paper given on 12 October 2011, www.benedictine-oblates.net/talks/Benedictine Charism, Dame Paula OSB.doc (accessed 12 December 2013). Editor's note: the volume has been published under the title: L. Johns – A. Bevan – A. Berry – D. Foster – M. Barrett, To Prefer Nothing to Christ: The monastic mission of the English Benedictine Congregation, Catholic Truth Society, London 2015.
Bibliographical entry in full
McCarthy, Daniel Patrick – James Garnet Leachman, "Founding Inspiration", in Born of the Spirit: Generative Communities. Genitae Spiritu communitates generant, ed. D.P. McCarthy – J.G. Leachman (Documenta rerum ecclesiasticarum instaurata, Liturgiam aestimare : Appreciating the Liturgy, Conversationes Atchisonenses: colles bini – gemini sancti = Atchison conversations: twin hills – holy twins 1), St Michael's Abbey Press, Farnborough (Hampshire) 2025, xiv-xv, https://generativecommunities.org/inspiration/ [accessed 11 October 2026].