Graeme and Oz just arrived from the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Victoria, Australia to hang with us here at Ngatiawa Contemporary Monastery. They are Baptists and they are monks. They even wear habits.
We had a chat about Baptist monastic movements. Some of the noteworthy and historic Baptist monasteries that have made their radar include the famous Ephrata Community in Pennsylvania, the Baptist movement in Georgia (the country, not the state) which is basically monastic, and a few Baptist monasteries in Africa. Also the Seattle crowd and Northumbria, although not Baptist, made the conversation.
They describe the Holy Transfiguration Monastery as being somewhere in the middle of old-school monasteries and nu-monasticism. It started in the 1970's in the suburbs of Geelong (Breakwater) and has recently moved out to the rural area where they are reconfiguring, [ transfiguring?? ;-) ] themselves. HT was formally accepted into the Baptist communion a few years ago as well as the BWA. It took the monastery 37 flipp'n years to be acknowledge by the mainstream evangelical church. I am hoping newer monasteries will be embraced sooner than that.
Related on TSK: Read what I wrote about Baptist Monasteries in 2003 regarding the Southern Baptist (BGCT) embracing a monastery in Austin, Texas, which I visited that year and enjoyed a very well hopped and well brewed beer.
