Fokke Wouda

CHAPTER 3: EUCHARIST IN ECUMENICAL MONASTERIES 95 3 EUCHARIST IN ECUMENICAL MONASTERIES: DESCRIPTION OF PRACTICES ucharistic hospitality is far more than the mere acts of giving and receiving Communion in ecumenical settings. This is evidently the case in the monastic communities of Taizé and Bose, where sharing the Eucharist is inherently and explicitly part of the ecumenical journey of the monastics. This chapter, therefore, describes the contexts in which those acts are embedded. Section 3.1 introduces the common context of the monasteries as NewMonastic Communities. The subsequent sections introduce the histories, characteristics, and practices of Taizé (3.2) and Bose (3.3). 3.1 CONTEXT: NEW MONASTIC COMMUNITIES Italian sociologist Stefania Palmisano helpfully defines both Taizé and Bose as ‘New Monastic Communities’ (NMCs) in her study Exploring New Monastic Communities: The (Re)invention of Tradition. 231 Mapping the field of monasticism, Palmisano distinguishes between “Old Monasticism,” the traditional congregations established before the Second Vatican Council, and “New Monasticism,” forms of monastic life that emerged after and in response to the Council. Within Old Monasticism, she differentiates between innovational congregations that actively renewed themselves in response to the Council’s outcomes; traditionalists who, although accepting the Council, maintained their status quo; and ultra-traditionalists who reject the Council’s innovations and find themselves in a tense relationship with the post-conciliar Roman Catholic Church. Palmisano categorizes the communities emerging in 231 Stefania Palmisano, Exploring New Monastic Communities: The (Re) Invention of Tradition (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015). E

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