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February 2026 Digest - Mucknell Abbey
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28 Feb February 2026 Digest

Posted at 15:34h in News, The Community by

Welcome back to Mucknell Abbey for a look at what we’ve been up to this month. A lot of it has involved watching the rain; the few dry days have been very welcome along the way. Heating and boiler problems continue to plague us – we’re currently having to shovel/rake woodchip three times a day to keep the boiler supplied. Once we more or less empty the woodchip store, we’ll be able to have another repair done. At least it’s helping us keep fit – and also appreciate our heating and hot water that little bit more. Read on to see what else we’ve been up to.

Sunday Service

As I mentioned briefly last month, we had the media team from the Church of England here to do some filming at the end of January, primarily for the weekly online Sunday Service. They’ve also released a couple of short clips of their time here over the past week:


The service itself is for Sunday 1st March, the 2nd Sunday in Lent, and will be available at 9 a.m. this coming Sunday, on the Church of England’s YouTube channel. Here’s a trailer for the service:

Community Retreat

Following the excitement (!) of the filming, it was good to move into our Community Retreat, from Monday 2nd to Sunday 8th. This time we were led through the week by Canon Dr. Andrew D. Mayes, former Spirituality Adviser to the Diocese of Cyprus & the Gulf. He has spent much time in the Holy Land, and based his talks to us on his book, Beyond the Edge: spiritual transitions for adventurous souls. These drew on his explorations of the landscape of Israel and Palestine, as experienced by Jesus and his disciples in the Gospels, relating Jesus’ experiences of liminality to our own experiences of Religious Life. We’re very grateful to Andrew for his input.

Roundhouse work

The landscape around the Roundhouse continues to develop; the path work that was begun last month has now (thanks to a few dry days in a row) been completed, and the ramp and stairs have also been built and installed by the lovely people at Hemming Carpentry and Construction.

Conferences Galore!

A few of us have enjoyed time away at various conferences in the past month; Jem enjoyed some time at Brownshill Monastery for the Internovitiate Study Week (Jem isn’t yet a novice with us, but alongsides and postulants are allowed to attend the conferences if they wish). This was looking at the theology of Religious Life, and was led by Sr. Gemma Simmons CJ and our own Sr. Alison. Both Alison and Jem had a great time, but said that the current crop of novices are a noisy bunch!

I also enjoyed 5 days at the Franciscan Centre in Godalming for a meeting of sisters belonging to Contemplative communities, who are both in life vows and aged 60 or under. The majority of the attendees were from Roman Catholic communities (mostly Carmelites and Poor Clares), but Sr. Janet SSC and I provided an Anglican presence. It was a wonderful opportunity to share our lives with each other and be encouraged by one another – so much so, that we booked next year’s gathering while we were there. Here’s a couple of photos from the grounds of the Centre:

Rocky’s Roamings

Rocky has been spared the promised vet’s visit this month; he’s booked in for Wednesday 4th, so check back next month to see how that goes! I’m trying an approach of just saying nothing and acting like all is normal; his current routine is to stay inside (mostly in Br. Stuart’s room) once he’s had his breakfast, so I’ve booked an appointment for first thing in the morning. Fingers crossed this works. If you’re wondering why all the subterfuge is necessary, check out last March’s digest to see how last year’s visit went.

This month, Rocky has been his usual inscrutable self, mostly hunting by night and sleeping by day. He did venture up to the top floor of our building earlier this week, but obviously wasn’t terribly impressed by what he found as he was soon on his way back downstairs to the basement again.

And finally…

Something a bit different this month! As many of you may remember, we’ve had members of the Community of St. Anselm to stay with us for both week-long and month-long ‘tasters’ over the past several years, and it’s always lovely to keep up with what they’re doing. A couple of years ago, Shena, from Pakistan, stayed with us a couple of times, and while she was here, had a message from her mother to let her know that her (awaited and expected) marriage had finally all been arranged. The marriage took place earlier this month, and Shena has kindly allowed us to share a couple of photos, from both her church wedding and the traditional ceremonies that take place around the same time:

It’s a delight to see her (and her new husband) looking so beautiful and happy, and a reminder that God calls all of us in different ways, at different times. While Shena was with us, we were all keen to hear and learn about the situation for the Christian community in Pakistan: a reminder of the safety and security we enjoy in practising our faith, and a keener sense of being part of the body of Christ spread throughout the world. As we continue to move through Lent, I hope that we’re all able to take some time to remember and to pray for Christians across the world, our siblings in Christ, who are part of us as we are part of them, Amen.