New Skete
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New Skete is the collective term for three Orthodox Christian monastic communities in Cambridge, New York:
- The Monks of New Skete, a men's monastery founded in 1966,
- the Nuns of New Skete, a women's monastery founded in 1969, and
- the Companions of New Skete, a community of married monastics founded in 1982.
All three communities are under the omophorion of the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America. They are best-known in the world at large for their breeding and training of German Shepherds as companions and guide dogs; the Monks have written several best-selling dog-training textbooks. Among Orthodox Christians, they are unique in that they have instituted wide-ranging reforms to the divine office and eucharistic liturgies of the Eastern Orthodox Church, aimed at rendering the services more comprehensible. They maintain an extremely open stance regarding ecumenical contacts with other Christian groups; the nave of their newer temple features iconographic portraits of prominent non-Orthodox such as Pope John XXIII, Archbishop Michael Ramsey, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and the communities celebrate the feast of the Roman Catholic saint Francis of Assisi. This openness has brought them criticism from Orthodox conservatives and traditionalists; but the Monks and Nuns strongly defend their renewal of liturgy and monastic life as a necessity if Orthodox monasticism is to be more than "museum-keeping" in the modern world. The monastery has also attracted the presence of a small but vibrant lay community of cradle Orthodox Christians and converts from the surrounding area.
On 16 April 2007, the television show Divine Canine will air on Animal Planet. The show will feature the dog training program of the Monks of New Skete.
[edit] External links
- Common site for all three communities
- The Psalter (Translation by the Monks of New Skete)
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