Ealing Abbey

Ealing Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastic foundation in West London, England, and part of the English Benedictine Congregation.
==History==
The monastery at Ealing was founded in 1897 from Downside Abbey, originally as a parish in the Archdiocese of Westminster. It was canonically erected as a dependent priory in 1916 and raised again to the rank of independent conventual priory in 1947. Finally, in 1955 it was elevated to the status of an Abbey by Pope Pius XII. 
==Apostolate==
===Parish===
One of the main apostolates of the Abbey is running a major parish in Ealing centred on the Abbey Church of Saint Benedict where both the parish and monastic liturgies take place. The Abbey is home to the Ealing Abbey Choir of boys' and men's voices, which sings at the Sunday Conventual Mass and appeared in the BBC television programme Songs of Praise in 2005.
===School===
Another major work of the Abbey is running St Benedict's School, founded as Ealing Priory School in 1902 by Dom Sebastian Cave. This is an independent day school for boys and, since 2007, girls at both the junior and senior levels. There is also a small co-educational nursery. Since 1987 the Abbey has engaged a lay headmaster for the Senior school having previously provided the headmaster from foundation.
===Benedictine Study and Arts Centre===
The monks of Ealing also run the Benedictine Study and Arts Centre, which was opened in 1992 by Abbot Laurence Soper. The centre has developed and now provides a Liberal Arts programme of adult education and a programme of Sacred Liturgy, with some officially validated courses.
The Centre is based at "Overton House", an elegant red-brick, neo-gothic property built by John M. Bartholomew, son of the founder of John Bartholomew and Son, the map-maker; the name of "J.M. Bartholomew" features in some carved stones in the walls of the garden. The property was purchased by Downside Abbey in 1930 and sold to Ealing Abbey upon its independence in 1955. 
The Centre is endorsed and supported by the Archdiocese of Westminster. In 2002 its principal, Dom James Leachman, was appointed professor of Liturgy at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy at Sant Anselmo in Rome, from where he still directs its workPontifical Institute of Liturgy website. The UK arm of the project "Appreciating the Liturgy" Appreciating the Liturgy(based on the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia), founded and directed by Dom James Leachman and Dom Daniel McCarthy, a monk of St Benedict's Abbey, Atchison, Kansas, is housed in the "Scriptorum" at the Centre, originally established by Dom Bernard Orchard OSB in 2003. Several books were published by Fr Bernard Orchard before his death in 2006, and now two books have been published in the "Appreciating the Liturgy Project" (2009){Appreciating the Liturgy, viz. Appreciating the Collect (St Michael's Abbey Press, Farnborough 2008) and Listen to the Word (The Tablet Publishing, London 2009).
The studies pursued now focus upon Sacred Liturgy and the Liberal Arts, including theology and both modern and classical languages, of which the Latin summer schoolBenedictine Study and Arts Centre Latin course has become a regular feature of the annual programme.
==Monks of Ealing==
Dom Bernard Orchard OSB, the biblical scholar, was a distinguished monk of Ealing.
Ealing Abbey has been the home for parts of the careers of various notable monks. Between 1933-1939 Dom David Knowles, the monastic historian and later Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge resided there and conducted the research for his magnum opus The Monastic Order in England Encyclopedia of Monasticism by William M. Johnson, p.713. Cuthbert Butler also lived at Ealing following his retirement as Abbot of Downside from 1922 until his death in 1934. Dom John Main OSB, a proponent of Christian meditation, whose methods are now fostered by the World Community for Christian Meditation, was a monk of the Ealing community in the period 1959-1970 and 1974-1977.Silent Teaching - The Life of Dom John Main, by Paul T. Harris, Spirituality Today, Winter 1988, Vol.40 No. 4, pp. 320-332 
In April 2006 civil damages were awarded jointly against Dom David Pearce, a former head of the junior school at St Benedicts, and Ealing Abbey in the High Court in relation to an alleged assault by Dom Pearce on a pupil while teaching at St Benedict's School in the 1990s, although criminal charges were dropped.Alleged Assault Ealing Times 13 April 2006 He was subsequently charged in November 2008 with 24 counts of indecent assault, sexual touching and gross indecency with six boys aged under 16. The counts related to incidents before and after 2003, when the law was changed to create an offence of sexual touching. Priest charged with paedophilia Ealing Gazette 9 December 2008 
 Ealing priest charged Ealing Times 9 December 2008 After admitting his guilt at Isleworth Crown Court to offences going back to 1972 Pearce was jailed for eight years in October 2009.'Devil in a dog collar' priest faces jail for sex abuse London Evening Standard - 12 August 2009Jailed child pervert priest ruined my life Ealing Gazette, 9 October 2009 The conduct of the Ealing monastic community, as trustee of the St. Benedict's Trust, was examined by the Charity Commission, which found that it had failed to take adequate measures to protect beneficiaries of the charity from Dom Pearce.Charity Commission Report on St. Benedict's Trust, 15 December 2009
===Priors and Abbots===
The following monks have served as Prior and, since elevation to the status of Abbey on 26 May 1955, Abbot:
Tenure 	Office	Incumbent 	Notes
1916 to 1925 	Prior 	Dom Wulstan Pearson 	Consecrated as the first Bishop of Lancaster, 25 February 1925
1925 to 1935 	Prior 	Dom Benedict Kuypers 	
1935 to 1938 	Prior 	Dom Edward Green 	Headmaster of Ealing Priory School 1917-1919
1938 	Prior 	Dom Mark Pontifex 	
1938 to 1945 	Prior 	Dom Stanislaus Chatterton	
1945 to 1946 	Prior 	Dom Ambrose Agius 	Member of Ealing Community at independence from Downside, December 1947
1946 to 1955 	Prior 	Dom Charles Pontifex 	Member of Ealing Community at independence from Downside, December 1947; appointed as the first Abbot
1955 to 1956 	Abbot 	Dom Charles Pontifex 	Resigned following a car crash; died 1976
1956 to 1967 	Abbot 	Dom Rupert Hall 	Headmaster of Ealing Priory School 1939-1945; member of Ealing Community at independence from Downside, December 1947; died 1974
1967 to 1991 	Abbot 	Dom Francis Rossiter 	
1991 to 2000 	Abbot 	Dom Laurence Soper 	
2000 to present	Abbot 	Dom Martin Shipperlee 	
==References==
;Notes:
;General Sources
*Ealing Abbey/St Benedict's website
*Benedictine Study and Arts Centre website
*Parish of Ealing Abbey
;Bibliography
*
==External links==
*Ealing Abbey
*Baptismal Font
Category:Benedictine monasteries in England
Category:Monasteries in London
Category:Religious organizations established in 1897
Category:Churches in Ealing
Category:Catholic sexual abuse scandal in the United Kingdom