Second Fellowship of Scholars at Mount Angel (Oregon, U.S.A.)

TRINITARIAN ONTOLOGY WORKSHOP AT THE SECOND FELLOWSHIP OF SCHOLARS (September 29 – October 3, 2025)

The second international Fellowship of Scholars hosted by the Mount Angel Institute (St. Benedict, Oregon, USA). was occasion for a Trinitarian Workshop to explore the “Eucharist and Trinity as Source and Form of the Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission“.

Participants included the General Secretary of the Vatican Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops, His Eminence Cardinal Grech,  the Abbot of Mount Angel Abbey, Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, o.s.b., as well as faculty members of the Mount Angel Seminary and invited scholars from various University Institutes from around the United States and from England. The concluding remarks of Cardinal Grech (see below for link to the full text) emphasized how the Workshop led to the discovery of the role of all theological and philosophical dimensions in the synodal process of the Church. The Trinitarian dynamic of thinking together in Christ, in fact, led the participants to experience the synodal process of exercising theology and philosophy at the service of the Church’s synodal mission.

Interlaced with prayer and dialogue, the contributions were offered and received as “Conversation in the Spirit”, which characterized the two plenary sessions and the entire synodal process before, during and after the XVI Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 2023 and 2024).

After words of welcome to the Workshop from Abbot Jeremy Driscoll and an explanation of its objectives and methodology by Piero Coda, His Eminence, Card. Grech, shared an update on the Synod of Bishops and the synodal process in the Church. The Workshop topic was then addressed from various perspectives: from the “Bread of Life Discourses in John 6” (Piero Coda), to the Final Document of the Synod of Bishops (Vincenzo Di Pilato), from Moral Theology (Liam de Los Reyes) to Communion Ecclesiology (Sean Keough) and Mystogogy (Anna Petrin); with contributions from the Eastern Churches from the writings of St. Ephrem (Jaisy Joseph) and of Sergej Bulgakov (Brandon Gallahar), and taking into consideration Tradition (Justin Coyle). Other academic fields enriched the study from Literature and the Arts (Katie Jo LaRiviere), Christian Humanism (Ted Papa), and the social presence of the Christian in society (Peter Casarella). Abbot Jeremy offered a beautiful summary of the topic in relation to the Eucharist, the Trinity and Synodality.

Overall, it was an experience of a synodal journey in theology rooted in the Eucharistic experience in the spirit of St. Benedict and shaped by sharing in the Trinitarian life of Christ, thus contributing to the project of renewal of thought inspired by Trinitarian Ontology and exercised as “Conversation in the Spirit” in the practice of mutually listening to one another guided by the Holy Spirit, with its social and civil consequences in the social relationships of society today.

The Benedictine context of the Workshop rooted theological and philosophical reflection in the daily liturgy of the Eucharist and subsequently in the very life of the Trinity through Christ. The Workshop thus proved itself to be a pilot project to be repeated for further reflection and formation in the synodal process, eventually involving other members and ministries of the Church.

Read the news article published by the Mount Angel Institute: https://www.mountangelabbey.org/category/monastery/

Photos courtesy of participants and of Mount Angel Institute