We are a contemplative monastery of Eastern Orthodox nuns, under the aegis of
the Orthodox Church in America. Our monastery is under the patronage of Our
Lady of the Sign, a symbol of the entire praying church. We consider ourselves
ecumenical in terms of our religious backgrounds, experience and understanding.
The community began by a group of Poor Clare nuns under the Roman Catholic
Church. From our beginning here, we followed the Eastern Rite in our liturgical
lives, feeling most at home with an Eastern bent to our spirituality. We embrace fully the Eastern Orthodox emphasis
on the goodness and inherent beauty of creation and God’s indwelling
Spirit in everything.
Our ongoing prayer is that the division between the churches may one day truly
be healed.
Our primary focus is to work continually to transform ourselves in the light of the
Gospel. To follow the path that leads us to become the person God wants us to
be, we have chosen to live this life together. We strive for a balance in common
and private prayer, and work that is simply the work of daily living. The work of
producing the cheesecakes made in the monastery’s bakery helps to support the
nuns and the upkeep of the monastery and land. Life in the monastery allows for
reflection, relaxation and ongoing growth. Our monastery, outside of a small
village in eastern New York State, is situated on a rolling hillside that offers a
sense of solitude without enclosed cloister. Hospitality is an important expression
of our monastic life and women of diverse Christian faiths find time with us to be
restorative and renewing in their journeys. Spiritual companioning, both formally
and informally through our ongoing relationships, is an essential expression of the
fruit of our contemplative life. Creative artistic expression finds outlets in our
gardening, icon painting, vestment making, writing and cooking. With all these
elements, we find it is a rich and fulfilling life.
Our founding in 1969 was with the ideal of living out the values of monastic life in a way that was fitting in contemporary
American culture. Today this is a delicate line to walk which requires ongoing discernment. We strive to retain those pieces of
the earliest tradition which we feel are essential to supporting our spiritual growth and to let go of other pieces which have
long tied monastics to the culture of medieval Europe and near eastern cultures. We have a rich liturgy with services shared
with the monks, which are entirely sung and chanted -in English and inclusive language. Rather than using a strict
translation of ancient texts, we work at making the language of our prayers and hymns accessible to contemporary American
understanding while maintaining a sense of reverence and dignity. We wear Riassas (monastic choir robes) over our
regular clothes for liturgical services.
As a small community there is emphasis on consensus in governance under the leadership of our elected prioress. This
is very much part of the tension of individuality and shared communal life that we strive to hold in light of ongoing
discernment. While maintaining our autonomy as a monastic community, a truly unique character of our monastic life is
the interrelatedness of our community with that of monks and of married companions.
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