Carmelites establish new house of studies in Oregon

Published: 2004-10-29

MOUNT ANGEL, Ore. (CNS) -- As trucks loaded with freshly harvested hops lumbered along the road below, a different kind of cultivation was taking place on the western slope of Mount Angel. On the site overlooking the rich Willamette River Valley, workers were building a house of theological study for Carmelites. The friars transferred their house of studies from Berkeley, Calif., to Mount Angel in 1999. For the last two years, they have lived in a dormitory of a former Benedictine women's college. Brother Philip Sullivan, a 33-year-old native of Long Beach, Calif., is one of 13 Carmelites in classes at Mount Angel Seminary, just up the hill from the construction site. "You have to learn to be active in prayer and prayerful in action," he said about the life of a Carmelite. He noted that Carmelites engage in a variety of ministries -- retreats, parish work and the formation of young friars. "We have a very contemplative spirit, but we have an apostolic tradition," Carmelite Father Donald Kinney, student master, told the Catholic Sentinel, newspaper of the Portland Archdiocese.

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