item0069D  996, 997

It did not feel like a "retreat" - more like an opportunity to advance, explore, develop.  I understand the anti-religious hardliners, particularly on the Left, who regard all "religion" as a conspiracy to subdue, anaesthetise, subordinate.  But it seems inexorable that, with the passage of the years, a sense of contemplation sets in, a desire to pause and make better sense of it all.  Conventional humanist materialism is simply not enough for me, although I do not accept the claims made for the existence of a "supernatural" dimension.  My theism is all around me, if at all. 

That was Canvey Island, for me.  My companion was a dear friend Peter MacPherson, a leading Catholic layman of Swansea, a faithful son of Mother Church, and a businessman who assisted the Canvey monastic community with the conduct of their various income-generating business ventures.

The discipline was the traditional Cistercian Code, first of all of silence.  Although the organisation of daily life demanded some limited speech (the monks preparing the meals must have exchanged words, in the kitchen), the sense of silence was very powerful indeed.  Peter and I slept in two sparse guest rooms, and we were permitted to speak to each other, although we too kept speech to a minimum within the Abbey.

The pattern of the day was the mediaeval one - eight hours work, eight hours sleep, eight hours prayer.  For us, the "work" periods were for reading, writing, thinking - we did not attempt to share in the work of the sixteen monks.  The prayer was dispersed through the day, in a number of services in the Abbey, interspersed with work - tending the herd of cows, and the sheep, making chocolate, stationery and other items for sale in the Abbey Shop.  The shop itself, and the sub-post-office was a source of income for the monastery, as were the guesthouse facilities elsewhere on the Island - Peter and I had rooms in the monastery itself.

At meal times, Peter and I were permitted to sit together, but the monks had single tables - sitting a couple of yards from each other, and being served with food by those on serving duty for the day.  All was silence, some monks continued with their reading.

I spent the three days reading the Gospels right through, slowly, end-to-end.  I had never done that before.   It focused my thoughts on the harshness and privations of the Christian message, which is so easily glossed.  Peter and I went on long walks around the monastery fields, talking all the while.  We arrived on a Thursday evening, and returned to Swansea on Sunday afternoon.

• And the sun shined all the time.

Have you ever had a similar experience?  Drop me a line

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Dear Roger  

I was a patient of Dr Colin Brewer.  I had been a hopeless heroin addict for about five years – so were my brother and my cousin.   We all saw Dr Brewer in 2001: we all did the “home detox” - which , for my family, was a very difficult task.  But nevertheless, after a few days of being locked-in and given the medication prescribed, we all in turn succeeded . 

We then went straight to Dr Brewer’s Clinic in Essex and had the implants. We continued to have them for a year after that.  We are all still “clean”, and no longer need the implants.   We will be for ever grateful to Dr Brewer and his wonderful medical team.    

It would be a crime if their good work were to be disrupted due to a handful of failures.  There are so many success stories, due to their brilliant work.  What does the GMC have to offer in its place that would get such remarkable results and give these poor unfortunate addicts back their lives?  Methadone has been proved to be more harmful in the long term, so why cannot the Government realize that Dr Brewer’s methods -  extreme as they may seem or be – do work.   

Yours sincerely

Annmarie Jordan