Goodbye, Benet Hill

Bidding farewell is never easy, especially to a place you’ve called home for 45 years. And though they’re sometimes sad and overwhelmed, the Benedictine sisters of Benet Hill Monastery know it’s time to say goodbye.

The 34 sisters will move out of Benet Hill Monastery, at 2577 N. Chelton Road, near Palmer Park, to head 17 miles north to Benet Pines, a secluded, wooded area at 15880 Colorado Highway 83 in Black Forest.

Construction of the Benet Pines Monastery is in its early stages. The sisters hope to begin adult spiritual classes there by fall, and relocation is expected to be complete by spring 2009.

Economic and practical considerations drove the move from Benet Hill, the sisters say. With its 100,000 square feet of buildings, including a former Catholic girls school, Benet Hill was too big for the sisterhood, which has dwindled to less than half its size since 1963.

Utility costs were exorbitant, with heating alone costing more than $30,000 annually.

“We were asset-rich and cash flow-poor,” said Sister Anne Stedman, who heads the order. “We are trying to simplify our ministry out of our scarcity.”

The sisters understand the reason for the move, and, because the property has been for sale since 2001, they have had a chance to prepare emotionally for it. Even so, the order recognizes that it’s not always easy to say goodbye, so there is organized quarterly communal grief counseling for those who need it.

“It is a grieving process of letting go of what has been and moving into the unknown,” said Sister Jan Ginzkey, who came to Benet Hill at age 23 and has lived there 32 years.

Stedman views the move as bittersweet.

“I love both places,” Stedman, 68, said. “We’re being wrenched out of our old home, but we’re also embracing our new home, so there is a lot of joy.”

Sister Leann Colgan, the oldest active sister at age 89, is excited by the relocation and sees it as a way to invigorate the order’s work.

“I think the move will give us new life and help people embrace our ministry,” Colgan said. “We’ll also be more accessible from Denver and develop a larger clientele.”

The new monastery in Black Forest will be a self-contained center of 33,000 square feet, with a chapel, library, dining area, classrooms, offices and living space for the sisters. A separate building will provide independent living for eight semiretired sisters.

Cost of the center is projected to be $7 million.

In December, the Colorado Springs Charter Academy paid $4.75 million for Benet Hill’s school building, gymnasium, tennis courts and playground. The academy, which has been leasing space at Benet Hill since August 2005, takes possession June 30.

Still up for sale are the chapel and several sisters’ residences, which are expected to bring in an additional $1.5 million to help the order finance the move. The sisters hope to raise an additional $4.25 million through fundraising and grants.

The monastery opened in 1963 as a missionary of the Benedictine Sisterhood of Mount Scholastica in Atchison, Kan. The monastery became independent in 1965.

When the order’s all-girl Catholic school closed in 1982 because of declining enrollment, the sisters leased the vacant space to educational institutions.

Since the school closed, the sisterhood has focused on adult education, offering Scripture seminars, Contemplative Prayer programs and a two-year spiritual-formation program open to people of other denominations and faiths.

The order will continue to offer adult education at the existing chapel and at various area parishes until the new monastery is complete. The sisters will also lease back office space from Charter Academy.

Black Forest was a natural choice for the new monastery. In the 1960s, the order purchased nine acres in Black Forest to be used as a cemetery for departed sisters. Over the years, 35 more acres of contiguous pine forest were bought to be used as a spiritual retreat. The monastery and ministry center will sit on 10 developed acres.

A new home isn’t the only change for the Bendectine sisters. The Colorado Springs order once boasted 77 sisters with an average age of 34. Today the average age is in the 60s.

The numbers reflect the decline in the 1,500-year-old Benedictine order in the U.S. and Europe. The fall-off is caused, in part, by other religious options for Catholic women and the Benedictine order’s rigorous commitment to poverty, chastity and obedience.

Stedman is unruffled by the decline.

“It’s not about age and numbers but passion for the Gospel,” she said. “It would be wonderful to have a lot of people, but you have to have the right people. We now live in such an individualistic society, and living communally is not easy.”

Some women are still drawn to the Benedictine order.

Joan Silverstein, an unmarried former El Paso County sheriff’s deputy and now a candidate for the sisterhood, became interested in the sisterhood after taking adult education classes at Benet Hill.

“I long for a deeper relationship to my faith,” Silverstein, 42, said. “I want to be part of the global community and deepen my relationship with Christ.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or mark.barna@gazette.com

- DETAILS

For more information on adult education at Benet Hill and retreats at Benet Pines, call 473-6184 or go to www.benethillmon astery.org.