Winter 2025 • By LP
The Warmth of Recognition

Summer Sparks at the Orein Winter Benefit Event

The warmth of recognition. That's what we felt on a frigid night, gathered by candlelight in St. Paul's church for the Orein Arts Benefit.

"Are you an alum?" we asked one another, tentatively, as though it were necessary, as though we could not tell. Poets recognized sculptors, musicians recognized actors. The spark of a week at Orein hovers over each of us like a Pentecostal flame, beckoning curiosity and courage.

Much ink is spilled these days on the power of community - why we lack it, where it's gone, how to find it. For the artist, the Orein Arts retreat - a quiet creative sanctuary among living, prayerful monks - is a real and true response to those tiresome questions.

After a night hearing poetry, performance and music, we feasted in the rectory next door, with a library of wine and a hearty table. Here I discovered artists who had traveled miles to be with us in Brooklyn for the benefit. Many were staying at the homes of friends. Community sprouts outside the walls of Mount Saviour Monastery.

A personal religious creed is not required to be an Oreiner - only a belief that artists sharing a table can make magic together. What a splendid relief that this power endures, year after year, manifesting in Brooklyn for a heartfelt evening celebration.

Two retreatants have since had babies. Another has traveled across the whole of Canada by rail. Others have gotten engaged or married. We pray for each other, we send cards and letters. Sweet reminders that though we are artists, we are first fellow humans.

A gift to know that as we listened to the music that night, the monks at Mount Saviour were singing their vesper song, and would soon fall into silence. Their traditions sung in time with ours in distant harmony.︎



—Laura Pittenger Jordan, Writer, Orein ‘23

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