Re: OT The Convent

While spitting out some home-made cheese, I heard Kim Andrews
<somerat@xxxxxxxxxxx> say

Off topic... Not that anything about nuns can every be inappropriate
in umra. :o)

Has anybody else been watching The Convent? I've found it pretty
interesting, and the nuns are a lovely bunch, but I've found it a bit
disingenuous. They stressed at the start of the series, and do so on
their web site also, the "ordinariness" of the four women chosen to go
into the convent. But... it seems to me that they've very clearly
chosen four women with extreme issues and insecurities to make the
experience, and, therefore, the television, as dramatic as possible. I
think that's perfectly understandable, but wish they'd been a bit more
honest about the selection.

Or... are these levels of disfunction now genuinely "ordinary" and a
random selection of passing strangers would have produced the same
result?

The nuns are, as I said, a lovely bunch. Though I think my
peacefulness and serenity might be quite enhanced by having a
comfortable home and sustenance supplied at no cost, without needing
to involve God, I must confess [1]. If anybody wants to pay my
mortgage and all my bills, I promise to think about them at regular
intervals... though I can't promise to start at 05.45! So, er... has
anybody worked out how the convent is financed?


I watched last night's episode and really enjoyed it. I agree with
you about the nuns - a lovely bunch, as you say.

Re, finances: IANANun but as I understand it, some of the income
comes from the new joiners. They take the injunction "sell all that
you have and give to the poor" very literally. I believe that, when
entering a monastery or convent, the novice makes all of his or her
property over to the convent.

However, that wouldn't be enough. The average novice will not be so
rich that the money she donates to the convent at age 18, say, will
keep her in food and clothing until she dies of old age. Most
convents run some kind of business. We saw the nuns of Arundel making
candles - these would be sold for church use (the RC church is big on
candles). Other convents make and sell communion wafers or communion
wine, or church vestments.

I don't claim to understand the finances in full, but I do know that
the wage bill will be zero, as all the work is done by the nuns
themselves, and they will not pay business rates, as a religious
institution, so whatever business they operate will be able to work at
a fairly high profit margin.

Finally, I expect there will be charitable donations. I wouldn't be
at all surprised if the BBC had not made a substantial donation to the
order, in recognition of their generosity in allowing the women (not
to mention camera and sound crews) such free access to the convent.

And, of course, the other side of the coin is the relatively low
living costs. Nuns lead very simple lives. They don't spend money on
expensive items such as alcohol, cosmetics, TVs and TV licences, cars,
car tax, car insurance, CDs and DVDs, hi-fi's Game Boys, etc etc.
Doing without all that lot should certainly cut living expenses, and I
daresay they grow much of their own food, to reduce costs still
further.

BTW, while watching it, I had a thought. I'm sure that most people
who found themselves taking a prominent role in a television programme
would be quite excited and would gather around with their friends to
watch it when it was aired. The video tape of the programme would be
kept and re-visited periodically.

However, in the case of these nuns, I wouldn't be at all surprised to
learn that none of them will ever see it, even though several of them
have featured very prominently.

Tony Gardner
N.B. Return E-mail address is spamtrapped.
Replace "spambin" with "tony" and "nospam" with "gardner"
.

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