Geoffrey Tristram succeeds Curtis Almquist as superior of Society of Saint John the Evangelist
Episcopal News Service. May 5, 2010 [050510-04]
ENS staff
Br. Geoffrey Tristram was formally installed May 4 as superior of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, a monastic community of the Episcopal Church based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tristram succeeds Br. Curtis Almquist, who has served as the society's superior for the past nine years.
Tristram was publicly welcomed and Almquist's ministry celebrated on May 1 in Boston during the society's patronal festival, at which Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached.
The monastery in Cambridge has for almost 85 years served as a home for the brothers as well as a place of prayer, spirituality and retreat for visitors from around the world. The society also includes Emery House, a rural retreat center in West Newbury, Massachusetts.
Prior to being elected superior in May 2001, Almquist had served in a variety of capacities within the community, including assistant superior, novice guardian, and senior brother of both the monastery and retreat house.
Tristram moved to the U.S. from the U.K. in 1999 to join the society, where he was life-professed in 2004. Most recently, he served the society as deputy superior. For the past three years, he has been a chaplain to the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops.
Born in 1953 in Cardiff, Wales, Tristram studied theology at Pembroke College, attended seminary at Westcott House, Cambridge, and in 1979 was ordained in Salisbury Cathedral.
In 1985, Tristram spent a year as a novice in the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross, Chevetogne, Belgium. In 1986, he became senior chaplain and head of the theology department of Oundle School, a large independent high school in Northamptonshire. In 1991, he became rector of the parishes of Welwyn and Ayot St. Peter in Hertfordshire, as well as chaplain of the Danesbury and Queen Victoria hospitals.
During his time in the society, Tristram has traveled extensively in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, the Holy Land, and in Africa, leading retreats and workshops, preaching, teaching, and offering spiritual direction.
The society was founded in 1866 in the parish of Cowley in Oxford, England, by the Rev. Richard Meux Benson. It was the first stable religious community of men to be established in the Anglican Church since the Reformation. The order came to Boston in 1870. For many years, the society also had houses in Scotland, India, South Africa, Japan and Canada.
In recent years, the Stone & Light Capital Campaign has been raising funds to support much-needed renovation and restoration for the monastery and the retreat house.