Noisy Cloister For Rent

– Last December, we brought you the story of the Nova Nada Carmelite Hermitage, near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The Hermitage is cloistered in a forest near the lands of the giant timber holdings of the J.D. Irving Company , and the chainsaws disrupt the silence that is central to their contemplative way of life. So the Hermitage residents asked for a two-mile no-logging zone around their retreat. J.D. Irving agreed to the first mile, but not the second. Further talks have failed, and this week, Nova Nada’s ten brothers and sisters are packing their bags and abandoning their home for what they say will be at least a year-long sabbatical. Mother Tessa Bielecki, co- founder of the Monastery, tells Steve Curwood that the Hermitage residents don’t object to logging per se.