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I have been looking today at the rule of St Benedict, a monk from around the 5th century AD who created a list of rules enforcing a system of moderation into the monasteries. However, over time, Benedictine monasteries due to collective wealth became corrupt. A fellow student asked the following question in regards to this, and I want to share with you some of my answer, as I feel it goes in line with what I have shared already in this series on God’s Economy. See what you think, and I would love to read some responses or ideas from you readers.

Q. One of the downfalls of monastic living was the collective wealth that eventually corrupted the system. What new rule’s or safeguards could communities put in place to avoid collective, or corruption from collective wealth?
Corruption itself stems not from collective wealth or being primarily centred around economics (though there seems to be great temptation in this area) but from a lack of integrity that can be attributed to a community or an individual(s).  In today’s society this has been evident within our current “credit crunch crisis”, attributed to corruption and greed and has led to increasing and uncontrollable debt. The issue is not whether we should stem collective wealth and how we do that, rather, how do you deal with personal and corporate integrity, or lack thereof, and how do you encourage generosity as opposed to greed?
I am not one for rules, and prefer the idea of guidelines or as L. states “safeguards”.
I lived within a mission’s community setting for 6-7yrs and such issues can be reduced (I say reduced because I am unsure whether you can ever distil such problems). I would suggest the 3 following main criterion:
1.  Accountability within the community and especially from outside the community leadership structure (trustees or such). St Benedict has this system in place somewhat by advising in chapter 3 that whenever important business has to be done, the Abbot is to call together the whole community. However, nothing is said in regards to accountability, or community discussion with respect specifically of finance and external answerability.

2. Transparency with regards to financial accounting (allowing anyone at any time to view the accounts, ask questions and performing annual audits).

3. System of community giving which encourages the spirit of generosity.
In modern day we have “not for profit” organisations, and I’m sure a monastery such as the Benedictine type would fall into such a category, and thus in many respects would be required to function under government legislation which would certainly include Accountability and transparency.

What do you think?

Related posts:

1. In God's Economy – INTEGRITY – A Call to the church
2. God's Economy – Generosity (part 2)
3. In God's Economy – Generosity (part 1)
4. In God's Economy…
5. God's Economy – Generosity (Part 3) It's in your jeans…I mean Genes!