What is MID?

 

MID stands for "Monastic Interreligious Dialogue."  It is a board of Catholic monastic religious from the Benedictine and Cistercian orders, as well as an advisory board drawn from experts in religion from academia and other religious traditions such as Buddhism.  We are part of the larger DIM/MID group which works under the aegis of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in Rome.

The purpose of MID is to foster dialogue with the monastic traditions of other religions, in particular Buddhism.  However, individually many members also dialogue with religions which do not have a monastic tradition, such as Islam.

To this end, there are several regular events which MID organizes and sponsors.  "Nuns in the West" and "Monks in the West" provide a forum for open sharing between Christians and Buddhists from North America, and the "Gethsemani Encounter" provides a slightly more formal opportunity for exchange.