Our summer courses are held on weekdays for a fortnight. These course offerings and descriptions are subject to change. All courses offered in person are held at the Benedictine Institute, 74 Castlebar Road, Ealing, London W5 2DD, UK. +44 (0)20 8194 2320. Linked email address.
Liturgy Summer Term
Block 1: 6 – 17 July 2026, weekdays:
AL701 Architecture with Arts for Liturgy (IL diploma elective)
AL702 Liturgical Theology and Art (IL diploma elective)
St Bede Lecture in Liturgy: 11 July 2026
The annual St Bede Liturgy Lecture will be given by the Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröder, OSB. The lecture is scheduled for Saturday 11 July 2026 at 2:30 pm, at Ealing Abbey, free of charge.
13 – 17 July 2026, weekdays:
L718 Liturgies of the Early Church (IL diploma elective)
13 – 24 July 2026, weekdays:
L702 Liturgy in the West: History and Context (IL diploma course)
Block 2: 20 – 31 July 2026, weekdays:
L703 Western Liturgical Books (IL diploma course)
Latin Summer Term
29 June – 10 July 2026, weekdays – ONLINE only
13 – 24 July 2026, weekdays – ONLINE only
27 July – 7 August 2026, weekdays – ONLINE only
Hours of instruction for the online Latin courses are yet to be determined.
We shall have a one week break between the online and in person Latin courses.
10 – 21 August 2026, weekdays – IN PERSON only
Syriac Summer Term
Blocks 1-2: 6 – 31 July 2026, weekdays:
SY411 Beginning Syriac: 4 weeks: 6 – 31 July
Block 1: 6 – 17 July 2026, weekdays:
SY511 Intermediate Syriac: 2 weeks: 6 – 17
SY611 Spirituality of Early Syriac Writers I: 2 weeks: 6 – 17
Block 2: 20 – 31 July 2026, weekdays:
SY611 Spirituality of Early Syriac Writers II: 2 weeks: 20 – 31
St Ephrem Lecture in Syriac Studies 25 July 2026
Restoring the inner icon in us
The annual St Ephrem Lecture in Syriac Studies will be given by Rev. Dr John Semaan LMO. The lecture is scheduled for Saturday 25 July 2026 at 2:30 pm, at Ealing Abbey, free of charge. More information here.
Biblical Hebrew Summer Term
Liturgy Course Descriptions
Each course runs Monday – Friday for two weeks for a total of ten daily sessions, unless noted. Most courses are scheduled for 3 hour sessions including a break.
Block 1: 6 – 17 July 2026, weekdays
AL701 Architecture with Arts for Liturgy (IL diploma elective)
Prof. Daniel McCarthy OSB
Elective for IL diploma
The arrangement of a church for the celebration of liturgy both expresses outwardly the mystery at work in us inwardly and is constitutive of that experience. This course presents the principles of a Ritual Model for arranging churches as a basis for developing a critical assessment of a church and a vision of a church with greater synthesis.
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
AL702 Liturgical Theology and Art (IL diploma elective)
Emmaus O’Herlihy, OSB
Elective for IL diploma
Students will be equipped to develop an independent research project centred on a specific work of liturgical art. Through this, they will critically engage with the theological dimensions of liturgical praxis and explore how visual art contributes to communal worship and shapes ecclesial identity.
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
13 – 17 July 2026, weekdays
L718 Liturgies of the Early Church
em Prof. Thomas O’Loughlin
Elective for IL diploma
This one-week course may be taken alone, or it may be taken in conjunction with the one-week course L702 Liturgy in the West: History and context. This course covers the earliest centuries of the primitive church, while the other course (L702) considers the rest of liturgical history until our day.
Taken together, these two weeks considers the two major parts of the Eucharist; the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist and is designed to lead the reader through the major periods of cultural and theological change in the Church particularly in the West up to the present. We wish clearly to indicate the changes in the liturgical forms throughout history and to present the theological understandings of the Eucharist in the different periods. In this way it is hoped that readers will understand both what the Church teaches and the reasons given for these teachings.
3 hours daily including a break.
You may enrol in this course only or in both one-week courses.
Fee: £150 per week
A fuller description of the course is available here,
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address
13 – 24 July 2026, weekdays
L702 Liturgy in the West: History and Context
Prof. Stefan Geiger OSB
required for IL diploma
This course consists of two parts:
1) The one-week course L718: Liturgies of the Early Church taught by Thomas O’Loughlin, which covers the earliest centuries of the primative church.
2) This week taught by Prof. Stefan Geiger which considers the rest of liturgical history until our day.
Taken together, these two weeks aim to provide insight into the origin and developments of the liturgy in the West up to the present day. Students reflect on the different cultural periods of society and how these shape the liturgy of the Catholic Church and how the liturgy in turn influences the culture. Students examine both the historical and liturgical record and the recent debates among Catholic liturgists concerning the past and future development of the Roman Catholic liturgy. The course will proceed by means of a chronological study of the major periods of the liturgy of the Catholic Church in the West and beyond.
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £300 for both weeks
A fuller description of the course is available here,
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
Saturday, 11 July 2026
St Bede Annual Lecture in Liturgy
Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröeder, OSB
Title yet to be determined
to be given on
the Sollemnity of our Holy Father St Benedict
Sunday, 11 July 2026
beginning at 2.30 pm
Event held at
the Ealing Abbey
2, Marchwood Crescent
Ealing, London W5 2DZ
A map is available here.
Fuller description available here.
Contact Clare Cogswell at this email address.
Block 2: 20 – 31 July 2026, weekdays
Prof. Daniel McCarthy OSB
Required for IL diploma
At the end of the course each student will be prepared: 1) to interpret a liturgical prayer and its rite using a selection of analytical tools and liturgical dimensions, 2) describe the proper contribution of each analytical tool and liturgical dimension, for the interpretation of a specific text or rite, 3) situate another person’s interpretation of a liturgical prayer or rite according to these interpretative tools and liturgical dimensions.
3 hours daily including a break.
Cost: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Prof. Stefan Geiger, OSB
Elective for IL diploma
This course considers the two major parts of the Eucharist; the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist and is designed to lead the reader through the major periods of cultural and theological change in the Church particularly in the West up to the present. We wish clearly to indicate the changes in the liturgical forms throughout history and to present the theological understandings of the Eucharist in the different periods. In this way it is hoped that readers will understand both what the Church teaches and the reasons given for these teachings.
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address
Syriac Course Descriptions
6 – 31 July 2026, weekdays
Br Elie Zinati LMO
No exams – for interest.
This course is adapted to the level of beginning students. As needed the alphabet will be presented, but the majority of class time will be spent reading texts. During the first two weeks we shall review the pronouns, nouns and adjectives; prepositions, numbers, days and seasons with readings and exercises. During the third and fourth weeks we shall work on verbs in different roots, forms and tenses with readings and exercises. We shall also begin to translate biblical and liturgical texts. At the end of the course each student will be prepared to describe and explain short readings from the Syriac New Testament and to produce translations of the texts.
Hours: 10:00 – 10:50, 11:00 – 11:50 A.M.
Fee: £495 per 4 weeks (with minimum numbers).
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
6 – 17 July 2026, weekdays
Prof. John Elie Semaan LMO
No exams – for interest.
Course description in development.
Hours: 4:00 – 4:50, 5:00 – 5:50 P.M.
Fee: £300 (with minimum numbers).
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
SY611 Spirituality of Early Syriac Writers I
Prof. John Elie Semaan LMO
No exams – for interest.
Course description in development.
Hours: 2:00 – 2:50, 3:00 – 3:50 P.M.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
20 – 31 July 2026, weekdays
SY711 Syriac Project: Publishing unedited Syriac manuscripts
Prof. John Elie Semaan LMO
No exams – for interest.
We shall work on unedited manuscripts in Syriac from the British Library or from other digitalized manuscripts. We shall transcribe and translate the Syriac texts into English or French depending on the need of the student. When a manuscript does not have a colophon, we shall use palaeography and other methods to begin to understand the date and origin of the manuscript. Our goal is to publish these unedited Syriac texts in our journal Ephemerides Ealingnenses and in an online database: syriaca.org.
If you are interested in joining our project, please contact Clare Cogswell at this email link and she will put you into contact with Elie Semaan.
Hours: 4:00 – 4:50, 5:00 – 5:50 P.M.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
SY612 Spirituality of Early Syriac Writers II
Prof. John Elie Semaan LMO
No exams – for interest.
Course description in development.
Hours: 2:00 – 2:50, 3:00 – 3:50 P.M.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
Saturday, 25 July 2026
St Ephrem Lecture in Syriac Studies
to be given in colloboration with the project
Explorers in Syriac literature:
Publishing unedited Syriac manuscripts
from the British Library
by
Rev. Dr John Semaan, LMO
monk of the Lebanese Monastic Order
Professor, Holy Spirit University, Lebanon
Lecturer at the Pontifical University Sant’Anselmo, Rome
speaking on
Restoring the inner icon in us
to be held on Saturday, 25 July 2026
beginning at 2:30 pm
at the Benedictine Institute
74 Castlebar Road
Ealing, London, W5 2DD
Fuller description available here.
Contact Clare Cogswell at this email address.
Biblical Hebrew Course Descriptions
20 – 24 July 2026, weekdays
BH411 Biblical Hebrew for Beginners
Prior Anselm Brumwell OSB
No exams – for interest.
Students should study the Hebrew alphabet and vocalisation system in advance of the course, since this will be assumed. This one-week intensive course aims to introduce the basics of the Biblical Hebrew language, enabling the student to begin to read more straightforward prose texts from the Old Testament.
4 hours daily with breaks.
Fee: £380
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
27 July – 31 July 2026, weekdays
BH412 Biblical Hebrew: Intermediate
No exams – for interest.
Prior Anselm Brumwell OSB
4 hours daily with breaks.
Fee: £380
Enrol in both courses, Beginning and intermediate Hebrew, for £650
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
Latin Course Descriptions
ONLINE ONLY
29 June – 10 July 2026, weekdays
13 – 24 July 2026, weekdays
Online Latin courses and courses offered throughout the year are listed at the Benedictine Institute link here.
IN PERSON ONLY
3 – 14 August 2026, weekdays: Spoken Latin
10 – 21 August 2026, weekdays
No exams – for interest.
No knowledge of the language is presumed. From the first day, you will tackle real Latin from across the centuries, and begin to express yourself in Latin. We will cover:
- All verb times in the indicative
- The active and passive voice
- Command forms
- All noun and adjective groups and most of their usages.
We use the teaching method of Reginald Foster from the First Latin Experience in his book Ossa Latinitatis Sola and its companion volume Ossa Ostensa Book 1 by Laura Pooley.
ONLINE ONLY
13 – 24 July 2026, weekdays
IN PERSON ONLY
10 – 21 August 2026, weekdays
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £395
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
No exams – for interest.
Students entering this level will be expected to have a solid grasp of the topics covered in Beginning Latin. You will read a variety of original Latin texts, spanning many centuries, and write in Latin. We will cover:
- The meaning and uses of the subjunctive mood
- The forms and natural meanings of the four participles
- Various uses of participles including the ablative absolute.
We use the teaching method of Reginald Foster from the Third Latin Experience in his book Ossa Latinitatis Sola and its companion volume Ossa Ostensa Book 2 by Laura Pooley.
This not-for-credit course is designed for students preparing for the exam following the initial semester of Latin at KU Leuven, and the Latin proficiency exam at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy, Rome.
ONLINE ONLY
27 July – 7 August 2026, weekdays
IN PERSON ONLY
10 – 21 August 2026, weekdays
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £395
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
Students will encounter Latin literature written by many authors from every age. During this course students will learn and develop their use and practice with the following elements of the Latin language:
-
- The accusative with the infinitive used in indirect discourse and object sentences,
- The gerund and gerundive and the participle of passive necessity,
- Conditional sentences: if … , then … ,
- The 3% use of the sequence of tenses and modal attraction,
- Verbs of doubting, fearing and prohibiting,
- Oblique complements of verbs and their passive construction,
- Specific usages of the dative, genitive, ablative,
- Overviews of:
- 14 ways to express purpose,
- 10 usages of the relative pronoun,
- Positive and negative commands,
We use the teaching method of Reginald Foster from the Fourth Latin Experience in his book Ossa Latinitatis Sola and its forthcoming companion volume Ossa Ostensa Book 3 by Laura Pooley.
The material presumed for this course is listed above for the First and Third Experiences.
Students wishing more instruction are encouraged to enrol also in Reading Ovid, LA813. A discount is offered when enrolling with us in both courses.
ONLINE ONLY
29 June – 10 July 2026, weekdays
IN PERSON ONLY
10 – 21 August 2026, weekdays
3 hours daily including a break.
Cost: £395
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
No exams – for interest.
Jonathan Day
The Metamorphoses is widely hailed as Ovid’s greatest work, and from its composition in roughly 8 CE to the present day, it has exerted an unparalleled influence on art, music, and culture. Its 15 books cover over 250 mythic narratives.
Our goal will be to read selections from the Metamorphoses slowly and carefully, seeking a deep understanding of the language and an appreciation of Ovid’s poetic rhythms.
We will work in seminar format, teaching and learning from one another. Texts will be provided. Ovid’s Latin is fairly advanced, so participants should have at least completed the Intermediate (Third Experience) program before joining this seminar. It can be taken in conjunction with the Advanced (Fourth Experience) program.
IN PERSON ONLY
10 – 21 August 2026, weekdays
We’ll meet for two hours daily, including a short break.
Fee: £200
Discount fee £175 when this reading course is taken in combination with LA711 Advanced Latin.
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
FAQs: Frequently asked questions about the summer session
A listing of our courses for the summer of 2025 here.
© James Leachman, O.S.B., page updated by DM on 8 December 2025.