Dorothea Pickering and the Trust
Dorothea Pickering. A passport photo of 1934
The fellowship of St Ethelwold and the use of St Ethelwold’s House as a spiritual centre were the vision of Dorothea Pickering (1906 – 1997). The Fellowship was named after the 10th century Abbot of Abingdon Abbey; Dorothea longed for the return of Benedictine monks to Abingdon and had a vision that her house might house a community to allow this to happen. She met Bede Griffiths, a English Benedictine monk who was then living in India, and out of this friendship grew a vision of St Ethelwold’s House being an ‘ashram’ in the west.
Dorothea wanted her house and garden to be a place where people could come together for prayer, meditation, times of quiet reflection and interfaith encounter. It was founded within the Christian tradition to be a place of interfaith dialogue and encounter embracing people of all faiths and spiritual paths. In 1984 the Fellowship was registered as a UK Charity (No 284865) which is now managed by a board of four trustees. Annual reports and accounts are published on the website of the Charity Commission
Click here to download a history of the fellowship pdf
Click here to download a history of No.30 East St Helen Street pdf
Bede Griffiths (right) with Dorothea and Swami Amaldass
Pupils of the Vineyard School at lunch in what is now ‘Hearth’