A Journey Through My Past

Cumbrian author

David Weston has had two quite distinct lives: one as Dom Wilfrid Weston, a Benedictine monk and abbot, and the other as a husband and father and Church of England clergyman.

The break came when he felt he could no longer reconcile the opposing factions at Nashdom Abbey.

At the age of 46 he resigned from his abbacy and he was dispensed from his vows. He married his wife, Helen, six months later.

In retirement, he looks back on his life, coming to terms with how these two distinct lives fit together. He starts with memories of his earliest childhood, without a father, and reviews his life through to his last appointment as Canon Warden of Carlisle Cathedral. He incorporates material from the daily journals he kept as Abbot and later as Residentiary Canon.

He examines the nature of his vocation. He considers why his decision to leave the monastic life after 24 years felt like a redemptive act rather than the betryal of his vows that many in the church considered it to be.

These days he is happiest in his garden, weeding or talking to toads, preferably in the company of Helen and their two sons, Luke and Alex.