Settling into her plain room in a Wisconsin monastery, Presbyterian minister Lynne Smith mused, "I think I've come home."

This insight, experienced during a weekend retreat, marked the beginning of her journey toward joining the Benedictine Women of Madison, Wisconsin. For nine years the Madison sisters had felt God calling them to offer full membership to non-Catholic Christian women. Last June Smith become the first Protestant to accept their offer, professing vows of "stability, fidelity to monastic life and obedience."

I had discovered that I had a contemplative heart long before I knew what monasticism was," Smith says. "I longed to live with other people in an intentional community where we were seeking God."

Smith's entry into the Benedictine sisterhood began two years ago when she entered the novitiate, a time of intense prayer and study. Living with the Benedictine sisters, she reflected in depth on the Rule of Benedict, which calls for prayer, hospitality, stewardship, community, stability and doing God's work.

For Smith "God's work" has included leading retreats and preserving wetlands and prairies near the monastery. The 46-year-old former pastor, who has served churches in Iowa and Kansas, says someday she may accept another call to parish ministry—if the call allows her to fulfill her vow to remain in the Benedictine community in Madison.

Smith made her decision to explore becoming a Benedictine with the blessing of Gary Torrens, who was then executive presbyter of East Iowa Presbytery. "He was very supportive, because he had been involved in ecumenical work," she says.

Being a Benedictine sister, she explains, "is a way to live out ecumenism. Many churches have, for years, sought ways that Christians can live and work together. Well, here it is. We're living it." —Lyn C. Jerde