Ora et labora. Pray and work. Long considered the monastic ideal, the phrase suggests the integration of the soul’s deep yearnings with the practicalities of earning a living – a hard enough goal for the dedicated monastic, and truly elusive for those of us in the world. But when I came to Wyche, I wondered if something like this might be possible, even in the modern world, even in the busy practice of law.
A dozen or so years in, I have come to realize my hopes were well founded, and that all our talk at this unique firm of “work-life balance” is real. That certitude comes from journeying to a remote peninsula in northern Greece, Mt. Athos, and some extraordinary – truly “Wychean” – legal work along the way.
In 2017, the Wyche team, led by Member Wade Kolb, helped American members of a UK-based charity, the Friends of Mount Athos (FoMA), create an American charitable organization. Officially recognized in 2018 as a 501(c)3, the Mount Athos Foundation of America (MAFA) now serves to advance the understanding of, and provide benefit to, the monastic community of Mount Athos, located in northeastern Greece.
For more than 1,000 years, Mount Athos has served as the primary center of and pilgrimage site for monasticism for all branches of Eastern Orthodox Christinanity. It houses a population of more than 2,000 monks, living and working in community. Mt Athos is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heritage site.
