Abhayagiri Kathina 2026
Please join the Abhayagiri sangha for this year’s Kathina ceremony on Sunday, November 15. Luang Por Pasanno, Ajahn Karunadhammo, our abbot Ajahn Nyaniko, and the rest of the Abhayagiri sangha will be present as well as our honored guests: Luang Por Viradhammo, the abbot of Tisarana Monastery and Ajahn Anando, the co-abbot of Temple Forest Monastery. Everyone is warmly welcome. The ceremony will also be livestreamed via YouTube, please check in sooner to the time for the link.
The schedule for the day is:
9:30am - Arrive at the Monastery
10:30am - Meal Offering
1:00pm - Kathina Ceremony and Dhamma Talk
Background Information on Kathina
Each year since the time of the Buddha, at the end of the three-month Rains Retreat, the lay community around Buddhist monasteries have gathered to celebrate the completion of the retreat.
This 2,500-year-old tradition is still carried on here in the West in the Theravadan monasteries. It is initiated by a lay supporter or a group of supporters who request to organize the preparation and formal offerings. It is both a significant and joyful occasion that, over time, has become emblematic of the richness of the relationship that exists between the lay people and the monastics. This relationship is characterized by deep bonds of friendship and commitment to mutual support. All year round, the monastery functions solely on offerings from the lay community.
Luang Por Viradhammo
Luang Por Vīradhammo (formerly Vitauts Akers), was born in Germany, 1947, to Latvian refugee parents. They moved to Toronto when he was four years old. Around 1969, while living in India, he encountered Buddhism, meeting the late Sāmanera Bodhesako, who introduced him to the teachings of the Buddha. He eventually traveled to Thailand to become a novice at Wat Mahathat in 1973 and took bhikkhu ordination the following year at Wat Pah Pong with Ajahn Chah. He was one of the first residents at Wat Pah Nanachat, the international monastery in north-east Thailand. Having spent four years in Thailand, he went back to Canada to visit his family in 1977. Instead of returning to Thailand, he was asked by Ajahn Chah to join Ajahn Sumedho at the Hampstead Vihāra in London. Later, he was involved in the establishment of both the Chithurst and Harnham monasteries in the UK. In 1985, invited by the Wellington Theravāda Buddhist Association, he moved to New Zealand, accompanied by Venerable Thanavaro, where he lived for 10 years, setting up Bodhinyānārāma monastery. In 1995 he came to the UK to assist Ajahn Sumedho at Amarāvati and stayed for four years before returning to New Zealand, where he lived until 2002. He was living in Ottawa, Canada caring for his mother for nine years and is now resident full time at Tisarana Buddhist Monastery near Ottawa.
