The Grauniad has run an article about the continuing problems that religious orders, both Anglican and Roman Catholic, are having with declining numbers.
At the very end there is the statement:
If all else fails, there is one more option open to convents: importing nuns. Some Irish nunneries have been propping up their numbers with Polish women.
Looking at that statement, I had a mental picture of the Religious Recession: the numbers of religious are declining, just as the amount of money available to lend by banks has declined in the money economy. Could one say that the Balance of Nuns has as much to do with trade between the UK and Poland as the Balance of Payments? Would it be possible for Poland to solve its part of the credit crunch by exporting nuns to the United Kingdom in return for…what? What is a nun worth to the economy of Poland? Could we, perhaps, export a few dour Calvinists, perhaps a Wee Free or ten, or a Wee Wee Free or five (the second “Wee” must be worth more than the first) in return for nuns from Poland?
Could we, for example, export the entire membership of Reform to Eastern Europe in return for a convent of gay nuns who would promise to pray for the health of the economy? It would certainly be an unequal trade–we perhaps might want to throw in a couple of elderly priests who still say Mass in Latin.
In fact, are Benedictine nuns worth more than Franciscans, since Benedictines are cloistered and can pay their own way by making jam, or bread, for sale? Franciscans, being itinerants and, in theory, begging for their meals along the way, would be less valuable to the economy because their upkeep is high.
The Economy of Nuns would be a wonderful title for a book on this subject. Or, you could say that “an economy of nuns” is the name for a group of nuns, just as a “murder of crows” is the name for a group of crows.
……. They are what??
Try looking at this list for collective nouns for animals.