TWO religious sisters are worried for the future of their moorland monastery.

For if the Monastery of the Assumption had any fewer members, it would be a hermitage - and that is a major concern for the abbess, Mother Thekla.

"We are anxious to recruit more sisters or novices," says the 83-year-old abbess, who has been a Greek Orthodox nun for the past 27 years.

She arrived at the hamlet of Normanby near Whitby in the North York Moors National Park with two other nuns in search of peace and solitude. And now with only herself and Mother Hilda, an American who joined her some eight years ago, both are not in short supply.

The two eat together, but much of their long days - which can start at 4am with offices in the chapel and go on until midnight - are spent writing and painting.

"We write offices for all the British saints," says Mother Hilda, who ironically can see the imposing ruins of Whitby Abbey, founded by the original St Hilda, from her bedroom window.

Both the nuns have a splendid sense of humour, constantly joking with each other. "We used to have a car," says Mother Thekla. "But I gave up driving after I fell and broke my ankle in the goats' stable, and no one will drive with Mother Hilda !"

So they quit motoring to Whitby for their provisions and they are now taken on any journeys by neighbours.

"We go to the Co-op supermarket and get three months' provisions at a time," said Mother Hilda. "I'm sure they dread me going because I never know where anything is and I'm always asking questions."

Russian-born Mother Thekla's impressive career in the outside world saw her educated at Cambridge - she read English at Girton College - and during the war she worked for British Intelligence. She said: "We pray for a novice to join us to enable the monastery to go on."

The two say they live a frugal existence, with a lifestyle which has changed little since the fourth century when their order was founded by St Anthony.

"We like to think he could come here today and find things almost the same," says Mother Hilda.

But while the parlour, library and chapel are likely to be much the same, a closer inspection would find a computer and a radio. "But we don't use it to listen to programmes - it's there for us to play our tapes," says Mother Thekla, who quips: "I still call it a wireless!"

They are self-sufficient to a great extent, although they no longer keep goats. They have 11 acres, much of which is used by a local farmer for grazing, but they are both keen gardeners, growing most of their own fruit and vegetables, and Mother Thekla's marmalade and bread is renowned.

Mother Hilda, an accomplished artist, paints icons of the Orthodox Church.

Much of their written work involves translating the Orthodox scriptures, and Mother Hilda confesses - at Mother Thekla's insistence - to putting the translated services into Byzantine melodies. "She is a very clever and a talented singer," says Mother Thekla.

Both are deeply concerned, however, for the future of the monastery. Over the years, there have been only four nuns since the monastery moved to the moorland hamlet in 1965. The others, Mother Maria and Mother Katherine, are buried within its grounds.

Life, in its own way, is busy for the nuns. "The day interrupts our services. We balance the world because people are so busy working and running their lives, that we pray for them and the world," said Mother Thekla.

Officially, the monastery is known as the Hesychasterior, prayer-house, of the Koimisis and was the first English monastery for Orthodox women in Britain.

"We follow the ancient monastic rule of three-fold labour: of the mind, of the hands - growing our own food - and of the liturgical arts," says Mother Thekla.

"We live in separate hermit cells, but observe a common life of apostolic poverty with Byzantine choir offices in English throughout the day and midnight hours."

The monastery is a converted farmhouse, and an old byre has been made into a typical Orthodox chapel.

"Living as we do within sight of St Hilda's Abbey and on moorland which once belonged to her, we are conscious of carrying into the 21st century the original synergy between the deserts of the East and the first monastic traditions of northern England," says Mother Thekla.

As for whether any of the specially-invited visitors might be the hoped-for new members needed if the order is to survive, she says: "We simply pray and wait - if they are meant to come, they will. But I do hope someone will join us. It really would be a lonely life for which ever one of us survives otherwise..."

Updated: 10:02 Thursday, March 14, 2002