A Vocation to Pray
Our sisters are devoted to a life of disciplined prayer, grounded and rooted in the ancient Office of the Church. At our three daily offices - Mattins, Evensong, and Compline respectively - our voices become one with that of the eternal Communion of Saints as the Bride sings to her Bridegroom, interceding for the wider church and whole world. All of our offices are open to the public and broadcast live via our BlueJeans channel.
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A Vocation to Study
'By nature,' writes Aristotle, 'all people long to know.' Our innate curiosity and desire for knowledge is part of what makes us human. Giovanni Pico, in his Oration on the Dignity of Man, exhorts souls to embrace fully their capacity for learning, seeing this as fundamental to the spiritual life. Our sisters are women who have answered the call to be Brides of a Christ who is the very Wisdom of God, making them philosophers in the truest sense of the word. Such a union must necessarily be fruitful, and undertaken for the love of Truth and Wisdom alone rather than for prestige or financial gain.
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A Vocation to Teach
In his letters to the Romans and the church at Corinth, St Paul reminds us all that our gifts are not our own - they exist to be received gratefully and put at the service of the Body of Christ. We understand that there will never be a Christian renewal in this land until there is a profound recovery of the Christian Mind. To this end, our sisters dedicate their lives to educating others and forming them in faith, and to making the wisdom of the past accessible and relevant to people living today.
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The Vows
After a lengthy period of discernment and formation, a sister may take lifelong vows of chastity (understood as the call to renounce marriage for the sake of the Kingdom), simplicity (a way of living which seeks to emulate the materially poor yet spiritually rich life of Christ and His apostles, in such a way that is appropriate to life in the 21st Century), and obedience (not, as traditionally understood, to a superior or diocesan authority, but to one's own tradition, be that Anglican, Roman, Orthodox, Presbyterian etc. For sisters coming from a free church or evangelical background, this will be a matter of discernment, which she will undertake with a spiritual director). Vows are taken in the first instance for a temporary period of two years, after which the sister may request to make a lifelong commitment to the community. Alternatively, she may discern that the Lord is calling her elsewhere. The order's ecumenical nature necessitates that vows be made directly to Christ Himself, rather than being received by a bishop. This is done publicly, in the presence of the Faithful.
Discernment
Our community accepts vocations from single Christian women with a desire to love Jesus more fully and offer Him more closely. In the spirit of the early Church, ours is a 'mere Christianity', grounded in the Great Tradition. Regardless of the denomination to which she belongs, any young woman joining our community will ultimately take a vow of obedience to the teaching and tradition of that church. This means that faithful Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Methodists etc. will remain as such.
OUR MINISTRIES
Coming soon.
Coming soon.
