Anglicanism

The term Anglican (from the "Angles" or English) describes those people and churches following the religious traditions developed by the established Church of England. The Anglican Communion codifies the Anglican relationship to the Church of England as a theologically broad and often diverging community of churches, which holds the English church as its mother institution. Adherents of Anglicanism number in the tens of millions worldwide.

Religious life

A small but hugely influential aspect of Anglicanism is its religious orders of monks and nuns. Shortly after the beginning of the revival of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England, there was felt to be a need for some Anglican Sisters of Charity. In the 1840s Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon became the first woman to take the vows of religion in communion with the Province of Canterbury. From the 1840s and throughout the next hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated in the UK, the United States, Canada, and India, as well as in various countries of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

Related Topics:
Religious order - Monk - Nun - Catholic Movement - Sisters of Charity - Priscilla Lydia Sellon - Province of Canterbury - UK - United States - Canada - India - Africa - Asia - Pacific

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anglican religious life at one time boasted hundreds of orders and communities, and thousands of religious. An important aspect of Anglican religious life is that most communities of both men and women lived their lives consecrated to God under the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (or in Benedictine communities, Stability, Conversion of Life, and Obedience) by practicing a mixed life of reciting the full eight services of the Breviary in choir, along with a daily Eucharist, plus service to the poor. The mixed life, combing aspects of the contemplative orders and the active orders remains to this day a hallmark of Anglican religious life.

Related Topics:
Religious - God - Vow - Poverty - Chastity - Obedience - Benedictine - Breviary - Eucharist - Contemplative order - Active order

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since the 1960's, there has been a sharp falling off in the numbers of religious in all parts of the Anglican Communion. Many once large and international communities have been reduced to a single convent or monastery comprised of elderly men or women. In the last few decades of the 20th century, novices have for most communities been few and far between. Some orders and communities have already become extinct.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There are however, still several thousand Anglican religious working today in approximately 200 communities around the world.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The most surprising growth has been in the Melanesian countries of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The Melanesian Brotherhood, founded at Tabalia, Guadalcanal, in 1925 by Ini Kopuria, is now the largest Anglican Community in the world with over 450 brothers in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. The Sisters of the Church, started by Mother Emily Ayckbown in England in 1870, has more sisters in the Solomons than all their other communities. The Community of the Sisters of Melanesia, started in 1980 by Sister Nesta Tiboe, is a growing community of women throughout the Solomon Islands. The Society of Saint Francis, founded as a union of various Franciscan orders in the 1920s, has experienced great growth in the Solomon Islands. Other communities of religious have been started by Anglicans in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu. Most Melanesian Anglican religious are in their early to mid 20s, making the average age 40 to 50 years younger than their brothers and sisters in other countries. This growth is especially surprising because celibacy was not regarded as a Melanesian virtue.

Related Topics:
Melanesia - Solomon Islands - Vanuatu - Papua New Guinea - Melanesian Brotherhood - Tabalia - Guadalcanal - 1925 - Brother - Philippines - Sisters of the Church - 1870 - Sister - Community of the Sisters of Melanesia - 1980 - Society of Saint Francis - Franciscan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~