Monk

A monk is a person who practices monasticism, adopting a strict religious and ascetic lifestyle, usually in community with others following the same path. The word comes from the Greek monachos (μοναχός), commonly translated as a solitary person, and by convention almost always refers to men (while the term nun is more commonly used to refer to female monastics), although it may be applied to women as well.

Anglican Monks

A small but hugely influential aspect of Anglicanism is its religious orders of monks. Shortly after the beginning of the revival of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England, there was felt to be a need for a restoration of the contemplative life. In the 1840s, Anglican priest John Henry Newman established a community of men at Littlemore near Oxford. From then on, there have been (re-)established many communities of monks, friars and other religous communities for men in the Anglican Communion. There are Anglican Benedictines, Franciscans, Cistercians, Dominicans, as well as home grown orders such as the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, among many more in almost every Province of the Anglican Communion.

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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 communinities, 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.

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Anglican monks proceed through their religous life first by responding to an inner call to the particular life. Then after councilling with his parish priest, the seeker makes a visit to a monastery and tests his vocation. Usually he must spend some time with the community as an aspirant, then he becomes a postulant, then novice, then come first profession, and usually life vows.

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Some communities are contemplative, some active, but a distinguish feature of the monastic life among Anglicans is the most practice the so-called "mixed life." The keep the full round of liturgical and private worship, but usually have an active ministry of some sort in their immediate community. This activity could be anything from parish work to working with the homeless or any number of good causes.

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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 communites been few and far between. Some orders and communities have already become extinct.

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

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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 communites 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 regared as a Melanesian virtue.

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