Anglican religious order

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Anglican religious orders)
Jump to: navigation, search
 This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2006)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Anglicanism Portal

Anglican religious orders are organisations of laity and/or clergy in the Anglican Communion who live under a common rule. They are to be distinguished from Holy Orders, the sacrament which bishops, priests, and deacons receive.

What distinguishes members of religious orders from the rest of the laity and the clergy is that they try to imitate Jesus Christ by taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They may additionally profess to obey certain guidelines for living. The structure and function of religious orders in Anglicanism roughly parallels that which exists in Roman Catholicism. Religious communities are divided into orders proper, in which members take solemn vows and congregations, whose members take simple vows.

Religious communities were dissolved by King Henry VIII when he separated the Church of England from papal primacy. With the rise of the Catholic Revival and the Oxford Movement in Anglicanism in the early 1800s came interest in the revival of "religious life" in England. Between 1841 and 1855, several religious orders for women were begun, among them the Community of St. Mary at Wantage and the Society of St. Margaret at East Grinstead. Religious orders for men appeared later, beginning in 1866 with the Society of St. John the Evangelist (Cowley Fathers).

In the United States and Canada, the founding of Anglican religious orders began in 1842 with the Nashotah Community (men) in Wisconsin, followed in 1845 by the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion (now defunct) in New York. At present, there are approximately 168 Anglican religious orders for men and/or women throughout the world. Of these, approximately 38 are in the USA and three in Canada.

In the Episcopal Church in the United States, there are two recognized types of religious communities, called Religious Orders and Christian Communities. The differences are as follows:

A Religious Order of this Church is a society of Christians (in communion with the See of Canterbury) who voluntarily commit themselves for life, or a term of years, to holding their possessions in common or in trust; to a celibate life in community; and obedience to their Rule and Constitution. (Title III, Canon 24, section 1)

A Christian Community of this Church is a society of Christians (in communion with the See of Canterbury) who voluntarily commit themselves for life, or a term of years, in obedience to their Rule and Constitution. (Title III, Canon 24, section 2)

The following is a partial list of the religious orders in the Anglican Communion and their initials:

Community of Saint Mary

Sisters of Bethany

Community of Saint Francis

Community of the Holy Name

Community of the Transfiguration

Order of Julian of Norwich

Order of the Holy Paraclete

Order of Saint Helena

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican_religious_order"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.