By Br. Richard Vaggione, OHC

We don’t usually associate monks and nuns with revolution, but 125 years ago the revival of monastic life in the Anglican Communion was just that—what author Donald Allchin has called a “silent rebellion.” It involved people from privileged backgrounds leaving their homes to serve God in the outcasts of their society, under the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Contemporary Anglicans were outraged, not least because the pioneers were women.

In Canada, one of these pioneers was Hannah Grier Coome, who in 1884 took her vows as a nun and founded the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine. The continuing life of this order has strengthened the Canadian church ever since.

At almost the same time in the United States, a young man was answering the same call. James Otis Sargent Huntington was the first American Episcopalian to take the vows of religion since the Reformation. Out of that commitment came the Order of the Holy Cross, an Anglican Benedictine community with monasteries in Canada, the United States, and South Africa. Holy Cross began work in Canada in the 1890s and opened a permanent house here in 1973.

Members of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine and the Order of the Holy Cross will join in celebrating the Sisterhood’s 125 years of religious life on Sept. 8, at 10:30 a.m., at St. John’s Convent, 233 Cummer Rd., Toronto. Archbishop Fred Hiltz, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, will preside. All are welcome.

Visit the Sisterhood's website for more information. For more on the Order of the Holy Cross, visit their website.