Tag: Religious Communities

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Religious Life Sunday

Are you seeking to deepen your relationship with God and to center your life on Jesus Christ? Are you longing for companionship along the way? Episcopalians living under vows (monks, nuns, sisters, brothers, friars) provide guidance, community, and resources for the sacred journey. We invite you to celebrate Religious Life Sunday and to learn more about the spiritual support that we offer.

What is “Religious Life Sunday”?

The General Convention of The Episcopal Church approved resolution 2022-B004, “Foundation of Religious Life Sunday,” to be held each year on the 3^rd Sunday of Epiphany. This Sunday focuses efforts to tell all Episcopalians that residential monastic and dispersed Christian communities exist, who we are, and how to connect with us.

What are the “religious” communities in The Episcopal Church?

Religious communities in The Episcopal Church include monastic communities, whose members live together under a rule of life and under vows such as poverty, chastity, and obedience. “Religious life” also includes dispersed Christian communities whose members are from all walks of life, who have jobs, who live in their own homes, some with families, and who live under religious vows.

What can religious life do for me and for my faith journey?

We have developed traditions and practices that assist in developing spiritual growth and discernment. We teach about prayer practices, lead retreats, give spiritual direction, assist in writing and living a rule of life, give presentations about the spiritual journey, and provide spiritual friendship. Many of our monastic communities offer hospitality for short visits or longer retreats. Religiouslifesunday.org includes resources, a video, a list of speakers, and much more.

You may perceive a call to a deeper commitment with one community, as an associate or oblate. Such commitments begin with discernment and preparation, followed by a formal service of commitment. Associates and oblates pray for the members of the community, as we also pray for them, and may offer financial support, commit to a rule of life, and attend retreats. You or someone you know may be experiencing a call to join a community; we welcome the opportunity to discern with you.

How can I connect with an Episcopal religious community?

Residential monastic communities: caroa.net.
Dispersed Christian communities: naecc.net.
More resources: religiouslifesunday.org.

Collect For Monastic Orders and Vocations

O Lord Jesus Christ, you became poor for our sake, that we might be made rich through your  poverty: Guide and sanctify, we pray, those whom you call to follow you under the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, that by their prayer and service they may enrich your Church, and by their life and worship may glorify your Name; for you reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

This is the weekly bulletin insert from the Episcopal Church for Pentecost 20B.

Meet Our Religious Communities: The Order of Julian of Norwich

The Order of Julian of Norwich is a religious order for women in The Episcopal Church.

What is the Order of Julian of Norwich?

The Order of Julian of Norwich is a contemplative monastic order located in White Lake, Wisconsin. Founded originally for monks and nuns, the monastics decided in 2020 to become nuns only. We are two branches—nuns living in community, and Oblates and Associates dispersed in all walks of life, all committed to intercession and conversion of life, following the teaching of Saint Julian of Norwich. The life of the monastery is that of liturgical, intercessory, and silent prayer, community life, manual labor, and study on the Benedictine pattern. Non-resident Oblate and Associate affiliations with the Order are open to men and women, single and partnered, lay and ordained.

What are your ministries?

Our primary ministry is prayer and we are privileged to do that in-house on our 140-acre rural property. Our monastic life and ministry flows from the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist, at which the nuns in community who are ordained both preside and proclaim the Gospel. We also have a small guesthouse where we welcome for a time any who wish to rest and share our silence and the peace and beauty of our surroundings. We have a small woodworking, soapmaking, and bread-baking business, write original icons, and publish a quarterly newsletter, Julian’s Window, and an occasional blog, called In a Hazelnut.

Do you take vows?

We make vows of Stability, Conversion of Life, and Obedience.

By Stability, we commit to seeking God in the place and among the particular sisters whom God has drawn together. Stability roots us and allows our sisters, surroundings, and ourselves the generosity necessary to reveal the treasure hidden beneath the ordinary.

By Conversion of Life (which includes poverty, holding all the Order’s goods in common and renouncing private ownership; and chastity, expressed as life-long celibacy), we commit ourselves to the monastic way in its entirety, allowing the Holy Spirit to act through our circumstances to reveal and heal in us what is not yet converted to love.

By Obedience, we choose to be accountable to a common rule of life and to our sisters in community for the sake of the freedom to love and will God’s will alone. This requires patience, trust, and the maturity to be able to listen to and learn from others.

How can I get involved with the Order of Julian?

Learn more at www.orderofjulian.org — Read our newsletter and blog. Find out about visiting. Make a prayer request. Make a donation. Become an Oblate, Associate, or nun of the Order.

Taken from Bulletin Insert: Pentecost 20 (B) – Meet Our Religious Communities: The Order of Julian of Norwich – October 10, 2021.

Church of the Redeemer

Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.