The order plans on closing its Augusta house also and is in the process of “refounding itself for new ministry opportunities in a new location, but with the same mission of prayer and service to God’s world.”
“We feel that the Holy Spirit is moving us to relocate to a new area and to re-found our community and mission,” said Sister Cintra Pemberton OSH. The closings bring “us much pain,” she said, “but we recognize that we can no longer afford to operate and staff three convents.”
In the Roman Church, where vocations are similarly declining due to changes in the rule of life of the orders since the 1960’s, splinter groups are reforming by reclaiming their original rule and charism and are GROWING. One example is Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s franciscans that have reclaimed the old Capuchin Franciscan Rule while the Capuchin Friary here is Detroit has a skeleton sized staff at St. Bonaventure for the shrine of Venerable Solanus Casey (whose holiness was aided by the original rule).
The founder of the OSH’s order for men (and I would assume for the women too) wrote a wonderful rule for the order, and for Anglo-Catholics it was a great privilege to have an Holy Cross brother lead a retreat for your parish! The Order has revised the rule, as has the Cowley Fathers (SSJE) in Cambridge, MA rejected their original rule too.
I get the impression from this article that all the sister’s have done is to make a financial decision about the operation of their houses. Their “mission” strikes me as utterly confused and I would suggest that is what they need to pare down as well.
Hmmm. Note the phrase “progressive order” in the article. One wonders what that means. Liberal nuns?
Nikolaus – that was the impression I had from an earlier story about the order’s plans. It sounds like they really don’t know what they want to do with themselves.
stjohnsrector, do you know how the rule has changed?
I can’t speak about the OSH, but alas, I can about the SSJE (Society of St. John the Evangelist or Cowley Fathers), of which I was formerly an associate member. The SSJE can boast of being the oldest monastic order for men in the AC, but it has been badly corrupted by some of its members (including +Tom Shaw of Massachursetts) embracing a relativist worldview and falling for the “gay is OK” delusion.
Alas, it’s pretty open knowledge that some of the monks of SSJE are sexually active gay men. Sad, but true. A priest friend of mine was even propositioned by an SSJE priest during a retreat at the mother house in Cambridge, MA! Once I discovered this rot at the core of the order, I ceased being an Associate.
And as for the OHC (Order of the Holy Cross), another distinguished order for men in TEC, I was saddened to hear that their monastery at Westpark on the Hudson in NY celebrates things like “Gay Pride Week.” No kidding. Both orders are declining, and deservedly so. Needless to say, God can’t and won’t bless such perversion.
“How are the mighty fallen!”
David Handy+
If I can remember correctly, they are using a more generically benedictine rule. Benedict’s rule is fine for Benedictines – but it isn’t what the OHC was founded for.
I speak as one who discerned a vocation to the Monastic life, but committed matrimony and am a Third Order Franciscan with the Franciscan Order of the Divine Compassion (www.fodc.net), having left the Society of St. Francis for theological reasons (some of which were mentioned by others for the SSJE and OHC).
RE the SSJE, it certainly is true about their pro-homosexual ‘brothers’. It’s been very common knowledge for at least 20 years. Terribly sad and what a waste of their splendid Cambridge buildings, which could have been such a beacon for Christ in the metro Boston area.