Founded 1981
The sisters live under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in a simple life style, and seek to maintain a balance between prayer, community life and work for each member and to worship and serve within the church. They combine the monastic and apostolic aspects of the Religious Life. The monastic aspects include prayer, domestic work at home, community life and hospitality. The sisters are engaged in parish ministry.
The community was founded in the diocese of Adelaide in 1981 as a contemporary expression of the Religious Life for women in the Anglican Church. In 1988, the two original sisters made their Profession of Life Intention within the Sisters of the Incarnation, before the Archbishop of Adelaide, the Visitor of the community. One member was ordained to the diaconate in 1990 and the priesthood in 1993. The governing body of the community is its chapter of professed sisters, which elects the Guardian, and appoints an Episcopal Visitor and a Community Advisor.
Name: Sister Juliana SI
Guardian, assumed office 2013
Address: The House of the Incarnation,6 Sherbourne Terrace, Dover Gardens, SA, 5048, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)8 8296 2166
Email: Click here for email
Founded 1893
Founded in 1893 by Father Herbert Kelly, the Society is a means of uniting the devotion of ordinary people, using it in the service of the Church. Members of the Society share a common life of prayer and fellowship in a variety of educational, pastoral and community activities in England, Australia, Japan, Lesotho, and South Africa.
Name: Christopher Myers SSM
Provincial, assumed office November 2009
Address: St John's Priory,14 St John's Street, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)8 8223 1014
Fax: +61 (0)8 8223 2764
Email: Click here for email
Founded 1975
The community was founded in the parish of St Mark, Fitzroy, in the archdiocese of Melbourne on 8 November 1975. In 1980, after working in this inner city parish for five years, and after adopting the Rule of Saint Benedict, they moved to the country town of Camperdown in the Western District of Victoria. Here the community lives a contemplative monastic life with the emphasis on the balanced life of prayer and work that forms the Benedictine ethos. In 1993, the Chapter decided to admit women and to endeavour to establish a mixed community of monks and nuns. The community supports itself through the operation of a printery, icon reproduction, manufacture of incense, crafts and a small guest house.
In 2005, the Chapter petitioned the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation for aggregation to the Congregation. After a period of probation, this was granted on the Feast of SS Peter and Paul 2007. The fruits of our association are already being shown forth.
Superior awaiting election
Address: PO Box 111, Camperdown, VIC, 3260, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)3 5593 2348
Fax: +61 (0)3 5593 2887
Email: Click here for email
Website: www.anglicanbenedictine.org.au
Founded 1913
The Oratory of the Good Shepherd is a society of priests and laymen founded at Cambridge (UK), which now has province in North America, Australia, Southern Africa and Europe. Oratorians are bound together by a common Rule and discipline; members do not generally live together in community. The brethren are grouped in 'colleges' and meet regularly for prayer and support, and each province meets annually for retreat and chapter. Every three years, the General Chapter meets, presided over by the Superior of the whole Oratory, whose responsibility is to maintain the unity of the provinces.
Consecration of life in the Oratory has the twin purpose of fostering the individual brother's personal search for God in union with his brethren, and as a sign of the Kingdom. So through the apostolic work of the brethren, the Oratory seeks to make a contribution to the life and witness of the whole Church.
In common with traditional communities, the Oratory requires celibacy. Brothers are accountable to their brethren for their spending and are expected to live simply and with generosity. The ideal spiritual pattern includes daily Eucharist, Offices, and an hour of prayer. Study is also regarded as important in the life. During the time of probation which is for two years, the new brother is cared for and nurtured in the Oratory life by another brother of his College. The brother may then, with the consent of the province, make his first profession, which is renewed annually for at least five years, though with the hope of intention and perseverance for life. After five years, profession can be made for a longer period, and after ten years a brother may, with the consent of the whole Oratory, make his profession for life.
Name: Keith Dean-Jones OGS
Provincial, assumed office 2011
Address: St John's Rectory,PO Box 377, Taree, NSW, Australia
Tel: +61 026552 1310
Email: Click here for email
Website: www.ogs.net
Founded 1892
The Society of the Sacred Advent exists for the glory of God and for the service of His Church in preparation for the Second Coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Members devote themselves to God in community under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Our life is a round of prayer, silence and work. Our Patron is John the Baptist who, by his life and death, pointed the way to Jesus. We would hope also to point the way to Jesus in our own time, to a world which has largely lost touch with spiritual realities and is caught up in despair, loneliness and fear.
As part of our ministry, Sisters may be called to give addresses, conduct Retreats or Quiet Days, or to make themselves available for spiritual direction and parish work. The aim of the Community is to grow in the mind of Christ so as to manifest Him to others. The Society has two Schools, St Margaret's and St Aidan's.
Name: Sister Eunice SSA
Revd Mother, assumed office 21 March 2007
Address: Community House,18 Petrie Street, Ascot, QLD, 4007, Australia
Tel: +64 (0)7 3262 5511
Fax: +64 (0)7 3862 3296
Email: Click here for email
Arrived in Australia 1892. Established as a separate Province 1965
Founded by Emily Ayckbowm in 1870, the Community of the Sisters of the Church is an international body of lay and ordained women within the Anglican Communion. We are seeking to be faithful to the gospel values of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, and to the traditions of Religious Life while exploring new ways of expressing them and of living community life and ministry today. By our worship, ministry and life in community, we desire to be channels of the reconciling love and acceptance of Christ, to acknowledge the dignity of every person, and to enable others to encounter the living God whom we seek.
The Community's patrons, St Michael and the Angels, point us to a life both of worship and active ministry, of mingled adoration and action. Our name, Sisters of the Church, reminds us that our particular dedication is to the mystery of the Church as the Body of Christ in the world.
The Eucharist and Divine Office (usually fourfold) are the heart of our Community life. Community houses provide different expressions of our life and ministry in inner city, suburban, coastal town and village setting.
Name: Linda Mary Shuttle CSC
Mother Superior & Australian Provincial, assumed office July 2009
Address: 29 Lika Drive , Kempsey, NSW, 2440, Australia
Tel: +61 265 622 313
Fax: +61 265 622 314
Email: Click here for email
Website: www.sistersofthechurch.org
Founded 1987
We are a community of Brothers who desire to deepen our relationship with God through prayer, manual work, community, and times of being alone in our hermitages. We follow the Rule written by Saint Francis for Hermitages in which three or four brothers live in each fraternity. As others join us we envisage a federation of fraternities with three or four in each. Each Brother has responsibility for certain areas of community life. Decision-making is by consensus.
There are five sources of inspiration for the Little Brothers of Francis. They are:
The four Gospels:?Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are central to our spirituality, and the main source material for our meditation and prayer life.
St Francis:?Francis would recall Christ's words and life through persistent meditation on the Gospels for his deep desire was to love Christ and live a Christ-centred life. He was a man of prayer and mystic who sought places of solitude, and hermitages played a central role in his life. Though the early brothers embraced a mixed life of prayer and ministry, Francis wanted places of seclusion - hermitages, for the primacy of prayer, in which three or four brothers lived, and for which he wrote a rule.
St Francis's Rule for Hermitages:?In his brief rule for life within the hermitage, Francis avoided a detailed document and set out the principles that are important: liturgy of the Hours is the focus, and sets the rhythm of the daily prayer; each hermitage was to have at the most four Brothers, which meant they would be both 'little' and 'fraternal'; within this framework, Brothers could withdraw for periods of solitude; the hermitages were not to be places or centres of ministry.
Desert Fathers:?Their stories contain a profound wisdom for any who are serious about the inner spiritual journey. This is why they have held such prominence in monastic circles in both East and West down through the centuries, and why they are a priority source for us.
The Land: A strong connectedness to a spiritual and physical home has always been a part of our charism, not unlike St Francis? love for his ?Portiuncula? or Little Portion. In shaping and building our hermitage over the years our environment has shaped and formed us. Droughts, bushfires, floods and bountiful years have brought us into a real and living relationship with the land in this place.
Name: The Brothers LBF
Address: Franciscan Hermitage,Eremophilia, PO Box 162, Tabulam, NSW, 2469, Australia
Website: www.franciscanhermitage.org
Founded 1888
The Community of the Holy Name was founded in 1888 within the Diocese of Melbourne by Emma Caroline Silcock (Sister Esther). The work of the Community was initially amongst the poor and disadvantaged in the slum areas of inner-city Melbourne. Over the years, the Sisters have sought to maintain a balance between a ministry to those in need and a commitment to the Divine Office, personal prayer and a daily Eucharist.
For many years, CHN was involved in institutions, such as children's homes and a Mission house. There were many and varied types of outreach. The Holy Name Girls' High School was established in Papua New Guinea, and the indigenous Community of the Visitation of Our Lady fostered there.
Today, Sisters are engaged in parish work in ordained and lay capacities, and in a variety of other ministries, including hospital chaplaincies, spiritual companionship and leading of Quiet Days and retreats. The offering of hospitality to people seeking spiritual refreshment or a place away from their normal strains and stresses has become an important part of the life and ministry.
Name: Sister Carol CHN
Mother Superior, assumed office 12 April 2011
Address: Community House,40 Cavanagh Street, Cheltenham, VIC, 3192, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)3 9583 2087
Fax: +61 (0)3 9585 2932
Email: Click here for email
Website: www.chn.org.au
Founded 1921
The Society of St Francis has diverse origins in a number of Franciscan groups which drew together during the 1930s to found one Franciscan Society. SSF in its widest definition includes First Order Brothers, First Order Sisters (CSF), Second Order Sisters (OSC) and a Third Order. The First Order shares a common life of prayer, fraternity and a commitment to the poor.
SSF friars went from England to Papua New Guinea in the late 1950s and the first Australian house was established in 1964. The first New Zealand house followed in 1970. In 1981, the Pacific Province was divided into two: Australia/New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The latter was divided again in 2008 into Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In 1993 the first Koreans joined to form the Korean Franciscan Brotherhood, initially linked by covenant with SSF. They were received as members of SSF in 2010. Reflecting the geographic diversity of the province the name was changed to Province of the Divine Compassion in 2011.
Name: Christopher John SSF
Minister Provincial, Province of the Divine Compassion, assumed office 2012
Address: The Hermitage,PO Box 46, Stroud, NSW, 2425, Australia
Tel: +61 4994 5372
Fax: +61 4994 5527
Email: Click here for email
Website: www.franciscan.org.au
Founded 1993
The Community of Christ the King is a Traditional Anglican Benedictine order, enclosed and contemplative. Its members endeavour to glorify God in a life of prayer under the threefold vow of Stability, Conversion of Life and Obedience. They follow a rhythm of life centred on the worship of God in the Daily Eucharist and sevenfold Office.
The convent, on a 37 hectare property, provides agistment for dorpor sheep. It is surrounded by attractive flower gardens, a citrus orchard and a kitchen garden. The fruit and vegetables ensure a certain amount of self-sufficiency, and afford the opportunity and privilege of manual labour, essential to the contemplative life.
Hospitality aimed at helping visitors deepen their spiritual lives through prayer is a feature of the life. The property, with its extensive views, bush walks and seclusion, is ideally suited to relaxation, quiet reflection and retreat. It is ringed by fourteen large crosses providing opportunity for meditation on the way of the cross, and for prayer in solitude.
Name: Sister Patience CCK
Address: 344 Taminick Gap Road, South Wangaratta, Victoria, 3678, Australia
Tel: +61-(0)3 5725 7343
Email: Click here for email