Eleven Anglican Sisters will be received into the Catholic Church via the ordinariate, it emerged this week.
The Sisters, from the Community of St Mary the Virgin in Wantage, Oxfordshire, will be received into the Church by Mgr Keith Newton, leader of the ordinariate in England and Wales, on New Year’s Day.
The group, which ranges in age from 45 to 83, includes the mother superior of the community and a Sister who was once a minister in the Church of England. Three are in their 80s.
Next year they will stay for six weeks at a Benedictine convent. After that, they do not know where they will live and they have no endowments to keep them afloat financially.
Mother Winsome said: “We’ve got an uncertain future. But we are doing this because we truly believe this is God’s call. The Bible is full of people called to step out in faith not knowing where they were going or how they will be provided for and that truly is the situation we are following.”
The community, inspired by the Oxford Movement and founded in 1848, streams its daily offices live on its website and offers retreats and meditations online.
I have special affection for this order. When I discovered that the Palmer-Burgess Gradual (English in four-line staffs modeled on the Graduale Romanium) existed and that this convent owned the rights, I called them up. The head of the order was astonishingly nice and wonderful. They wanted the books republished, and hoped that the CMAA would do it. They asked for nothing in return. They only wanted the chant to get out there.
I was truly taken aback at the spirit of generosity here. It was beautiful. And so unusual. As a result of this, the whole world had access to this treasure that was previously hidden.
You can purchase these books here.
| Plainchant Gradual, vols. 1 & 2 (in one edition) | Palmer/Burgess | Lulu |
| Plainchant Gradual, vols. 3 & 4 (in one edition) | Palmer/Burgess | Lulu |