Anglican convent targets young 'seekers'
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/article38864
- Author
- Folins, Tali
- Material Type
- Journal Article
- Journal
- Anglican Journal
- Date
- 2015 December
- Author
- Folins, Tali
- Material Type
- Journal Article
- Journal
- Anglican Journal
- Date
- 2015 December
- Volume
- 141
- Issue
- 10
- Page
- 8
- Notes
- "Beginning next September [2016], the sisterhood [of St. John the Divine] plans to host up to 10 young women a year at its convent in north Toronto. Like the 36 young men and women of the Community of St. Anselm [at Lambeth Palace], participants in SSJD's Companions on the Way program will spend 12 months praying, studying and doing mission work. And like many recently founded spiritual communities, the Companions program, [Canon Sr. Constance Joanna] Gefvert says, will be inspired by new monasticism, a less formal approach to spiritual community that evolved in the late 20th century. 'The church is not going to be the same 50 years from now -- it's going to look completely different from what it looks like now. And so is the monastic life. These kinds of experiments are ways of trying to fall in with the Spirit', she says". "The only real requirement beyond those of age and sex -- the program is open to women age 22-40 -- is that would-be companions intend to be followers of Jesus, [Sr. Sue] Elwyn says". "At the heart of the Companions program will be prayer. Prayer, the sisters say, is a skill that has to be learned, and the spiritual resources the Companions will take away from the program will really come out of their prayer. Historically, say Gefvert and Elwyn, renewal in the church has often issued from the monasteries, because of the centrality of prayer, to the monastic life".
- Subjects
- Community of St. Anselm
- Sisterhood of Saint John the Divine (Toronto, Ont.)
- Companions on the Way (SSJD program)
- Monasticism and religious orders - 21st century
- Monasticism and religious orders - Church of England
- Monasticism and religious orders for women - Anglican Church of Canada
- Prayer - Anglican Church of Canada
- Gefvert, Constance Joanna, 1941-
- Constance Joanna, Sister, S.S.J.D., 1941-
- Elwyn, Sue 1949-2020
- Sue, Sister, S.S.J.D., 1931-2020