Former religious orders in the churches of the Anglican Communion are those communities of monks, nuns, friars, or sisters, having a common life and rule under vows, whose work has ended and whose community has been disbanded. In a very few cases this is due to the termination of the work for which the community was established, but in most cases it is due to amalgamation or the death of the final remaining member of the community.
Former communities for men
Brotherhood of the Epiphany (BE) The Brotherhood of the Epiphany, also known as St. Paul's Brotherhood, was an Anglican religious order for men founded in 1879 by priests associated with the Oxford Mission. The order was originally based in Calcutta, and later expanded to include houses in other parts of northern India and present-day Bangladesh. With the closure of the Indian houses, jurisdiction was transferred from the Church of North India to the Church of Bangladesh. The final house of the order was at Bogra Road in Barisal, Bangladesh. It oversaw boarding schools, Christian youth hostels, a medical centre, an orphanage, and a primary school. The community was reported as active in 2003, but by 2011 was no longer listed on the Anglican Communion directory of religious communities. The Oxford Mission, an associated body, states on its website "The brotherhood has come to an end, but in India the work continues under an Administrator appointed by the Bishop of Kolkata, and in Bangladesh under the supervision of the Diocese of Dhaka."See the Oxford Mission website.
Ewell Monastery (OC) Ewell Monastery was an experimental Cistercian community of monks within the Anglican Church from 1966 to 2004, located at West Malling in Kent. The revival of religious communities within the Anglican Communion during the 18th century, and more especially the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, was influenced by many of the traditional monastic rules, particularly those of the Benedictine, Franciscan, and Augustinian Orders. There were few attempts to revive the Cistercian Rule within the Anglican communion prior to 1966, and none that lasted more than a few years. In 1966 the Revd Fr Aelred Arneson OC, established his Cistercian community,History detailed here. which came to receive official recognition by both the Church of England and the world-wide Cistercian Order within the Roman Catholic Church. Fr Aelred OC was the Prior throughout the life of the monastery.Details at this directory page. The Abbey buildings were constructed on the site of a former farm, with an ancient Tithe Barn being developed into the community chapel. This chapel remains after the closure of the monastery, and is a Grade II* listed building.Official listing status shown here. The Cistercian Rule was never popular within Anglicanism, and the community never numbered more than five members, although these were often strengthened by temporary residents at the monastery from amongst the associates of the Order. From 1987 to 2004 there were only two members in the community, and Fr Aelred made the decision in 2004 to close the monastery.Closure notice shown here. Fr Aelred continued to live the religious life as a Cistercian solitary, with the distinction of being the sole member of the worldwide Anglican Communion to be living under the strict Cistercian Rule of life until his death, aged 96, on 7 January 2022, although some Anglican religious follow an adapted form of the Cistercian Rule. In 2010 a dispersed, uncloistered community was established as the Order of Anglican Cistercians in the Church of England.
Former communities for women
Community of the Epiphany (CE)
The Community of the Epiphany was founded in 1883 by George Wilkinson, Bishop of Truro,Article by Richard Savill “Last surviving nun of 127 year-old order” (p. 7) Daily Telegraph Tuesday 4 November 2008 who afterwards became Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane."Death of The Bishop of St. Andrews".The Times; Thursday, Dec 12, 1907; p. 4; Issue 38514; col C The community was formed for work in the Truro diocese and was based at the Convent of the Epiphany, Truro, Cornwall. The sisters were involved in pastoral and educational work, the care of Truro Cathedral and St Paul's Church, and church needlework. The head of the community was the Mother Superior. There was for some forty years an active branch house in Tokyo, Japan, and there was a more long-term branch house at Penzance.Cornish Church Guide. Truro: Blackford; pp. 325-26 Branch houses were also opened in Newquay, and Truro (separate from the mother house). The sisters ran a convalescent home in St Agnes, and in Truro (in addition to the main convent and the Truro branch house) they ran a small school (Rosewin School) and a retreat house (St Michael's House). The main convent was originally located at Alverton House in Tregolls Road. The house, built in the early nineteenth century, was extended for the convent, and the chapel was built in 1910 by Edmund H. Sedding.Pevsner, N. (1970) Cornwall; 2nd ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin; pp. 234-35 After a century at Tregolls Road it moved to Copeland Court in Kenwyn. After a very full history, covering 125 years, the community was reduced to its last surviving member. In 2008 Sr Elizabeth CE attracted some attention in the local and national press, as the last surviving member of the order; she was then 92, and living in a nursing home, but still engaged in charitable work; she died in 2017, aged 101. In 1936 the sisters founded a parallel community for Japanese women, the Community of Nazareth, which achieved full independence in the 1960s. This community continues its work in Tokyo and Okinawa.
Community of Jesus of Nazareth An Anglican order of sisters whose convent was in the small village of Westcote in Gloucestershire. It was founded by Mother Geraldine Mott at the suggestion of Brother Edward Bulstrode, formerly a novice with the Cowley Fathers, to support the establishment of a training centre for village evangelism. (Br. Edward went on to establish the Disciples of Jesus of Nazareth - later known as the Village Evangelists.) It was the only Anglican Order in the British Isles to live on faith and trust alone. The Sisters brought nothing with them, no dowry, and were allowed no income. They relied on prayer, hard work and donations to sustain them and their missions. The Sisters’ chief work was to provide help for priests in their parishes. As the years went by, the community was asked to work in many parishes including Pentonville, Poplar, Peckham, Acton and Knightsbridge in London, Burgess Hill in Sussex and St. Aidan’s Birmingham, St. Peter’s Plymouth, Grimsby, Hull and Sunderland where Archbishop Ramsey visited the Sisters from York. He subsequently wrote to the Convent, asking for more help in the province. Their work ranged far and wide from Tewkesbury Abbey to St. Albans and to St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth. The Community was active from 1927 to 1969, at which point it merged with the Little Sisters of Charity.
Community of Nazareth Founded in 1936, it was established in Tokyo by the English Community of the Epiphany.Anglican Religious Communities Yearbook: 2004-2005. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2003. It is now under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Church in Japan, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, and operates a daughter house on the island of Okinawa. The community's chapel, residential compound and retreat center located in Mitaka, Tokyo, is a noted design by Japanese architect Shōzō Uchii.
Community of the Presentation (CP) Founded in 1927 as a nursing order, originally named the Nursing Community of Christ the Consoler,See brief history in the Anglican Religious Communities Yearbook 2000-01, page 6. the sisters lived in a convent and nursing home in Highgate in north London, and maintained a convalescent home in Hythe, Kent, and after a short time renamed themselves the Community of the Presentation. In 1935 they took over St Saviour's House from the Community of the Epiphany. This House, opened in Regents Park in 1845, and relocated to Osnaburgh Street, London, in 1852, was also a nursing home, and the Presentation sisters closed their original Highgate home. In 1960 St Saviour's House was subject to a compulsory purchase order, and the sisters decided to relocate to the site of their existing convalescent home in Hythe, opening a new thirteen-bed hospital, St Saviour's Hospital. Running the hospital alone until 1975, from January 1976 the sisters began to employ nurses who were not members of the community. Their numbers declined, and a board of trustees took over the running of the hospital. Brigadier Ronnie Winfield, appointed Chairman of the Trustees in 1981, began an expansion programme up to a modern standard 36-bed hospital, and in 1989 this was sold to a private hospital company. The sisters' chapel had already been sold and converted into a private clinic. The remaining assets of the Community of the Presentation were invested to form the St Saviour's Medical Charity, for the benefit of the people of Hythe.See full history by Bruce Tait in Hythe Civic Society Newsletter, edition 153 (2010). The last remaining sisters continued to live in the convent beside the hospital during these last changes, until only one sister remained. Sr May CP moved in 1997 to live with the Community of St Francis in Birmingham, and died on 9 January 1999, ending the life of the Community. From 1960 until the 1980s the sisters were the owners and guardians of The Buxheim Carvings.
Community of St Michael and All Angels (CSM&AA)
Bishop Edward Twells (Bishop of Bloemfontein) wrote in 1868 highlighting the need for a Sisterhood to set up schools for girls in Bloemfontein.Karel Schoeman, 1986. The Free State Mission: The Anglican Church in the OFS, 1863-1883, pages 18-19. The Community was founded by Twells' successor, Bishop Allan Webb in 1874. A party of seven led by Mother Emma (Mother Superior) traveled from England to Bloemfontein in 1874, and immediately opened a boarding school, St Michael's, and a day school.Karel Schoeman, 1986. The Free State Mission: The Anglican Church in the OFS, 1863-1883, page 42-53. St Michael's School exists to this day as one of the leading schools in South Africa. In 1877 the Community also established the St George's Cottage Hospital in Bloemfontein, the first hospital in the Orange Free State.Karel Schoeman, 1986. The Free State Mission: The Anglican Church in the OFS, 1863-1883, page 54. The Community also pioneered nursing ministry in Kimberley, from 1876, where Sister Henrietta Stockdale organised the training of nurses at the Carnarvon Hospital. She was later influential in securing the first state registration of nurses in the world, in 1891. Sister Joan Marsh, the last member of the Community, died aged 97 in Bloemfontein in May 2016.St Michael’s say farewells to beloved Sister Joan
Community of the Servants of the Cross This community was founded in 1877 to nurse and care for the aged and infirm, and to live a life of prayer and hospitality. It was unusual in aiming to recruit nuns from working-class backgrounds, rather than the upper middle class from which many orders drew their sisters. The community moved to Sussex in 1895 where it remained for over 100 years. Their Chichester convent closed in 1996, and the Sisters moved to a nursing home on the site of the former Chichester Theological College, and the last sister died in 2003.
Community of Reparation to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament (CRJBS)