Advisory Council on Anglican Religious Life in Australia meets in Melbourne
Reflections
“As the members of ACARLA returned home from the conference to our various communities, we left with renewed friendships, a strengthened commitment to one another, and a shared joy in the call to religious life in the Anglican Church,” says The Rev’d Gillian Moses SSA
Each year Anglican religious communities from around Australia, together with invited orders from other traditions, gather in Melbourne for the Advisory Council on Anglican Religious Life in Australia (ACARLA) Conference. This year, Brisbane was represented by the Society of the Sacred Advent (SSA), the Oratory of the Good Shepherd and the Society of St Francis.
The February conference is a valuable opportunity for religious communities to meet together, pray, socialise and support one another. It is heartening to see the diversity of orders and communities represented, including the Community of Saints Barnabas and Cecilia, Anglican Benedictines from Camperdown Abbey, the Society of the Sacred Mission (SSM), the Community of the Sisters of the Church (CSC) and the Community of the Holy Name (CHN). This year we were joined by representatives of the Melanesian Brotherhood and the Catholic observer from the Family Care Sisters. Representatives from the Bishops’ Meeting are also present. While Bishop Garry Weatherill from Ballarat usually chairs the meeting, he was unable to attend this year, Bishop Kate Wilmot from Perth chaired in his absence.
Anglican Religious Communities have been operating within the Anglican Church for well over a century as Anglican dioceses sought to respond to some of the social challenges of the time. Here in Queensland the SSA began in 1892 responding to an invitation to provide spiritual support to the women and children of the diocese, and especially to work in the field of education for girls. CHN began as the Mission to the Streets and Lanes in Melbourne. Religious Communities also came to Australia from elsewhere, including the Franciscans and the Sisters of the Church. While these communities flourished, particularly in the period between the two World Wars, most have seen a gradual decline in numbers, though not in influence, since then.
Orders such as the SSA and CSC continue to exercise an important ministry through their schools, while CHN offers the hospitality of its Spirituality Centre to the people of Melbourne and beyond. The Franciscans are a visible presence in the Diocese of Brisbane through Cannon Hill Anglican College and the work of the Annerley friary with refugees.
It is a challenging time for many of our religious communities in a context where organised religion is often regarded with suspicion, yet people still identify as spiritual. While some communities like the SSA and SSM are looking at new ways of being a religious community, others are making plans to ensure that the charism and work of their community can continue in the absence of new professions. These challenges require not only great faith, but creativity, as we discern where the Spirit is moving today.
ACARLA is also considering how to support and encourage Christians who feel called to live as single consecrated people and a great deal of work has been done in this area. Increasingly, people are expressing a call to live in this way as professed religious, but not part of a community.
We resolved to ask General Synod to reinstate Religious Life Sunday as a time in the church calendar when vocations to religious life might be prayed for and talked about in parishes and faith communities nationally.
As the members of ACARLA returned home from the conference to our various communities, we left with renewed friendships, a strengthened commitment to one another, and a shared joy in the call to religious life in the Anglican Church.
With the SSA, I am reminded of the need to return to our original charism when we seek to discern ways forward. We are always called to care for the spiritual welfare of women and children and to encourage and develop women’s leadership in the Church. Please pray for your local religious communities as we pray for the wider Church.
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