According to A.M. Allchin, Evelyn Underhill saw the restoration of the religious life in the Anglican tradition as a sign of the church’s “spiritual vitality and authenticity.” She wrote that, ”the religious life sums up, and expresses in a living symbolism, the ideal consummation of all worship; the total oblation of the creature to the purposes of God.”
Two ways of participating
Most of the church's religious orders have two ways of associating with this expression of spiritual vitality and authenticity: as professed members and as associates.
Professed Members (those having taken life vows) of the religious orders have found a special place in the heart of many of our parish churches. They have served as teachers, community workers, sacristans, and officiants at the Daily Office. They have visited to lead retreats and quiet days and offer spiritual guidance. Possibly most importantly they have stood and knelt with all the faithful in the Holy Eucharist and Daily Office.
Associates of the various orders are clergy and lay, women and men, who have a special relationship with a particular community. They share in the life of, and have a rule of life consistent with the charism and traditions, of their order.
In the parish church
A parish is blessed by the presence of a religious community in its life. In a few places you have a long -standing practice of sisters or brothers serving as part of the parish’s staff. For example, at Saint Mary the Virgin, Times Square there are now two Franciscan Friars in residence and before that two sisters from the Community of Saint John Baptist. More commonly in recent years is the presence of newer forms of the religious life such as the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory and the Sisters of Saint Gregory.
There are also thousands of associates of the orders scattered throughout the church. Many serve on vestries, in service and liturgical ministries, and as faithful parishioners grounding the parish's heartbeat of prayer and worship. They may add a dimension and perspective about living the Christian Life. An internal dialogue can be set off among parishioners about how deeply and completely the Life is to be lived.
The work of the incarnation
You are the Body of Christ....That is to say; in you and through you the method and work of the Incarnation must go forward. You are meant to incarnate in your lives the themes of your adoration. You are to be taken, consecrated, broken, and made a means of grace; vehicles of the Eternal Charity. Evelyn Underhill
Many of the early women's religious orders gave themselves to nursing during times of plague and war. For them this was a way of participating in the Incarnation.
From Sister Kate's "Memories of S. Saviour's Priory" --
The Community of St. Mary
This is the community of Constance and her Companions who gave their lives in Memphis during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878. The Community of St. Mary (CSM) is an Episcopal religious order of nuns with independent houses located in Greenwich, New York, Sewanee, Tennessee, Mukwonago, Wisconsin, and also in Malawi and the Philippines.
Associates of St. Mary's (in their Eastern Province) "are Christian men and women who undertake a Rule of Life under the direction of the Community. They share in the support and fellowship of the sisters, and of one another, while living dedicated and disciplined lives in the world. (The Community of St. Mary today has three autonomous Provinces; an Associate belongs to the whole Community, but has a principal tie with one Province.) Each Eastern Province Associate has a relationship with a particular sister who keeps in touch on a regular basis."
Consider becoming an associate of one of the church's religious orders.
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The icons are from my collection - "The Anglo Catholics." At the top of the page is an icon was written by Christine Simoneau Hales. It's called "The Restoration of the Religious Life.' The images are of Mother Harriet Monsell, CSJB, Richard Meux Benson, SSJE, James Otis Sargent Huntington, OHC, and Priscilla Lydia Sellon. The second is of Constance and her Companions written by Suzanne Schleck.
Postings on the inner life and the virus
You know, and they know, that they are offering their lives
God's not indifferent to our pain
Becoming an Associate of a Religious Order
Spiritual vitality and authenticity
Faith to perceive: In your great compassion
Turn everything that happens to account
Postings on Parish Development during the Virus
Power from the center pervades the whole