Community of the Resurrection
Encyclopedia
The Community of the Resurrection is an Anglican religious community
Anglican religious order
Anglican religious orders are communities of laity and/or clergy in the Anglican Communion who live under a common rule of life. The members of religious orders take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and lead a common life of work and prayer...

 for men. It was founded in 1892 by Charles Gore
Charles Gore
Charles Gore was a British theologian and Anglican bishop.-Early life and education:Gore was the third son of the Honourable Charles Alexander Gore, and brother of the fourth Earl of Arran...

 with Walter Howard Frere (1863–1938, later Bishop of Truro
Bishop of Truro
The Bishop of Truro is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Truro in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Cornwall and it is one of the most recently created dioceses of the Church of England...

) and four others.

The community lives at the House of the Resurrection in Mirfield
Mirfield
Mirfield is a small town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury...

, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

. Its rule is an attempt to create a communal life in which individual talents are given scope to develop. Members of the community commonly have the postnominal "CR".

From the date of the foundation until 1945 Members of the Community took only an annually renewable promise, the founders being opposed to vows. With the founding group safely dead, the Community began to drift away from its original intention of being bound by a 'permanent but voluntary' commitment. For some, this did not feel like the 'real thing' and they wanted vows. From 1945 a single vow was introduced 'to remain in the Community of the Resurrection for life living according to its Rule and Constitution'. Under the influence of newer members, the Community has very recently begun to style itself in imitation of monks of the Benedictine Order, taking the vows of stability, conversion of life and obedience (though in CR these vows are simple, not solemn). It will be many years before a majority of the Community has taken these vows.

Works

CR has had an influence in excess of its numbers in the development of the Anglican Church in South Africa, especially in the ministry of Raymond Raynes CR and Trevor Huddleston
Trevor Huddleston
Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston CR, KCMG was an English Anglican bishop. He was most well known for his anti-apartheid activism and his 'Prayer for Africa'...

 CR in Sophiatown and in the influence of Huddleston and the Community of the Resurrection on Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...

. The existence of St John's College
St John's College (Johannesburg, South Africa)
St John's College is a private school for boys in Houghton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.-History:St John's College was founded in Johannesburg on 1 August 1898 and is an Anglican school....

, (Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

) and its ethos are also almost solely due to its founding fathers; Bishop James Okey Nash, Thomson, Alston, Hill and at least eleven others, all of whom were community members. It has been a role model for many Southern African schools.

The College of the Resurrection
College of the Resurrection
The College of the Resurrection, popularly known as Mirfield, is an Anglo-Catholic theological college of the Church of England at Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England, founded in 1903. The college has close links to the Community of the Resurrection...

, Mirfield, was the first theological college in the Church of England to admit ordinands irrespective of their means. For a while, the Community also managed Codrington College
Codrington College
Codrington College is an Anglican theological college in St. John, Barbados. It was founded by Christopher Codrington, who after his death in 1710 left portions of his 'estates' - two slave labour plantations on Barbados and areas of Barbuda - to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in...

 in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

 and founded and directed St Peter's College for ordination candidates in South Africa.

Other influential members have included Robert Hugh Benson
Robert Hugh Benson
Robert Hugh Benson was the youngest son of Edward White Benson and his wife, Mary...

, John Neville Figgis
John Neville Figgis
John Neville Figgis was a historian, political philosopher and monk. Educated at Brighton College, he was a student of Lord Acton at Cambridge, and editor of much of Acton's work....

, Edward Keble Talbot, Timothy Rees
Timothy Rees
Timothy Rees was a Bishop of Llandaff.Timothy Rees was a Cardiganshire man, educated at Lampeter and subsequently pursued a monastic vocation at the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield in Yorkshire. When in 1931 he became Bishop of Llandaff he was the first member of a religious community to...

, Lionel Thornton, Martin Jarrett-Kerr, Harry Williams, Geoffrey Beaumont
Geoffrey Beaumont
Geoffrey Beaumont was an Anglican priest and monk of the Community of the Resurrection who was also a composer of popular songs and hymn tunes. He was for a time chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge...

, Benedict Green, Anselm Genders
Anselm Genders
The Rt Rev Anselm Genders, CR was Bishop of Bermuda from 1977 until 1982. Born on August 15, 1919 and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Birmingham and Brasenose College, Oxford during which time his studies were interrupted by wartime service with the RNVR.After graduation he taught...

, and Robert Mercer
Robert William Stanley Mercer
Robert William Stanley Mercer CR was the fourth Bishop of Matabeleland.Born on 10 January 1935, he was educated at Grey School, Port Elizabeth and St Paul's Theological College, Grahamstown. Ordained as a deacon in 1959 and as a priest a year later, his first post was as a curate at Hillside,...

.

In recent years declining numbers have caused the community's withdrawal from all other places than Mirfield where, for the first time in its history, the entire community now lives. The distinct change of emphasis toward a more monastic style of life means that most of the work of the community is now conducted at Mirfield where the atmosphere of prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...

 and quiet is much in demand. The Mirfield Centre for local ministerial outreach is a valued product of this concentration of resources.

The Community cooperates with the Benedictine St. Matthias' Abbey in Trier
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....

, Germany.

Visitors

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...

 visited CR Mirfield in the 1930s and, as a result, introduced the recitation of parts of Psalm 118 as part of the daily prayer of the seminary for the Confessing Church
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...

.

Further reading

  • Wilkinson, Alan (1992) The Community of the Resurrection: a Centenary History. SCM Press, London ISBN 0334025311

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK