Religious Life in the Church

Br Thomas Mark Liotta, the community's Administrator and Minister Provincial of Province II, shared the newsletter of Province II of the Episcopal Church with the community today. Part of an article on Religious Life in the province was about the Brotherhood of St. Gregory and the Sisters of St. Gregory.

 From Thomas Mark Liotta, Brotherhood of Saint Gregory, Minister Provincial, Province II comes the following information: 

"Within the Episcopal Church there are two canons that differentiate the modes of religious life. There are the traditional communities which largely live in community and have a common purse and take the traditional three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.  Then there are the Christian Communities, some of whom live together in community and some are dispersed. Some take the traditional three vows but interpreted somewhat differently. Some have a common purse, others do not.  The Episcopal Church website lists them but does not differentiate them from traditional communities and the Christian Communities.

 

"The Brotherhood [of St. Gregory] is now 42 years old.  For our 40th anniversary one of our brothers authored a book, "In Love and Service Bound: The first forty years of the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory" by Karekin Madteos Yarian, BSG.and the website for the book is:  http://gregorians.org/publications/ilsb_book.php " 

 

You may even have met one of the brothers, since they do not live and work in a closed community.  Visit their website at http://gregorians.org/ to "meet" the brothers and find out more.

The Sisterhood of St. Gregory

The Sisters of St. Gregory is a canonically recognized community of women in the Episcopal Church who have been called together by God to live the vowed life in a diversity of styles and spiritualities in the world. They live intentionally dispersed, coming together twice a year for convocation, retreat, business, fellowship and worship.

The formation of a Companion Sisterhood to provide a similar form of life for women was among the major undertakings of the Brotherhood of St. Gregory.  Authorized in 1987, the Sisterhood had a rough road for a number of years. In 2001, the Sisters became an independent Order known as the Sisters of St. Gregory (SSG).