ASudans of the Spirit
By Br. Anthony-Bernard (Leo) Campos, OSB

A quick walk around the Convention Center shows the rich variety of expressions of spirituality in the Episcopal Church: from books and devotionals to artistic expressions of all forms. Amid these offerings are a number of men and women wearing long flowing robes of white, brown, blue, black. They are a well-kept secret in the Episcopal Church: members of monastic Orders and Communities. The Episcopal Church canonically recognizes 16 traditional orders and 11 Christian communities for men, women, or both. Monastic life is thriving in the Episcopal Church, and the number of Religious (men and women who live a vowed life) is growing.

Religious claim to serve the greater church in several ways, but what do these men and women actually do? For Sr. Mary Lois of the Order of St. Helena, the function of a Religious is to “demonstrate alternative ways of serving God,” apart from the traditional three-fold order of lay, deacon, and priest. And one of the ways to demonstrate this is by “trying to model a form of living which is as accepting and non-judgmental as God is to each one of us,” she says.

Br. Curtis Almquist from the Society of St. John the Evangelist, sees Religious bringing a quality of fearlessness born and nurtured by their prayer life. Religious engage the deepest existential questions: “What is God's invitation in the midst of our life?” he asks. “People are dealing with issues for which they are willing to give up their lives, and looking for Life.” In his view the answers can be found only through a commitment to “deep listening, which is the only way to find the common ground. And deep listening comes from deep prayer.”

From the early days of the church some have been called to abandon the comfort of the “city” and move out into the “deserts.” This is a prophetic message “through an act of total self-giving, a sign of total commitment to God,” concludes Sr. Mary, OSH.

In a real sense Religious are very similar to missionaries who give up the comfort of the developed world for the far off, unknown and the dangerous. But instead of physically moving to the edges of civilization, the Religious move to the Sudans of the spirit.