Community of the Resurrection

The Community of the Resurrection is an Anglican religious community for men. It was founded in 1892 by Charles Gore with Walter Howard Frere (1863-1938, later Bishop of Truro) and four others.

Its mother house is the House of the Resurrection in Mirfield, West Yorkshire where the majority of its members now reside. 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 postnomial "CR".

Members of the Community take life vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. For many years after its foundation, they only took annual vows since Charles Gore disapproved of life vows.

Works

It 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 CR in Sophiatown and in the influence of Huddleston and the Community of the Resurrection on Desmond Tutu. St John's College's existence (Johannesburg) and 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, 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 in Barbados and founded and directed St Peter's College for ordination candidates in South Africa.

Other influential members have included Robert Hugh Benson, John Neville Figgis, Edward Keble Talbot, Timothy Rees, Martin Jarrett-Kerr, Harry Williams, and Benedict Green.

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

Visitors

Robert Felkin, founder of the Stella Matutina, a splinter lodge of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, undertook a retreat at Mirfield in 1903 and seriously considered becoming a member of the community.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer visited CR Mirfield in the 1930's 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.

Further reading

• The Community of the Resurrection: A Centenary History by Alan Wilkinson, SCM Press, London, 1992.

External link

• The Community's Website