Beginnings in Oxford The Community of the Resurrection (CR) is a child of the
Oxford Movement, the
Catholic Revival in the Church of England in the 19th century. After several years of preparation 25 July 1892,
St James Day, six priests founded a religious community in
Pusey House, Oxford, where
Charles Gore resided as the first principal of the house. Pusey House, however, was not suited for a religious community and the problem was solved when, the following year, Gore became the vicar of
Radley, a few miles south of Oxford. The six brethren moved into the vicarage and "started to learn how to ride a bicycle", as Gore expressed it. The founders of CR wanted the community to develop its own
charism based on pastoral involvement. They were all
Christian Socialists challenged by the
poverty of the
working classes and their strong sense of vocation to this group of people made them look for a new home in heavily industrialised
Northern England.
Expansion in Mirfield A large house in the middle of the
Diocese of Wakefield,
West Yorkshire, seemed to fit the purpose. In 1898 the community moved to
Mirfield, and this became the centre of the community's activities. Charles Gore had become a canon of
Westminster Abbey in 1894, and though he was officially in charge as superior until 1902, it was under his successor,
Walter Howard Frere, that CR developed its character as a religious community. The brethren regarded their ministry as closely connected to the Church of England, and as an extension of their parish ministry, one of their first tasks was to found a theological training college for men without means. The
College of the Resurrection opened in 1902 and has trained ordinands for the priesthood until today. Because part of the teaching was done at
University of Leeds, a
hostel was built and run in
Leeds from 1904 to 1976. Developing a large library of theological literature was a natural thing for a community like CR, but the college made it even more necessary. Another development was a fraternity for priests and lay people associated with CR and its rule of life. The Fraternity of Companions was established in 1903 and the
C.R. Quarterly became the link between them and the community. An order of
oblates was formed in 1931 for
celibate men who wanted to share the discipline of the religious life with the brethren in a ministry outside the community. Retreats became an important element of the monastic work. Brethren led retreats in many parts of the country, and, as a part of the continuous extension of the site in Mirfield, a retreat house was built in 1914 and extended to its present size in 1926. As
Anglican Catholics, the brethren laid great store by the beauty of the liturgy, and Walter Frere, a fine musician, was particularly interested in developing the
liturgy. He was from an early stage, involved in scholarly work on the chant and the daily offices. To realise this purpose the community needed a proper church and on
St Mary Magdalen's Day, 22 July 1911, the foundation stone of a great church was laid. Though the huge scale of the original plan was not followed, it remains an impressive and unusual building. The western half, completed in 1938, follows a simplified design by the architect's son, Michael Tapper. The celebrations were not limited to indoors. A quarry next to the house was turned into an open-air theatre shortly after the brethren had arrived at the house and used for sermons, Bible classes, plays and political meetings. The grounds were used for big day events of which the yearly Commemoration Day, celebrating the founding of the college, was the greatest.
Engagement in southern England Though the community left Oxford, southern England was not forgotten. After his ministry in
Westminster, Charles Gore became, successively,
Bishop of Worcester,
Bishop of Birmingham and
Bishop of Oxford and continued his strong focus on mission among the workers.
London seemed to be an obvious place to establish a mission as brothers had lived with Gore in Westminster. The community was offered a house in
South Kensington in 1914 and the brethren became involved in ministries for the soldiers of the
First World War there. After the war a bigger house was found near
Holland Park in the same area. The London priory remained there until 1968 (at 8 Holland Park, known as St Paul's Priory). Retreats, missions and teaching were the main purposes of the house. The London ministry came under royal protection when it moved to the
Royal Foundation of St Katharine in
Stepney. Here the priory shared a city ministry with the
Community of St. Andrew and the
Sisters of the Church until 1993, when the time had come for CR to form its own priory again. CR moved to an abandoned clergy house in
Covent Garden and ran a city ministry in the middle of London until 2003. The community established a retreat house in the south as well, first in
St Leonards,
Sussex (1931–1948) and later in
Hemingford Grey,
Cambridgeshire (1950–2010).
Ministry outside Britain CR's ministry in
Africa, which became a strong mark of the community in the 20th century, began early. In 1902 one of the aspirants of the early days in Oxford,
William Carter, by now the Bishop of
Pretoria, invited the brethren to help rebuild his diocese after the devastation of the
Boer War. In response three brethren went to
Johannesburg and founded a house to work with African miners and do theological training for local Africans. The community undertook the responsibility of
St. John's College in the same city four years later. When the brethren handed the college back to the diocese in 1934 it had become a flourishing education centre. In that year the community was asked to run the parish of
Christ the King in the black suburb
Sophiatown. In 1911 a new priory and theological training college (
St Peter's Theological College) was opened in the suburb of
Rosettenville, which grew steadily with schools for black children and teenagers added in 1922. This college had a great influence on the Church of Southern Africa in the second half of the 20th century. As in South Africa, the Bishop of
Southern Rhodesia,
Frederic Hicks Beaven invited the community to run a mission in
Penhalonga from 1914. This became the centre of the brethren's activities in
Zimbabwe until it was handed over to local authorities in 1983 shortly after the civil war had ended. The work in Zimbabwe concentrated on running the school for children in Penhalonga and pastoral and educational work in the area, the so-called "treck jobs". There have remained friendly and caring connections to the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe until this day, in the last years especially through the "Tariro" orphanage project led by Nicholas Stebbing CR. The Rt Rev
Noel Hudson was appointed
Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak in 1931. He invited the Community of the Resurrection to send some members to
Kuching. Five members arrived in 1933, and the following year the
Ordination Test School was opened in Kuching with six candidates. Of the six, Hope Hugh, Lim Yong Chua, Martin Nanang and Ng Thau Sin proceeded to ordination as deacons in 1936 and priests in 1937. In 1937 the last member of the CR left and the school closed. The community decided to open an educational centre,
the Mirfield Centre, in 1998, with its own Director, and a mission to contribute to the Christian formation of the laity in particular. In 2007 the
Wakefield School of Ministry made this the centre of its work. 2011 saw the foundation of the Mirfield Liturgical Institute, which promotes scholarly study of the liturgy, with a long-term aim of lay education as well. There is a long tradition of ecumenical contacts and relations in the community. As a part of his monastic studies Walter Frere had visited
Catholic clergy and monasteries in
France before he joined the community. In 1928 he became the first Anglican president of the
Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius after a visit to
Russia in 1909. Strong links to Catholics and
Orthodox have remained in CR and has become even stronger in the age of globalism. On the initiative of the Catholic
Benedictine abbey of
Trier in
Germany, an official friendship, which grew from several visits, was made in 1983, and several brethren have built up links with the
Eastern Orthodox Church in
Romania in a mutual spiritual exchange. There are also links to European
Lutherans through the international ecumenical networks of monastics. The much-needed refurbishment and reordering of the church in 2011 has resulted in a space that is widely acclaimed. The next phase will be for the old house to be radically updated for the needs of the resident community. == Influence ==