Our Story

Our History

While the Community of the Holy Family is a rebooted New Monastic Religious Order, we are rooted in the tradition of the Community of the Holy Family, founded in 1896 in the Church of England. The Community of the Holy Family was founded by its foundress, Mother Agnes Mason. The Community of the Holy Family was a teaching order, and the most scholarly one in the Church of England. Greek was required and Hebrew encouraged for the Profession so they could tutor in the Lambeth Degree they helped start so women could have degrees in theology. They were part of the Oxford Movement, creating an openness between Catholicism and Anglicanism!

The Community of the Holy Family was dreamed up in an olive tree in Florence and started in Red Lion Square of the Pre-Raphaalites. They taught in India at Naini Tal, the Mother Foundress' brother teaching in South Africa, ordaining Black priests at Umtata's Bede College, in the tradition that would continue with Trevor Hudleston and Desmond Tutu against apartheid.

Sadly, in 2010, two of the Sisters in the Community of the Holy Family were caught in a Lesbian Relationship together. The Bishop of Chichester in England threw the Order out of the Church. Some of the Sisters went to the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2016, our Mother Superior studied under these Nuns. She took this knowledge, and being a huge champion of LGBTQ+ Rights and full inclusion in the Church, and with Convergent Catholic Communion Leadership and a few other Sisters, helped form The Companions of the Holy Family!

We hope that you will consider being a part of our Order!