Bishop Love's recent trial put into sharp focus the reality of what happens when General Convention preempts a Bishop exercising his authority within his own diocese to uphold diocesan canons based on biblical principles and time-tested traditions of the Church. In leaving TEC and realigning with ACNA, the Sisters of the Eastern Province embrace a body whose values more closely align with their own, allowing their witness as Religious vowed under the Evangelical Counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience to continue to enrich the Church within the Anglican tradition.

The Community's letter to Presiding Bishop Michael Curry stating their intention to leave the Episcopal Church for the Anglican Church in North America is attached. It must be noted that there are three autonomous Provinces in the Community of St. Mary, sharing a common founding history but having separate governance. The decision to leave TEC has only been made by the Eastern Province. The Western and Southern Provinces remain part of the Episcopal Church.

The Sisters have always seen their role as ecumenical. Their extended family of Associates include Catholic and Orthodox clergy as well as Anglicans from jurisdictions from around the world. That ecumenism now embraces fully all who serve Christ from within the rich tradition of Anglicanism. The Sisters look forward to continuing in love and labor with those who remain within the Episcopal Church -- all serving the Lord Jesus Christ -- and especially with their brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Diocese of Albany. They also look forward to laboring in the vineyard with the faithful who have found a home in ACNA.

At Bishop Dobbs recommendation, the Sisters have accepted the Rt. Rev'd William Love, Assisting Bishop in the Diocese of the Living Word, as their Visitor.

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The Community of St. Mary is the oldest Religious Order founded in America in the Anglican tradition. Founded in New York City in 1865, the Sisters of St. Mary sought to live a full monastic life while ministering to poor and elite alike.

The Community is best remembered for Sisters Constance, Thecla and others who gave their lives in Memphis, nursing and praying with those left behind during the Yellow Fever epidemic in 1878. These Martyrs of Memphis, along with the Community's Foundress, Harriet Starr Cannon, are remembered in the Episcopal Church's Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

The Sisters developed what they called a "mixed life" of semi-enclosed prayer complementing active social service. In the early part of the twentieth century, they partnered with Canon Winifred Douglas in translating the Divine Office and plainchant from Latin into English, producing the Monastic Diurnal (1932) and Diurnal Noted (1952) among other works, and later retranslating these into modern English in the Monastic Diurnal Revised (1986) and the Diurnal Noted Revised (2015). The focusing of their prayer life on the Benedictine Opus Dei cemented their spiritual ethos as Benedictine monastics.

In the 1970s the Sisters discerned that the next great need of their world would be less for corporate works of mercy than for spiritual works of mercy, and they began closing or withdrawing from their academic, institutional, and hospital work to take up retreat and conference work, spiritual direction, and writing. In their early history the Community had purchased a farm property in Peekskill, NY, to establish a Motherhouse for the training of novices, the care of elder Sisters and the equipping of charitable works which spread across the US and abroad. Known for almost a century as "the Peekskill Sisters", the Eastern Province accepted the invitation to relocate in 2003 and to partner with the Diocese of Albany in establishing a camp and conference center near Greenwich, NY.

The Sisters of the Eastern Province today include a thriving daughter foundation in Malawi, Africa, which is growing rapidly in the Diocese of Northern Malawi. The American Sisters maintain a small farm through which they run programs for youth and have established a presence in the agricultural community in which they live. They are involved in healing ministry at Christ the King Spiritual Life Center, and offer quiet days, retreats, and conferences on various topics related to spiritual formation. They have an active Associates' program for individuals seeking mutual support through prayer and alms, and a summer program for interns hoping to learn more about the monastic life. Mother Miriam writes regularly in the Covenant blog for the Living Church. For more information about the Community, see our website at www.stmaryseast.net.

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Community Sisters Write letter of sorrow and regret at way Bishop Love was treated by Disciplinary Panel and Curry

II Tuesday of Easter April 14, 2021

Dear Presiding Bishop Curry:

The Lord is risen, alleluia!

I write on behalf of the Chapter of the Community of St. Mary, Eastern Province, to express our deep sorrow and regret over the way a loyal and faithful Bishop of the church, William H. Love, was treated by the disciplinary Panel and your office. Is there any wonder, sir, that Bishop Love wanted to continue his ministry within the Anglican Church of North America? The Sisters of the Community of St. Mary, Eastern Province, still have the honor of the Loves' friendship and affiliation with us as Associates of the Community. We are happy for them because they can now minister in a Christian environment that believes wholeheartedly in the Bible and the traditional teachings of the church as expressed in the Seven Ecumenical Councils. He is, of course, still welcome to celebrate the Eucharist with the Sisters in St. Mary's Chapel.

The question we have been asking ourselves for more than a year now is: "What is the relationship of the Community of St. Mary, Eastern Province, with the Episcopal Church?" We have existed within the Episcopal Church since 1865. General Convention has authorized two days of lesser feasts honoring our Mother Foundress Harriet Starr Cannon and the four Sisters of St. Mary's martyred in 1878 in the Memphis yellow fever epidemic. The present canons of the Church, Title III, Canon 14, make it clear that we, as a recognized Episcopal Religious Order, are not a parish nor an adjunct of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany and/or General Convention but are connected to the larger Church through our Episcopal Visitor. Today the Sisters of the Eastern Province continue their contemplative vocation and outreach ministry alongside Christ the King Center, Diocese of Albany, and the Diocese of Northern Malawi, Mzuzu, Malawi.

When I reflect upon the 25 years of my life as Mother, I see several important trends. Accepting Malawian women into our American novitiate was an exceptional act of faith in the vowed life of poverty, chasity, and obedience according to the Rule of the Community of St. Mary, but it is also a continuation of our stability in unceasing praise of God, intercession, and service for His Church.

We are giving you notice, sir, that the Sisters of the Eastern Province have voted to leave TEC and have petitioned to be registered in the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word. We believe that in so doing we stay within the rich tradition of HISTORIC Anglican doctrine and worship rather than acquiesce the cultural maelstorm many present day Christian denominations try to accommodate.

Faithfully yours in the Risen Christ,

Mother Miriam, CSM, MBA, STM
Community of St Mary, Eastern Province
Greenwich, New York