Well, it's probably time to come clean with a few things that are going on for me. I have been exploring my vocation, praying, and listening. I requested a year's withdrawal from the Third Order Society of St Francis (TSSF) where I have been professed for five years, to give myself time to pray and listen to where I was being invited to go. I thought that it was deeper into TSSF, but it turns out not: I have requested a transfer from TSSF into the Community of Solitude, a Benedictine Camaldolese Community founded only a few years ago by two people who were both members of a Benedictine monastery. They heard a call to take the monastic into the everyday and left the monastery: one just before and the other just after solemn profession, and founded this Community.
The Community's charism is to be love in the heart of the church and the world: to take the monastic calling into the everyday and use the peace, love, and power that comes from living in the heart of God to the normal and everyday - which is of course why I resonate so deeply with this Community.
The Community is non-canonical, so it technically doesn't have any standing in the Church: that was a decision made by the founders as they have a true ecumenical calling and don't want to stop anyone joining, no matter what church they belong to. This creates a bit of an issue in some ways: I need to seek permission of our Diocesan Bishop to "function" as a religious within this Diocese, including making Profession and wearing the habit (which is semi-optional). I have already written to the Archbishop of NZ who is also the Liaison Bishop for Anglican Religious, and received back a very warm endorsement of my call.
So, there it is.
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