Society of the Sisters of Bethany

For other orders of a similar name, see Sisters of Bethany.

The Society of the Sisters of Bethany (SSB) is an Anglican religious order. The sisters follow the Rule of St Augustine. The mother house is the House of Bethany in Southsea.

Foundation

The community was founded in Clerkenwell, London by Etheldreda Anna Benett (born 1824) in 1866.[1] Mother Etheldreda had been associated for some years with the Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor, and finally joined that Order as a novice in 1864. In 1866 she took simple vows as a professed sister, and immediately left to found the new Order, the Society of the Sisters of Bethany.[2] In the early days there was encouragement from founder members of the Oxford Movement including Edward Bouverie Pusey and Richard Meux Benson.[3]

Convents

The Order has operated overseas convents in Kurdistan (1890-1898), and South Africa (1915-1950). At various times it has also had small groups of sisters stationed in diocesan retreat houses to help run those houses, in various dioceses of the Church of England.

Vestments

The order specialised in the creation of vestments and ecclesiastical embroidery opening a School of Embroidery at Lloyd Square, Clerkenwell.[4] The income from the School of Embroidery helped to fund the other work carried out by the Community. Sir Ninian Comper had a long association with the School which continued until 1972.

Sister community

Although the Orders are separate and independent of each other, the Society of the Sisters of Bethany have a special link with the Order of the Companions of Martha and Mary (OCMM), a relatively new religious community of sisters based in Blackburn.[5]

See also

External links

References

  1. The religious communities of the Church of England (1918); Allan T. Cameron
  2. Details recorded in the Bournemouth Daily Echo newspaper.
  3. See reference on SSB timeline.
  4. Survey of London: volume 47: Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville (2008), pp. 264-297. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=119446 Date accessed: 22 July 2013.
  5. Details of the link.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, August 24, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.