Sisters face uncertain future

Abbess Jamieson: Happy memories

By religious affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan

Tucked into the rolling hills near Worcester, the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook Abbey lead their life of prayer and contemplation.

At their daily service, the 30 nuns in their black habits gather to worship in their chapel. One is in a wheelchair, and nearly all are over 60.

Forty years ago there were 80 sisters here. The gentle voices echo round the half empty choir stalls.

"Occasionally one does get nostalgic for when the community was larger, and it all went with a woomf," says Abbess Joanna Jamieson, the sparkling-eyed leader of the community.

"But I wouldn't go backwards, I think life always gets better as you go along."

Sister Catherine is a former Cambridge graduate

There is no doubt the future of communities like this is in jeopardy, as the number of new recruits falls.

"It wouldn't matter if we had to go and live in tents, and the Abbey closed down, as long as God's work was being done", says the Abbess, who nevertheless is busy planning ways in which it can earn more money, and increase its contact with the outside world.

Long gone are the days when, in enclosed orders like Stanbrook, nuns used to be literally behind bars. Today the bars have gone, and the nuns now run a guest house, where the over-stressed come to absorb the calm atmosphere.

Former graduates

The nuns are even considering offering retreats for professional women who need a dose of spirituality.

Decline in numbers is perhaps inevitable in an age when women have so many more choices of lifestyle.

So what is surprising is to talk to the younger nuns who have opted out of successful careers.

Sister Catherine Wybourne is a Cambridge graduate and banker, who left to join Stanbrook and now runs their printing press.

"I could have been happy in banking, but I didn't want to fit God into the end of my day," she said. "I left so that I could spend more time with Him".

Sister Mary Joy runs a riding school

Others too had given up working in law and the City, because of the "seduction of God". None of the sisters I spoke to had any regrets about giving up worldly pursuits of wealth, career and family.

Enclosed orders are suffering, but even worse off are the open, or apostolic orders. The vast majority of the 7,000 religious sisters in England and Wales are involved in community work.

Traditionally this used to be staffing schools and hospitals, but today nuns are more often to be found in the inner cities.

New mission

They often live discreetly just two or three together. They do not wear a habit, and so are in many ways invisible, but they do dedicated work with the homeless, asylum seekers and others who have dropped through the social safety net.

I met one, Sister Mary Joy, who is now running a riding school for disabled and disadvantaged children, at Wormwood Scrubs, in West London.

Her work, giving autistic children the joy of contact with horses, may be a new definition of mission.

She feels the answer for religious orders is to soften the life-time commitment.

She says "religious orders do have a future, but only if people can join for shorter periods of time".