Ecumenical Order of St. Elizabeth

Establishing Satellite Houses

2008-12-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Through VocationsPlacement.org, we have received hundreds of referrals for wonderful women who would like to live out their faith in communities of service. It is quite a task to respond to everyone, but also very encouraging.

For now, I am inviting the strongest inquirers to join us at our GlobalServe Interfaith Volunteer Communities, which is an already established residential community of service. When we gather enough women to establish our own 'Motherhouse' here in Chicago, we will then find a dedicated space for the EOSE.

In the meantime, I have been led to consider the possibility of establishing satellite houses across the country, and helping women there to form these additional, local communities of service. I understand many women's need to be closer to where they have lived, even if not in the exact town where they've always been.

If this sounds like you, and you would like to discuss the possibility of coordinating such a program, please do not hesitate to write. Let's see where this can go!

peace,

Le Anne

Requirements for Service

2008-11-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone,

In response to several inquiries, here is some additional information about requirements of service in the Order of St. Elizabeth:

Length of Service: There is no 'lifetime' commitment to the EOSE. Rather, all sisters will make and/or renew their commitments on a yearly basis. Some women are called to live in communities of service their whole lives; and some are called to communities of service in preparation for another call. Celebrations of service will be celebrated on the first, third, fifth, seventh, and tenth year of service, as well as every five years thereafter.

Financial Support: We are self-supporting, and each woman will share the expenses of rent, utilities, and groceries. Each should maintain her own health insurance as she feels appropriate. For some, this may mean working a paying part-time job; others may have the financial freedom to do extended volunteer service.

Types of Service: We seek to be of service in a variety of areas where volunteers are needed --with children, women, the homeless and hungry, in peace and justice pursuits--and here in Chicago, there are certainly plenty of places needing help! We go, as the theologian Henri Nouwen says, 'where the deep needs of the world, and our deep passions, meet.'

Health Requirements: God calls all people to ministry, regardless of physical or other ability; and all people are able to serve God in some capacity. We welcome you if you have the strong desire to serve and the creativity to discern with us how you may be of service. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Faith Foundations: We are open to women of all Christian backgrounds, and we provide hospitality to women of non-Christian backgrounds who are on the path to discerning their own vocations. We anticipate that a person called to vocation in the EOSE has a strong sense that this is the community in which she is to be at present; and we expect that a sister is committed to regular discernment of her calling within the community setting. We expect that upon arrival in Chicago, each sister will find and maintain a regular worship life in a local congregation, as part of our outreach in the city.

Age Requirements: We welcome women of all ages. Many orders do limit new vocations to 45 years of age or younger. However, we understand that many women have been in life circumstances that have prevented service in this kind of vocation until retirement age or later.

Marital Status: We welcome women who have been divorced or widowed, or have never married. We welcome women who have not previously practiced celibacy in their relationships. We welcome families in an adapted form of vocation. We understand that some women may only be called to stay with us for a short time until they find a partner with whom to form a lifetime covenant. In all arrangements, we ask for chastity--that is, faithfulness--in relationships.

A Letter of Invitation

2008-08-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

Greetings to everyone who may receive this letter; and to those who do receive it, please share this with a friend;

It has long been on my soul to write this letter, to invite a response from women of all backgrounds who may have discerned a similar call, and to begin to put prayer into action.

I am a thirty-year old, female, white, U.S. born, seminary student in process to be ordained as a pastor in the Presbyterian church. I was raised Lutheran; I have studied among Catholics, Evangelicals, and Unitarians; I have worked alongside Muslims and Jews; I have founded a growing interfaith community of service and peacebuilding among young people in Chicago. I have sought to dedicate all my life to peacebuilding among different religious expressions and in loving service to my neighbor, even when this work may put me in harm's way. I have sought to be accountable to communities of faith and peacebuilding; I have sought to listen humbly and carefully for God's leading in my life.

Throughout my life, I have also been blessed by the presence, counsel, friendship, and guidance of women monastics, or nuns; these sisters are extraordinary women. I have been blessed to know many male religious also; but I am myself a woman and feel called foremost to working among women in this task. Perhaps in the future I could find the assistance from a male who would become my counterpart in such work among men.

For most of my life, I too, have felt a strong calling to become a woman monastic. At the time I started kindergarten, this seemed both unconventional and inappropriate; I was advised that only Catholics had nuns and I was a protestant. A few years later, I discerned my call to ordained ministry, but the call to monasticism never really went away. Since then I have met monastics in many religious traditions and have learned much from them. Several years of my life, I have even remained celibate, in order to devote my full attention to religious study and service. It is only recently that I have accepted a relationship, and then only one that would permit for the continued growth of the ministries in which I serve now and hope to serve in the future.

I know I could 'oblate' to any order, but it doesn't quite seem to be the call. There are orders I would have loved to join as a full sister, but they do not yet accept non-Catholics, and I am called to be Presbyterian. There are orders that would accept me in my own tradition, but they are far away from the places I am so far called to be, set apart from the world and from people. I am called to be with the poor and oppressed. I believe strongly the South Side of Chicago is calling me for at least several more years.

It has occurred to me that I might be 'crazy.' I could be. Protestants especially would think that anyone who chooses chastity or poverty is a little nuts, let alone divine obedience. I have worried myself that it's too self-grandiose to start an order. I do not wish to be a 'rock star' or cult figure. But St. Theresa wasn't a rock star or cult figure; and neither was St. Francis really, nor Catherine MacAuley of the Sisters of Mercy. I asked one sister friend last year how orders were founded, and she said, "Someone got up one day and started them." My friends and classmates have encouraged me to consider doing just that. But I do not yet know women who would like to join one.So, in this modern era, using modern means, I extend my invitation to you who are women and who will join me in founding this new religious community.

The gifts (charisms) that this community will seek to offer:

+We will be open to women, ordained and lay, who seek to join a community of dedicated women, in order to practice and perfect their ministry as called by God;

+We will practice material simplicity, working for our pay, sharing resources as we are able, and seeking to gain no status over others;

+We will dedicate our lives to peacebuilding and nonviolent resistance to violence of all kinds;

+We will uphold and affirm the dignity and humanity of all people;

+We will engage in voluntary service to others, especially the poor and oppressed;

+We will practice and perfect our obedience to God and accountability to one another;

+We will offer spiritual support for those who choose to remain single; as well as those who choose to marry; and those who do not yet know to which they are called;

+We will live out a spirit of cooperation and friendship with all other religious orders and groups striving to live out similar values;

+We will offer extraordinary welcome to women of all faith traditions who seek to join us in whole or in part, until such time as creating an additional interfaith order may be wise;

+We will develop a daily office and order our lives in a manner inspired by the Rule of St. Benedict;

+We will learn from all that previously-established religious orders have to teach us;

+We will establish a residential 'motherhouse' in Chicago, in the midst of the seminaries, to serve as a place of discernment, formation, rest and renewal; and seek to create communities around the world as our sisters are called to serve.

Until such time as another name might fit better, this community shall be known as the Ecumenical Order of St. Elizabeth (EOSE). St. Elizabeth demonstrates that women are called from many backgrounds and paths into many forms of service, changing even over one's own lifetime.

With God's help.

peace to you,

Le Anne Clausen