Hundreds to join nuns’ 150th celebrations at Southwell Minster

Some 600 visitors from across the world will join in the150th anniversary celebrations with sisters from the Community of the Holy Cross at Southwell Minster on Thursday, 3rd May 2007.

Visitors will include bishops and deans, members of Holy Orders and ecumenical guests from as far as the USA and Trinidad to Norway and Sweden. The retired Archbishop of York, the Rt Revd Dr David Hope will preside at the service of Holy Communion, assisted by the clergy who regularly minister to the sisters.

The sisters, who are based at the Holy Cross Convent at Rempstone Hall, near Loughborough, will celebrate the 150th year of the foundation of their Community, by Elizabeth Neal in Wapping, East London in 1857.

The Reverend Mother, Mary Luke, said: “Our main work is the worship of God in the daily Eucharist and the sevenfold office, and in personal prayer and intercession for the world and all its needs. From these spring our ministry to guests and visitors who come for retreats and Quiet Days.”

The Community traces its roots back to London’s Docklands where, Mother Elizabeth Neale, among other works, opened up a home for children and women, who, although wild, were respectable and needed shelter. This was in support of the work of the clergy running the Mission of St George in the East in the London Docks area.

Visitors from St Peter’s, London Docks, will also be represented, along with many groups and individuals who have been involved at different points in the Community’s history. Following a growing work in London, especially during the cholera epidemic, a permanent convent was established at Haywards Heath in Sussex in 1887. By the 1970s the community was reduced in numbers and more focused on retreat and prayer, rather than outside work. The nuns moved to the house in Rempstone in 1979 where they continue their religious life today.

Special guests at the celebrations will include members of the Nichols family which has worked for the Community for over 130 years with maintenance and general help in the house. Terry Bailey and his wife Joyce (formerly Nichols), are the fifth generation of the family still working for the Community.

The service in the Minster at 11.30am will be followed by a reception in the grounds of Bishop’s Manor, the home of the Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham, the Rt Revd George Cassidy. The special event will come at the end of a week of celebrations at the Manor to mark the 100th anniversary of the house.

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