If you are between the ages of 20 and 35 and would like to be considered for a place in a small ecumenical community living in Lambeth Palace and devoted to prayer, study and service to the poor, you have until the end of March to apply. What would life be like if you were to be successful?
When Sorcha Connell first set foot in Lambeth Palace, she felt a jolt of fear. She had lived in England most of her life, and attended a Church of England school; but for a Catholic whose family had fled the Troubles in Northern Ireland, arriving at the epicentre of Anglicanism brought an atavistic reaction. It felt, she says, “like entering the lions’ den”.
The warmth of the welcome soon reassured her – while her sister, who had come to support her, was moved to tears. “I just didn’t know this was possible,” she said as she helped Sorcha on with the white robes of the Community of St Anselm.
Ecumenism is at the heart of the St Anselm project: indeed, it is largely modelled on the charismatic Catholic community Chemin Neuf. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, had seen Chemin Neuf’s work in France, and in 2014 invited five of its members to help set up something similar at Lambeth Palace. Four still help to oversee the programme. The purpose of the community, Welby decided, would be to give people aged between 20 and 35 a profound but not irrevocable experience of monastic life: in the words of its website, “A year in God’s time”. The year (in the event, 10 months) would be devoted to prayer, study and service to the poor.
