We have a monthly meeting to support those who are involved in the Benedictine life, including oblates from  the two Anglican Benedictine Communities in Australia. the meetings are usually held at St George’s. We try and meet once a month to provide a support for those who are called to follow the Benedictine way whilst living in the world.

Our next meeting of our Benedictine oblates will be on Thursday 14 February, 2026.

This is a good little clip about oblates from PBS in the USA.

Extract from the Guidelines for Oblates

In June 1971, a group of Directors of Oblates came together at St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, Illinois, to consider how Benedictine Oblates might best be served in the light of Vatican II. One year later a second meeting was held, this time at St. Mary’s Abbey, Morristown, New Jersey, to review papers that had been written in the interim and to exchange ideas pertinent to Benedictine Oblates.

The second meeting resulted in a document of Guidelines for Oblates of St. Benedict, and this document has since been generally endorsed by a considerable number of Directors of Oblates in North America. It is intended to serve as both Constitution and Guidelines for the spiritual life of Oblates, and it is hoped that its availability will assist all Directors of Oblates in their efforts to interest men and women who, while retaining their position in the world, wish somehow to identify with a given Benedictine monastery or convent.

Constitution

1. Oblates of St Benedict are Christian men and women admitted into spiritual union and affiliation with a Benedictine community of monks, nuns, or sisters so that they may share in the spiritual life, prayers, and good works of the community.

2. Oblates do not usually live in the monastic house of the community, yet they remain one with the community while they continue faithfully to carry out the duties of their particular state in life and occupation, wherever they may be. We are therefore not concerned here about those who wish to live as Oblates with the community in the abbey or convent itself. Such cloistered Oblates must qualify for community life, be accepted by the vote of the community, and be ready to work and pray under the same conditions as the monks, sisters, and nuns themselves.

3. Within the framework of their daily lives in the world, Oblates strive to lead full Christian lives enlightened by personal efforts to understand Christ’s teaching in the Scriptures as interpreted by St Benedict in his Rule for monks. Oblates are guided and inspired by their continued spiritual association with the monastic community.

4. Oblates are a “spiritual arm” of the Benedictine community, reaching out into all areas of life, seeking to share with others what they themselves gain as Oblates of St. Benedict. Their affiliation with a community of monks or Benedictine women is not therefore for their own personal good alone. It is chiefly by their Christian example, even by their very presence among others, that they hope to bring St Benedict’s ideal of service to God and man into the world where they live and work.

5. Since Oblates of St. Benedict primarily offer themselves for the service of God and others, they will therefore strive for God’s honour and glory before all else, keeping in mind the Benedictine motto: “That in all things God may be glorified.”

Oblates New sheet for November to January

The Benedictine GROUP

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Daily Rule, Daily Office, Sacramental Life

In so far as our state of life allows

Priscilla Lydia Sellon, Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876, Thursday 20 November 2025

Our last meeting for the year was held at St George’s with nine at mass followed by a lunch at the nearby Goodwood Park Hotel.

When I was a child, my parents were very strict about what I should watch before bedtime. Nothing too frightening or exciting that would lead to nightmares or keeping us awake too long. I am always reminded of this as we read the Rule for this day, from Chapter 42: That No One Speak After Compline., in particular that one of them at the end of the day shall read … something else that may edify the hearers; not the Heptateuch or the Books of Kings, however, because it will not be expedient for weak minds to hear those parts of Scripture at that hour; but they shall be read at other times. This week we have been reading Maccabees, and I certainly don’t want that on my mind before sleep, so I totally agree with St Benedict.

But this chapter also lays the foundation for the Great Silence, the time between Compline and Matins, as the Rule instructs us that when they come out from Compline, no one shall be allowed to say anything from that time on. For those of us who have memories of the Convent at Wangaratta, you will remember when we came out of the chapel at night, the Milky Way was stretched across our heads, or in the morning the Southern Cross; undimmed by city lights, speaking to us in the silence of the grandeur of God. Sometimes words are hindrances, and communing with God under those stars was far richer and the tunes of Compline faded into the night. Compline at home is still a wonderful way to finish the day and all its noise.

This day was also the feast day of Priscilla Lydia Sellon, Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876. A fascinating woman, she restored the religious life within the Church of England, and her parish priest started the first daily celebration of communion since the Reformation. A fitting day to celebrate for us oblates. I have included some notes on her below.

We continue to pray for those who are enquiring about our way of life as oblates. Besides the obvious things like reading the Rule and keeping the offices in some form, the Benedictine virtues of humility and moderation are also essential. As I try to explain, reading the Rule is not about keeping it, but learning to adapt it to our lives, and for that we need the gift of moderation (such as no ultra exciting readings before bed) and humility to learn that old dogs can learn new tricks. I always think of the Rule as like a stream, whose gentle pressure over time wears away at my sharp corners and adapts me to follow its course.

Catherine Rodini reported on her retreat at Camperdown and Bev Armstrong on what is happening in Adelaide with the World Community of Christian Meditation.

We also record the death of Emily Harding, a member of our Cell and an oblate of Camperdown. She was sacristan here at St George’s for many, many years and always loved her membership of our Cell. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

Our next meeting will be at 11 am on Saturday 14 February at Meg Clare’s house.  Unfortunately we had to cancel last month’s meeting.

Blessing to us all for the end of the year as we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.

God bless,

Fr Scott. 

A extract from the Life of Priscilla Lydia Sellon 

This extract about a pamphlet that Priscilla put out to explain her life in response to an attack in a pamphlet from an unsympathetic clergyman, the Rev’d Mr. Spurrell, vicar of Great Shelford, near Cambridge.

She herself was a stranger to the spirit of bickering controversy, and bore these provoking attacks with true Christian charity. But the Bishop of Exeter insisted upon her replying to Spurrell’s accusations, and she thereupon gave a categorical answer, denying the false, accepting the true, justifying her position and practices, and overwhelming Mr. Spurrell with a display of knowledge and an evidence of character beyond his power to refute or put down.

She explained the organization of the Sisters in three orders: (i) Those in community, working amongst the poor, in the active life; (2) those who through sickness were compelled to play the part of prayer and study; (3) a secular branch for those in the world. She defended her practice. Spurrell had asked, ‘What know we of the sign of the Cross being a sacramental symbol in which lieth deep mystery?’ She referred him to the Canons, St. Cyril, Tertullian, and Hooker. Spurrell had sneered at prayers for the dead. She quoted him the judgment in Breeks v. Woolfrey. She pointed out that there was nothing against having pictures and candles. She admitted the use of confession, but denied enforcing it, saying that she refused to forbid what was allowed by her Church. And ‘it is not Popish,’ she declared, ‘to express the desire that a person may be guarded by the holy Angels.’

She reiterated her veneration for, and adhesion to, the English Church. ‘I am ignorant,’ she says, ‘of the present divisions. The Church of England is my mother Church, and I love her with a pure and hearty love. What she has taught, that I have received. What she has allowed, that I have not refused. What she has forbidden, that I have not looked into.’ She defends herself with fine dignity. She respects Mr. Spurrell’s religious convictions, reserving her attack for his petty proprieties. She will not allow that it is ‘awful mockery for her to wash her Sisters’ feet, as Christ had himself done and enjoined. She told her father that ‘menial work’ was ‘merrier and pleasanter work than writing.’ She calls to Mr. Spurrell’s mind the day when there will no longer be any ‘refinements of polite life’ when only the great realities of life will remain, and quotes Isaiah for his edification.

He had been witty upon the subject of the late hours kept by the Sisters; but Miss Sellon hushed his humorous tongue. ‘I recollect’ she says, ‘passing through one of the very worst parts of a seaport town. It was midnight. I had had an urgent message from a dying woman. A person started forward and seized my dress. The dim lamplight fell upon my wooden cross. “You are a Sister of Mercy?” “Yes. Can I do anything for you?” “Promise me, if I am ill, you will come to me.” “I do promise.”‘

‘Our English poor’ she continues–’and let it be recollected that they are the proper judges of what we do, since it is amongst them and for them that the Sisters live–our English poor do not think it strange to see us anywhere at any hour. … I am sure they would protect us if necessary. I have often known the voice of the blasphemous hushed as we passed.’

An old sailor who heard of the attacks was indignant, and having vented his feelings, said to a Sister, ‘ Well, God bless you, and never mind what the world says of you.’ And there can be no doubt that Miss Sellon’s confident appeal to the verdict of the poor was justified.

She ends her pamphlet with a fine appeal for peace in which to carry on her work. ‘When the fever of life has subsided, there is nothing worth a thought but the love of Jesus, and of each other; there is no room then for thoughts of dissension and disunion … all is hushed, and the vision of the Church as she is, the body of Jesus, militant on earth, triumphant in heaven, with her glorious Head, fills the mental sight.’