Bishop Susan Bell has wanted to support a neo-monastic religious community in Canada for years—even before she became a bishop. Now, the diocese of Niagara has begun work to make that dream a reality.
Neo-monastic communities are groups of people who live out a commitment to religious devotion and contemplation—such as that described in the Rule of Saint Benedict for monks—in forms adapted to the needs and challenges of the modern world. They often observe offices of prayer, take temporary or permanent oaths and gather for worship, though they are less likely to be cloistered or sworn to celibacy than traditional monks or nuns.
Bell and Bishop of Saskatoon Chad McCharles, both members of the House of Bishops’ religious communities committee, say they have observed a small but growing groundswell of interest in neo-monastic practice especially among young people in recent years. Bell says she encountered one such group—the Community of St. Anselm, an interdenominational Christian community of members between the ages of 20 to 35—on a trip to Lambeth Palace in London in 2016 and was taken with the vibrancy of their expressions of prayer, worship and charitable work.
She says she missed having a community of “professional pray-ers” in the diocese of Niagara as local religious communities shut down over the past couple of decades. For the first time since she became bishop, Bell says, the diocese has the time, staffing and resources to try to fill that gap.
The new community, to be called St. Brigid’s Community, will consist of volunteers aged 18 to 35. Bell and Canon Ian Mobsby, the diocese of Niagara’s community missioner, have recruited members to St. Brigid’s through a series of focus groups. Bell says she hopes for a group of about 30 people to start.
Members will live in their own homes and use Christ’s Church Cathedral in Hamilton as a meeting and worship space. They will have leeway to determine their charism, the gift of ministry, prayer and charitable service they bring to the diocese
Bell says she has asked that part of their charism be to pray “for the renewal of faith in the diocese of Niagara and in the whole of the Anglican Church of Canada.” She and other organizers hope the community will also feed a desire for deeper spirituality and improve mental well-being among its young Anglican members.
The diocese hopes to have St. Brigid’s Community begin gathering in early 2027, Bell says.
McCharles, meanwhile, has been a member of neo-monastic community the Canons of the Order of St. Benedict for more than 10 years. Members wear habits (black cassocks) when attending church services and functions; take oaths of stability to maintain, where possible, the life and marital status they had when they joined the order; and engage in regular prayer both separately and when they gather.
When he moved to the diocese of Saskatoon to become bishop there in 2025, McCharles says, he began seeking out locals who might be interested in the neo-monastic life with the hope of seeding a new branch of the community in his new home. The response, he says, was excellent.
The bishop now holds meetings in Saskatoon of six to 10 people, aged 25 to 55, who come to participate in worship and support the work of the community. McCharles and other leaders from out of town will welcome the first novices to officially join Saskatoon’s community in September, he says.
McCharles says this swell of interest in monastic life among relatively young Anglicans is mirrored in accounts from other members of the Canons of the Order of St. Benedict, which has chapters in Vancouver and Victoria; in the United States in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Arizona; and in Belgium.
“Folks of that demographic, which I fall into myself, are seeking deep-rooted, ancient expressions of our faith,” McCharles says. “Neo-monasticism definitely fits that.”
