Our Vows
The rôle of Religious communities is to be places of joy...Not the short-lived euphoria or happiness which may co-exist with malaise, but the deep sense of gratitude that ought to underpin all aspects of our life in the Church...They should remind the Church of its character, for in the vows Religious take, they echo the Beatitudes and 'renounce territory' and thereby abandon the anxiety over 'succeeding.'
—Dr Rowan Williams
104th Archbishop of Canterbury
The Anglican Religious Yearbook 2004-5
As disciples of Christ, each of us is responding to the invitation of God to return our lives to him. In the religious life, this response is ratified by the Church through the public profession of monastic vows.
Nuns in the Order of Julian profess vows of stability, conversion of life (which includes poverty and chaste celibacy), and obedience.
By the vow of Stability, we commit to seeking and serving God in the setting of the Order's monasteries, among the particular sisters whom God has drawn together in community. Stability roots us in the circumstances, the company, and the challenges of community life. It allows our sisters, our surroundings, and ourselves the generosity necessary to reveal the treasure hidden beneath the surface of the ordinary.
By the vow of Conversion of Life, which includes poverty, and chastity expressed as life-long celibacy, we commit ourselves to the monastic way of life in its entirety, responsive to the Holy Spirit acting through our circumstances to reveal and heal in us what is not yet converted to love.
In our commitment to poverty, we renounce private ownership of all things and hold all the Order's goods in common, challenged to grow in trust and freedom of spirit.
In our commitment to chaste celibacy, we seek our human fulfillment in God alone, challenged to grow in emotional honesty, courtesy, gentleness, and self-restraint.
By the vow of Obedience, we choose to be accountable to a common rule of life and to our sisters in community, for the sake of the freedom to love and will God’s will alone. Our mutual commitment to obedience requires patience, trust, and the maturity of a self able to listen to and learn from others.