The Community of Jesus on Cape Cod 

Answers questions about the Community of Jesus on Cape Cod - members are from a variety of Christian traditions and include religious brothers and sisters, families, and single adults.
Learn more: www.communityof...
The Community of Jesus on Cape Cod is a modern ecumenical Christian community in the Benedictine tradition on the shores of Cape Cod Bay, in Orleans, Massachusetts. The Community is comprised of families with children who live in homes that surround the Church of the Transfiguration, www.churchofth... as well as twenty-four religious brothers and sixty-six religious sisters. The Community of Jesus hosts concerts and retreats on Cape Cod throughout the year. www.communityof.... www.communityo...
The Community of Jesus is a fellowship of Christian disciples.
Christians living in community is an idea as old as the New Testament itself. The Acts of the Apostles describes the common life shared by the early Christians in Jerusalem.
The Holy Spirit has inspired each generation to bring forth fresh expressions of a common life in which people join together to live out their discipleship in response to God and in support one another. On a small plot of land overlooking Rock Harbor in Orleans Massachusetts that commitment has taken the form of an ecumenical community in the Benedictine tradition.
www.communityo...
Members of the Community of Jesus make professions of commitment according to their Rule of Life including vows of obedience, stability and conversion of life.
The beginnings of the Community of Jesus can be traced to the meeting in 1958 of two Episcopal laywomen Cay Anderson and Judy Sorensen. Their evolving ministry of teaching and prayer associated with the Charismatic Renewal of that time attracted the attention and enthusiastic support of a small group of people who moved to these grounds on the shores of Cape Cod Bay.
Other individuals and families soon followed -- compelled by a sense of vocation to share in this common life of prayer and work. Since its founding, the Community has grown into a contemporary Benedictine monastery following a monastic rule, living under the direction of a superior and gathering each day for worship. Today the Community numbers some 140 professed members together with another fifty children and young people who live in homes that surround the church.
In addition, 25 celibate Brothers and 60 celibate Sisters live in their respective houses -- Zion Friary and Bethany Convent, all together almost two hundred and seventy-five people. Jesus prayed for his followers that they may all be one. The Community of Jesus is committed to praying and working for a fuller expression of the unity of the body of Christ. The members of the Community come from many walks of life and various church backgrounds, mostly Protestant and some Roman Catholic. Such diversity presents challenges, but also brings enrichment and depth to our life together.
At the heart of the community's ministry is the witness of its common life. Our worship of God is creatively expressed through the arts in the public arena. The Church of the Transfiguration stands at the spiritual center of the monastic community serving both as its principal place of worship and is a visible sign of God's presence in the midst of a live in fellowship. The Eucharist is the community's principal act of worship and is presided over by one of the resident ordained clergy. When the planning began for the church in the Transfiguration the principal aim was to find an architectural design that would best express the community's monastic vocation liturgical life and ecumenical vision. The Basilica style adopted for the church renders an architectural form with deep historical roots into modern usage. The the artwork at the church recounts the biblical story from the book of Genesis to the revelation to John and visually proclaims the story of salvation. A vision of joy and peace in the apse is seen in a radiant image of Christ in Glory. Twelve panels present Jesus in his life and ministry and include the Passion narrative, the Resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Between each of these images the nations bring their gifts as they make their pilgrim way to the New Jerusalem. The Church of the Transfiguration takes its name from one of the most mysterious and hopeful stories have the entire New Testament. A cherished conviction of the Community is that human lives can be changed converted and reformed by the burnishing handed the Holy Spirit. Lives can change to reflect more clearly the life of their make. The carved stone, mosaic and fresco images as well as the bronze and glass sculpture in the Church of the Transfiguration are meant to reflect the Biblical message that all earthly life has meaning.