Community of the Holy Cross

The Community of the Holy Cross (CHC) is an Anglican religious order founded in 1857 by Elizabeth Neale (sister of John Mason Neale), at the invitation of Father Charles Fuge Lowder, to work with the poor around St Peter's London Docks in Wapping.

[2] The Community later felt drawn[3] to follow the Rule of St Benedict, and moved their convent to Rempstone near Loughborough in 1979, where they lived the monastic life until 2011.

Elizabeth's home background was of a strict Calvinist regime but under the influence of her brother she adopted a Tractarian position.

[5] In 1857 Elizabeth responded to a call from Charles Fuge Lowder to establish a sisterhood to assist the clergy of St George in the East, Stepney.

Leaving the future of the orphanage in the hands of her brother and the Sisters of the Society of Saint Margaret,[5] on 14 April 1857, Elizabeth, with a fourteen-year-old orphan set up house in Stepney.

Later in the year three other women joined her and the bishop of London, Archibald Tait, gave her his blessing as Superior of the Community of the Holy Cross.

When a new mission district was created in Wapping and St Peter's, London Docks was built in 1886 a cholera epidemic broke out.

Mother Elizabeth's idea was that, as a mission, the sisterhood should break new ground, get the work established and then turn it over to local people.

[citation needed] Mother Elizabeth relinquished her role as Superior in 1896 because of failing health and died five years later on 21 February 1901.

[5] Mother Elizabeth put forward her ideas in 1887 when she published "Community of the Holy Cross: Short Account of its Rise and History".

Sr Mary Luke (1991–present) The Convent is in the countryside but not too far from the village of Costock, a third of a mile off the main A60 road down its own track.

The 26 acres of land is such that it can be managed simply in order to maintain and enhance the wildlife and biodiversity and to create the tranquility appropriate to the Sisters' way of life.

The building has been designed to minimise running and maintenance costs, using suitable green energy systems and materials wherever possible, thus fulfilling the Benedictine ideal of care of all things.