Society of St John the Evangelist

SSJE was founded in 1866 at Cowley, Oxford, England, by Richard Meux Benson, Charles Chapman Grafton, and Simeon Wilberforce O'Neill.

Known colloquially as the Cowley Fathers, the society was the first stable religious community of men to be established in the Anglican Communion since the English Reformation.

When the Society withdrew from Marston Street in 1980, the buildings were transferred to St Stephen's House theological college.

In 1905 the Society opened St Edward's House on Great College Street in Westminster, London, where it provided retreats and other ministries until 2012.

Following the closure of St Edward's House in 2012, the Society no longer maintains a monastery in the British Isles.

The members of the North American congregation live in a monastery designed by Ralph Adams Cram in Cambridge, near Harvard Square.

The society has a rural retreat centre, Emery House, in West Newbury, where guests can stay in small hermitages in the meadow.

Individual brothers work in various local and regional ministries with students, prisoners, soldiers, the homeless, and persons affected by HIV and AIDS.