COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

After 160 years, the Poor Clare Community are to leave Baddesley Clinton and their convent will close.



On Saturday, 8 January at 1100 hrs, the Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev. Bernard Longley will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in the village.

The Poor Clare Community have decided that, "after a long struggle", it has to move on.

Only four Sisters now reside at the convent and are part of the contemplative monastic community.

History

In 1850, a group of six Sisters first arrived in Warwickshire from Bruges and the Poor Clare Community of Baddesley Clinton was the first community of Poor Clares of the Colettine Reform to be re-established in England after the Reformation.

The convent, which is tucked away in the leafy surroundings of rural Warwickshire, is next door to the Catholic Church of St Francis of Assisi. This is reflected in that the community's charism is of St Clare and St Francis of Assisi, as expressed in the Form of life, which written in the 13th century.

Speaking to BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, Sister Felicity, Reverend Mother Abbess said: "The convent will be closing and we're having a celebratory Mass of 160 years since the foundation of the monastery. Normally speaking, a monastery will have a natural lifecycle of about 100 years, so 160 years is doing very well.

"We had close links with Cardinal John Henry Newman, who was beatified recently. He used to come and visit the Sisters on a regular basis and have provisions at the back of his church, which he would bring over for the Sisters. Recently we were able to go to Cofton Park to the beatification."

In God's hands

Talking about the closure, Sister Felicity continued: "Obviously it's sad for all the Sisters concerned when a monastery closes, but we're in God's service, so we go wherever he directs us to, and our religious life will carry on. We will carry on wherever we are. We will continue to pray for all the people who have asked for our prayers over the years and for those who need our prayer.

"There's a general lack in numbers of people joining religious houses throughout the whole of Europe. You'll find that houses are having to close due to this... I think in terms of the future, that's in God's hands; but he tends to bring things round... Throughout the history of the church, you get peaks and troughs of religious life in different areas of the world."

The building, which will continue to be occupied is currently an enclosed community for the Sisters who spend their days praying - as a group and as individuals, church sewing, spending quiet time in their own rooms, which are called cells, and offering hospitality to those who wish to spend time contemplating.