Editing Anglicanism (section)

===Religious orders===
{{See also|Anglican religious order|Anglican devotions}}
A small yet influential aspect of Anglicanism is its [[Anglican religious order|religious orders]] and communities. Shortly after the beginning of the [[Catholic Revival]] in the Church of England, there was a renewal of interest in re-establishing religious and monastic orders and communities. One of Henry VIII's earliest acts was their [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|dissolution]] and seizure of their assets. In 1841, Marian Rebecca Hughes became the first woman to take the vows of religion in communion with the [[Province of Canterbury]] since the Reformation.

In 1848, [[Priscilla Lydia Sellon]] became the superior of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity at [[Devonport, Plymouth]], the first organised religious order. Sellon is called "the restorer, after three centuries, of the religious life in the Church of England".<ref>{{Cite book|first=Thomas J.|last=Williams|title=Priscilla Lydia Sellon|location=London|publisher=SPCK|year=1950}}</ref> For the next one hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated throughout the world, becoming a numerically small but disproportionately influential feature of global Anglicanism.

Anglican religious life at one time boasted hundreds of orders and communities, and thousands of [[religious order|religious]]. An important aspect of Anglican religious life is that most communities of both men and women lived their lives consecrated to God under the [[vow]]s of [[poverty, chastity, and obedience]], or, in [[Benedictine]] communities, Stability, Conversion of Life, and Obedience, by practising a mixed life of reciting the full eight services of the [[Breviary]] in choir, along with a daily [[Eucharist]], plus service to the poor. The mixed life, combining aspects of the contemplative orders and the active orders, remains to this day a hallmark of Anglican religious life. Another distinctive feature of Anglican religious life is the existence of some mixed-gender communities.

Since the 1960s, there has been a sharp decline in the number of professed religious in most parts of the Anglican Communion, especially in North America, Europe, and Australia. Many once large and international communities have been reduced to a single [[convent]] or [[monastery]] with memberships of elderly men or women. In the last few decades of the 20th century, novices have for most communities been few and far between. Some orders and communities have already become extinct. There are, however, still thousands of Anglican religious working today in approximately 200 communities around the world, and religious life in many parts of the Communion – especially in developing nations – flourishes.

The most significant growth has been in the [[Melanesia]]n countries of the [[Solomon Islands]], [[Vanuatu]], and [[Papua New Guinea]]. The [[Melanesian Brotherhood]], founded at [[Tabalia]], [[Guadalcanal (Pacific Ocean island)|Guadalcanal]], in 1925 by Ini Kopuria, is now the largest Anglican Community in the world, with over 450 [[monk|brothers]] in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the [[Philippines]], and the United Kingdom. The [[Sisters of the Church]], started by Mother [[Emily Ayckbowm]] in England in 1870, has more [[nun|sisters]] in the Solomons than all their other communities. The [[Community of the Sisters of Melanesia]], started in 1980 by Sister Nesta Tiboe, is a growing community of women in the Solomon Islands.

The [[Society of Saint Francis]], founded as a union of various [[Franciscan]] orders in the 1920s, has experienced great growth in the Solomon Islands. Other communities of religious have been started by Anglicans in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu. Most Melanesian Anglican religious are in their early to mid-20s. Vows may be temporary, and it is generally assumed that brothers, at least, will leave and marry in due course, making the average age 40 to 50 years younger than their brothers and sisters in other countries. Growth of religious orders, especially for women, is marked in certain parts of Africa.