i think religious life is a noble pursuit, especially when it's been reformed of the medieval Romish notions that were associated with it.
There seems to be some form of monastic tradition on the rise in both traditional and non-traditional churches. Prayer books are best sellers. People are using some like The Celtic Prayer book and Shane Claiborne's The Common Prayer.
I really appreciate the work of monastics in the Anglican community. I’ve been meaning to visit the Order of the Holy Cross monastery in Santa Barbara. By the way, are there any religious communities in ACNA or the continuing Anglican churches?
Those errors were largely a product of decadence of the Cluniac Benedictine monasteries, which were so bad the Cistercians were formed as a reaction to their decadence, and then when the decadence spread to the Cistercians, the Trappists were formed. The Orthodox churches for the most part, with a few exceptions like the Copts, do not have discrete religious orders; each monastery has broad latitude to implement its own typikon, with the rules of St. Pachomius, and in the Western Rite, St. Benedict and St. Columba providing a guide. However, I do think Anglicans benefit from having friars such as Franciscans and Dominicans; friars generally do good work; in the Eastern churches you have hieromonks and archimandrites serving as priests of smaller parishes which need a priest and are either trying to hire one or can’t afford a married priests, but you don’t see as much in the form of monastic service organizations in the form of the Franciscans, Dominicans, Mercedarians, Trinitarians, Minims, Carmelites, Servites and canons regular like Augustinians and Norbertines. The Trinitarians and Mercedarians are interesting in that in the middle ages, Muslim pirates sailing from the Barbary Coast would abduct Christians travelling certain dangerous but unavoidable coastal roads, such as the highway connecting the crossing with Sicilly to Naples and then to Rome. These captives would be held unless a ransom was paid, or they converted to Islam. The Trinitarians and Mercedarians would seek to raise money to ransom the captives, and failing that, as part of their vows, would agree to take the place of a captive at risk of converting to Islam.
Bethlehem Priory (ACC) and the Company of Jesus (ACNA). I know Abbot Tim of the Company of Jesus personally. There are some others out there but Bethlehem Priory and the Company of Jesus are the biggest groups. I thought I had a picture with all five of the sisters but I'm guessing one of them was the photographer on this occasion. We met a sixth lady who is preparing to enter the order.