The Society of the Sacred Mission
Since its inception, the Society of the Sacred Mission has endeavoured to serve the Church by means of the following three principal aims:
- to increase the number of those who give their lives to the divine service
- to labour for the conversion and perfection of souls
- to have regard for the cultivation of divine science
Today, we seek to advance those aims by “promoting vocation, nurturing faith and spirituality, and encouraging theological learning”.
Currently, the work of SSM is primarily centred at St Antony’s Priory in Durham.
Members
SSM is a Registered Historic Community in the Church of England. Professed members of the Society are those who have dedicated their lives to the service of God and who make a commitment to live under the conditions of poverty, celibacy and obedience. They may undertake various forms of work either directly for the Society or within Parishes.
Today there are currently only three remaining professed members of SSM in the UK and, sadly, it is no longer possible to admit enquirers to the noviciate.
Members of SSM at the Parish Church of St John the Divine, Kennington, in front of the Jagger Rood, formerly at Kelham.
“Ad gloriam Dei in eius voluntate”
To the glory of God in the doing of His will
The Society of the Sacred Mission (SSM) is an Anglican Religious order, founded by Fr Herbert Kelly in 1893. There are currently three branches, in the UK, Australia and Lesotho, which share a common origin but are now completely autonomous.
Beginnings
The Society had its beginnings in the 1880s when the Bishop of the newly established Anglican mission in Korea asked Fr Herbert Hamilton Kelly to train men for work in his diocese.
In 1893 Fr Kelly and two others were admitted as novices of the new community of the Society of the Sacred Mission, and before long many others joined.
The work rapidly expanded and developed into a theological college for Anglican ordinands, particularly those who would not otherwise have the opportunity, the means or the educational qualifications to train for the priesthood.
During the Christmas holidays, Fr Huntington, superior of the American Order of the Holy Cross, visited Kelham, and returned to help as a tutor in the spring term of 1907. It was during this time that Kelly one day said to Fr Huntington, ‘Come, and I’ll show you my proofs of the existence of God’ – and showed him the Kelham pigs.
‘I love pigs. They are so delightfully ugly, and so blissfully self-satisfied about it. A fat old sow came waddling towards us, with its two huge ears pointing the way it should go. And the good Father looked puzzled. “Oh yes,” I replied, “if I had shown you stars, flowers, a sunset, you would have said, ‘Ah, how true,’ but I do not greatly need God in order to see that beautiful things are beautiful and – well – elevating. I do want to hear of a God who can discern a beauty and a joy and an eternal value in my poor pigs. If God also laughs softly over their funniness, I do not mind that. I do it, too.”
‘But it is not only pigs that are absurd and blissfully self-satisfied about it. And the only God who is any use to me is a God who understands that bundle of incompetence and commonplace, ugliness and self-satisfaction, which are the most obvious of my personality. If I could find a God who is interested in pigs, maybe he would be interested in me, too, even if he smiled a bit over my funny absurdities, as I like to think he does over the pigs.’
“Fr Kelly had not really intended to start a religious community, but rather to train men for the new Korean Mission. Quite quickly he took up training priests for the Church in England, and formed a community of priests and lay-brothers as the best way of doing it. He himself was a bit of an academic failure, and he thought that the clergy of his generation spent too much of their time studying theology in the atmosphere of the universities. He viewed the move of the Bishops to restrict ordination to graduates as very foolish. But he was quite sure that men from non-academic, ‘working class’ backgrounds needed a formation which was demanding and rigorous: he aimed to teach his students to think, to do their theology, and not just to learn a series of ‘correct’ answers to be trotted out in sermons. So the life he created was all-embracing: Mass and the daily Office, lectures, housework, manual work – even sport – all were part of the day to day life of the College. Students lived alongside the Community, not in a separate building, and the Kelham way often saw senior tutors sweeping corridors and washing up under the direction of their students.” Scott Anderson
This film, made by the BBC in 1960, shows a fascinating glimpse of Kelham in its heyday – it really is another world…
Late 1970’s to Present Day
After the closure of Kelham, the Society began work at Willen in Milton Keynes, where they were invited to provide a “still centre on the edge of a new city”. Over time that grew into St Michael’s Priory, which offered various opportunities for education, training and prayer.
Also during the 1970s the Society was very much involved in chaplaincy work in Lancaster, both at the University and at St Martin’s College, as well as at Sheffield University.
In the 1980s it took on the task of providing pre-theological training for would-be ordinands in Durham who lacked the necessary background to go into the selection process. St Antony’s then developed into an Ecumenical Spirituality Centre, which continued until 2018, when a decision was made to refocus on core priorities.