[The vicar of Leeds, Walter Farquhar] Hook’s solution to the problem of appealing to tradition without appearing too Roman was to suggest that Pusey should adopt “Greek terms and forms rather than Latin ones; as less likely to give unnecessary offence“. And he added: “Remember you are in advance of the age: deal tenderly with the babes”.
Michael Hill, The Religious Order
While appreciating to the full the benefits bestowed on the Church by existing communities, one would rather see arising in the future societies of men and women, not bound by the Western monastic tradition, but allowing themselves the fullest freedom both in adapting old rules, and experimenting in new directions. There is much in the Basilian literature that might provide hints for such a development. The spirit of the English race is akin in many ways to that of Greece rather than Rome, and a study of St Basil, the father of Greek monasticism, may be not unprofitable for the English Church of to-day.
WK Lowther Clarke, St Basil the Great: A Study in Monasticism
Of all the private houses of the seventeenth century where the Christian life was cultivated one stands out above the rest. From 1626 until the house was sacked in 1646 in the course of the Civil War, the family at Little Gidding lived a life which became widely known, attracting some and repelling others. For the only time between the Reformation and the Oxford Movement, the tendency towards the religious life passed beyond opinions and schemes into achievement. It would be fruitless to try to define how closely the Ferrar family approximated to a religious community. It was certainly not one in the strict sense of the word. It was a family with property, in which there were people of all ages. None of its members were under formal vows, some were married with children. Nevertheless when we consider it, it is difficult to say that the community at Little Gidding does not approach as closely to the life of a religious house, as it does to that of an ordinary household. The whole psalter was recited every day; groups met for prayer at each
The Silent Rebellion, on Little Gidding.
hour; Nicholas Ferrar himself and a small company of volunteers, divided the night watch between them. It is true that this liturgical scheme owes nothing to Benedictine models. It is possible that it was modelled on their ideas of Greek patristic practice, as were other features of their life. The strictly ordered routine of the family life also suggests something monastic; the younger members of the family and their friends were given schooling; the adults made Harmonies of Scripture, or did bookbinding or copying. Books were read at meal times. After the final service of the evening everyone dispersed to their rooms.
The community was original and unique, best described as an attempt to revive the communal way of living of the early Christians. … The whole Psalter was recited daily in relays after the manner of the Desert Fathers.
The Call of the Cloister
this solitary life 