What is the Congregation of the Passion of Christ?
It is a brotherhood of priests of the Episcopal Church who bind themselves, under a common Rule, to a disciplined life of prayer, fraternity, and sacrificial love beneath the Cross of Jesus Christ. Its purpose is the sanctification and perseverance of priests, and through them the strengthening of the whole Church.
Its motto is Crux est mundi medicina: the Cross is the medicine of the world.
Who leads it, and who oversees it?
The Congregation is led by a Father General, assisted by a Prior, who directs vocations and formation, and a Sub-Prior, who oversees stewardship and good order. A General Council shares responsibility for its governance.
Above its internal governance, a Bishop Protector safeguards its constitutional integrity and its communion with the Episcopal Church.
Who may join?
Priests of the Episcopal Church in good standing, whose own bishop is aware of their interest and does not judge it to conflict with their diocesan ministry. In its present form the Congregation is a clerical brotherhood of men, one particular path of fraternity offered within the wider household of the Church.
Would I have to leave my parish or diocese?
No. The members are secular clergy who remain in their own parishes and dioceses. There is no monastery, no enclosure, and no relocation. The Rule orders your interior life so that parish ministry is strengthened, not set aside.
What does formation involve, and how long does it take?
Entrance is patient and tested, ordinarily through five stages: Inquiry, Aspirancy, Novitiate, Temporary Profession, and Perpetual Profession.
Aspirancy ordinarily lasts from six to eighteen months. The novitiate lasts at least eighteen months. Temporary profession, renewed year by year, continues for at least three years before a man is admitted to perpetual profession. The length is deliberate: it allows a vocation to be proven, not merely felt.
What do the vows commit me to?
Three vows: obedience to the Rule and to those entrusted with its care; fraternal communion, a stable and vowed belonging to the brotherhood; and persevering conformity to Christ crucified, a fidelity that does not fail when suffering comes.
They do not create a new priesthood. They intensify the one you already bear.
Is there a financial obligation?
A modest one. The ordinary annual contribution is five hundred dollars, paid in two installments, which supports formation, retreats, common vesture, and the stable life of the brotherhood. It is not a fee that purchases membership, and no genuine vocation is refused for reason of hardship.
The Congregation asks simplicity of life, not monastic poverty. Members keep their own income and responsibilities.
Can laypeople share in this life?
Yes, as Oblates. An Oblate, lay or ordained, seeks spiritual affiliation with the Congregation in order to live more consciously beneath the Cross, within the vocation God has already given. Oblation carries no vow and no role in governance; it is a bond of prayer, conversion, and perseverance.
What is the difference between a member and an Oblate?
A member is a priest bound by public vow to the Rule and to the common life of the brotherhood. An Oblate shares the spirituality of the Passion without vows or governance, living it in family, work, parish, and friendship.
The vowed brother lives the Passion in religious discipline; the Oblate lives it in the world. Both stand beneath the same Cross.
If the Cross has begun to order your ministry, the first step is simply to make yourself known.
Inquiry begins not with recruitment but with prayerful conversation, and with reading the Rule seriously. Write to us, and we will be glad to answer whatever this page has not.