Anglican Cistercians

Anglican Cistercians are members of the Anglican Communion who practice communal monastic life in the Cistercian tradition dating to 1098, when Benedictine monks at Citeaux in France founded a stricter observance of the Rule of St Benedict, traditionally recognized by the white habits its monks wear in contrast to the black worn by other Benedictines. Cistercian life has been represented continuously in the Church of England since at least 1966, when Ewell Monastery was established in West Malling, Kent, by the Reverend Father Aelred Arnesen and operated until 2004; the Anglican Cistercian Association followed in 2006 and was reorganized in 2010 into the Order of Cistercians, a dispersed, uncloistered community across the Anglican Communion that preserves Cistercian thought, devotion and monastic practice while accommodating both ordained and lay members of varying marital status.