In 1923 six Sisters from Chichester set out on a pilgrimage to the Wye Valley and established an enclosed house of prayer.

The community was founded in 1914 at the onset of the First World War. Their vocation was to be a hidden presence of the loving mercy of God in a world that was broken and thirsting for healing and reconciliation. One hundred years on this remains the vocation of the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Cross at Tymawr Convent, Lydart, Monmouth.

The Convent’s daily round of corporate worship and praise, the exercise of monastic hospitality and attending to the land entrusted to them, continues to this day. To mark the Centenary of their arrival in Wales, the community is opening its doors through a series of Quiet Days on the theme ‘Women of Prayer’.

The forthcoming Quiet Day on Saturday 13 May is led by Hannah Lewis, a BSL using deaf priest working in the Diocese of Oxford with the deaf community. She is also a liberation theologian and a single mother who has taken life vows in a Single Consecrated Life.

Prayer is the only way she holds all this together. Hannah writes, “There is a perception that to pray we need to be able to spend time in formal prayer and contemplation. However, for many people, the reality is different as busy lives balancing work and family, stress, grief, and other things get in the way. This day doesn’t claim to have all the answers but will reflect on the stories of women of prayer to help us to recognise and celebrate where we are already people of prayer and to encourage us to keep on keeping on.”

The day includes talks by Hannah, a Eucharist at noon and Evening Prayer at 4.00pm – and the option to join the community earlier at Morning Prayer at 9.30am. The talks and services will have a BSL interpreter. Participants are asked to bring their own lunch; hot drinks will be provided.

There is no charge for the Quiet Day, which is open to women and men. For further details and to book a place, email the Chaplain: [email protected] or message 07484 692169.