St Peters Bourne was originally a private home until 1948 when it was purchased for the Sisters of the Community of the Resurrection of our Lord (CoRL). It was a British home for this South African order until 1994 when the Community returned to South Africa where they still keep the offices and provide pastoral and educational care. (For more about the CoRL see here).
The day-to-day running of the house is now done by the St Peters Bourne Management Company in accordance with the CoRL’s objectives to serve as a place of retreat and Christian education. There has been a work of renovation within the house and a community of Christians from the local parishes lived in the house providing it with income and a present community once again. In 2021 following the completion of the renovations, a new leadership team and community was established to develop St Peters Bourne as a prayerful house with an intentional community that is “Pursuing God, and learning to serve in mission, together”.
Community of the Resurrection of our Lord
The Community of the Resurrection of our Lord own St Peters Bourne and are our founding community. Cecile Isherwood was just 21 when she heard the call of God whilst sitting in St Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, Victoria, London. Responding she set sail for South Africa in 1883 with Bishop Allan Webb of Grahamstown and 10 others. There she set up the Community of the Resurrection of our Lord which undertook pastoral and educational work in Grahamstown alongside the monastic life of the offices and personal prayer and intercession.
In 1948 the community were looking to have a British house and acquired St Peters Bourne. It was named after St Peter’s church where the call of God was first heard and Bourne is the old English word for a small stream. There is a rich spiritual river prayer that flows through St Peters Bourne from the CoRL that in its history includes links with notable Christian pioneers like Catherine Booth, China Inland Mission, Bishop Allan Webb and Smith Wigglesworth.
The Community of the Resurrection of our Lord still work in South Africa and have an orphanage and … more info and link to their website here.
St Peter’s Bourne’s charitable objects as set out in its Memorandum of Association are: “the advancement of the Christian religion through worship and the provision of facilities for study, spiritual direction and learning and the encouragement of reflection on spiritual matters, in particular the provision of spiritual education and counselling, and through support of the wider Christian community, in particular the Community of the Resurrection of Our Lord and the Church in South Africa.”