What is distinctive about the Ignatian Model of Religious Life and how might it be lived out in the Anglican Church?

Ignatian religious life has never been established outside the Roman Catholic Church although the interest in Ignatian spirituality is today widespread in other churches including the Anglican Church. Having lived in an Ignatian religious congregation, the Sisters of St Andrew, I was interested to find out if it would be possible to live Ignatian religious life in the Anglican Church, where I am serving as a priest. My research question is twofold: what is distinctive about Ignatian religious life and how might it be lived out in the Anglican Church? With regard to methodology I use the four voices of theology together with contemplative enquiry to investigate what is distinctive about Ignatian religious life. I interviewed ten members of different Ignatian religious congregations in order to find the espoused and the operant voices of Ignatian religious life. Furthermore, to access the normative and formal voices, I conducted an in-depth study of the Ignatian founding texts and their commentators. The findings were then discussed in the light of the Anglican ecclesial context in order both to demonstrate why it ought to be possible to move Ignatian religious life to the Anglican Church and to identify possible challenges to be encountered in this move. My findings include the following points. Not all the important components of Ignatian religious life are present in the Anglican Church. It is, however, the flexibility and adaptability of Ignatian religious life, together with a thorough discernment process, that is the main reason why Ignatian religious life could be established in the Anglican Church; that is, by adopting Ignatius’ own spirit of discerning the movements of the Spirit in our time and context. I also conclude that the process of adaptation needs norms and the distinctive features of Ignatian religious life identified in this research became the foundation for these norms. The research adds to knowledge in three ways. Firstly, it contributes to the understanding of religious life in the Anglican Church. Secondly, through using the four voices of theology and including a contemplative approach in its methodology, this thesis offers a model for finding distinctive features in research into other traditions of religious life and spirituality. Thirdly, the thesis adds to the knowledge of Ignatian religious life and offers practical insights into how an Ignatian religious community might be established in the Church of England and possibly in other church traditions.