The Order of Saint Helena

Sr. Rosina Ampah, OSH

My call came as a little girl in Ghana. I went into the Church and I heard, “God said to tell you that you will become an Anglican priest.” I ran to tell the priest that God said I will become an Anglican priest but he told me women do not become priests in the Anglican or Roman Catholic Church.

I came to the Order of Saint Helena because I wanted to give myself totally to God’s service in whatever way I could. Since I have been a member of OSH, I have been able to respond to my original call and now I am also an Episcopal priest.

Sr. Ellen Stephen, OSH

I chose to enter OSH because it was an Order which combined both the contemplative and the active way—the Religious Mixed Life. I admired the fact that OSH was a forerunner in the use of inclusive language, in freedom to wear both the formal habit and secular dress as appropriate, and in the movement for the ordination of women. One of the sisters was already a deacon when I entered and later was the first woman religious to be ordained a priest.

Sr. Miriam Elizabeth, OSH

In my initial inquiries about monastic life, OSH rose to the forefront due to the sisters’ history and commitment to creativity and beauty, inclusive language in the liturgy, leadership in the church, and individual ministries. I also felt strongly that God was calling me to continue to serve as a priest in the church, even as I engaged God’s call to monastic life and OSH supported both calls. From the beginning, I felt at home here in a community where I could live, work, pray, play, laugh and grow.