Convent of the Incarnation · Fairacres · Parker Street · Oxford · OX4 1TB     Telephone: +44 (0) 1865 721301    Email Us

Profession and vows ...

All Christians are called through baptism to holiness in a life of total commitment to the service of God. For monks and nuns this total commitment is an invitation to follow the way of Christ bound by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The vows we make are binding and public promises by which we give ourselves to God. They are made voluntarily and recall God’s covenant relationship with his people.

By our vowed living, we seek to grow in holiness and return to God the whole of our life, for the whole of our lives. Through the vows we are given a way of redirecting and transforming our energies so that our deep desire to be set wholly on God may come to fruition.

• By our vow of poverty we mean an entire dependence on Christ, in whom all things are gathered and in whom all things are possessed.
• By our vow of chastity we undertake to follow Christ in self-giving love. Our vow includes voluntary perpetual celibacy. By remaining single and renouncing sexual activity we maintain boundaries to guard the inner core of our being, and witness to God’s indwelling.
• By our vow of obedience we seek to re-establish our human will in its true purpose to be one with the will of God. Obedience requires deep listening for the presence of God’s truth in all circumstances.

The vows are the foundation of our life and our witness in the Church and to the world.