Community of Sts Barnabas & Cecilia (CSBC)

The Community of Sts Barnabas & Cecilia came into being in 1997, when the then Bishop of Willochra in South Australia, the Rt Revd David McCall, called Sisters Jean Johnson and Sandra Sears to Jamestown in the State’s mid north to form Community. Since then the Community house has moved twice – to Peterborough in 1998, and Gladstone in 2011. The community is open to men and women (as reflected by the double title), married and single, who are practising members of any Christian denomination. They live in their own environment, and are free to exercise their own gifts. This means that the Community is dispersed throughout the three dioceses of South Australia. The charism of the Community is ‘Encouragement’ – of gifts in each other, in our churches and in the wider community.

Vows are renewed every year at our annual retreat, held at the Community House, with a service at St Alban’s, Gladstone. The vows are chastity, simplicity, and obedience to the Bishop under God. Our habit is a grey alb, navy blue scapular, and blue girdle (with three knots). Our cross has fluted tips (redolent of the rose which symbolises St Barnabas) with a raised Celtic harp at its centre (symbolising St Cecilia).