The Community of Nazareth was founded to support a way of Christian discipleship shaped by prayer, stability, simplicity, and faithful presence in ordinary life. Its purpose and form are set out in the Community’s founding documents: the Rule, the Customary, and the Statutes, which are to be read together and lived with care and perseverance.

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The Community draws its inspiration from three primary places:

 

First, from the hidden life of Jesus at Nazareth. Before his public ministry, Jesus lived an ordinary life of prayer, work, and obedience within a particular place and household. The Community understands this hidden life not as preparation for something else, but as a complete and faithful way of life in itself.

 

Second, the Community is shaped by the Benedictine tradition. From this tradition it receives an emphasis on stability, balance, perseverance, and the sanctification of ordinary life. Members seek holiness not through exceptional practices, but through sustained faithfulness, lived gently and realistically over time.

 

Third, the Community is rooted in the Anglican tradition of common prayer and sacramental life. The Daily Office and Holy Communion form the centre of the Community’s shared life, holding members in communion across distance and difference.

 

The Community of Nazareth is a dispersed religious community within the Scottish Episcopal Church. Members remain fully committed to their parishes and live the Rule in harmony with parish life and episcopal oversight. The Community does not exist apart from the Church, nor does it replace parish belonging.

 

The Community does not seek to reproduce historical forms for their own sake. Its tradition is received as a living inheritance, interpreted carefully and applied to contemporary life, for the good of the Church and the faithfulness of its members.