Anne Ayres

Anne Ayres (January 3, 1816 – February 9, 1896) was a nun and the founder of the first Episcopalian religious order for women.

Born in London, she emigrated to the United States with her parents in 1836. She settled in New York City and tutored the daughters of wealthy families.

In the summer of 1845, Ayres heard a speech by Episcopal clergyman William Augustus Muhlenberg and decided to follow a religious life. Rev. Muhlenberg, who deliberately never married, founded the Church of the Holy Communion in New York City in 1846. This parish church embodied his rich version of the liturgy (with flowers, music and color), as well as recognition of the need for social services within the parish (hence free pews, an unemployment fund, a school, and country trips for poor urban children).

Ayres gathered other women to teach at the school and do other charity work. They formed the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion (with Ayres as First Sister, having taken religious vows in a private ceremony before Muhlenberg on All Saints Day, 1845). Aware of longstanding prejudice against religious orders since the Protestant Reformation 300 years earlier, the new order did not wear habits, but had a secular dress code, as well as took renewable vows for three years at a time. The House of Bishops formally recognized the new order (the first religious order for women in the Episcopal Church) in 1852.