Oratory of The Good Shepherd

Oratory Of The Good Shepherd

The Oratory of the Good Shepherd (OGS) is a dispersed international community of Anglicans, ordained and lay, bound by a common rule of celibate chastity, responsible spending, and direction of life.The OGS Rule calls members of the Oratory to daily Communion, Private Prayer, and the Office. It encourages the labour of the mind, fellowship, and the faithful stewardship of talents and resources.

The Oratory began in 1913 as a group of University of Cambridge college chaplains, who were looking for some form of disciplined life in the comfortable circumstances of the University of those days. The First World War interrupted things, but afterwards they came together again, meeting at Little Gidding, the site of Nicholas Ferrar's community in the seventeenth century. The Notes were compiled and the way of life devised. There has been controversy from the beginning but whether the Anglican Oratory was inspired by St Philip Neri, or the French Oratory of Pierre de Bérulle is probably of little importance since OGS is sui generis.

Until 1939, some of the brethren lived in the Oratory House in Cambridge, where they were joined by research students and others. In 1939 the Oratory House was passed on to the Franciscans, since when the Oratory has had no permanent base. On occasion two or three brethren have lived together when staffing a parish, but this has been the exception rather than the rule.