In the late 19th century, Lurana White, a novice in an Episcopalian religious community of women, made contact with the Rev. Lewis Wattson, the superior of a small community of Episcopalian priests. Both were part of the Anglo-Catholic Movement, also known as the Oxford Movement, which had developed in the Church of England in the midpart of that century. Miss White's interest was in finding a community which practiced Corporate Poverty in the Franciscan tradition. That of Father Wattson was the reunion of the Roman and English churches.
After five years of sharing their spiritual visions and callings through correspondence, the two made a spiritual covenant to form a new religous community, re-establishing Franciscan life in the Anglican Communion. They named this new community from the passage in the Epistle to the Romans (5:11), which, in the King James Version, speaks of the Atonement we have received through Jesus. Wattson read this in the novel sense of At-one-ment with God.
With two companions, Miss White took up residence in the area of Garrison, New York known as Graymoor in December 1898, followed shortly by Father Wattson. With the formal establishment of the Society of the Atonement, they embraced religious life in the Protestant Episcopal Church. In taking vows, Miss White became known as Mother Lurana, while Father Wattson took the name of Father Paul, each assuming the leadership of their respective community.
The Society preached the primacy of the Roman pontiff, while keeping its Episcopalian allegiance, as they worked to realize a formal reconciliation between the two bodies. Due to this, the founders and their small number of disciples came to find themselves criticised and ostracised by their fellow co-religionists, who saw them as walking an impossible tightrope between the two bodies. Finally, they chose to seek admission to the Roman Catholic Church. In October 1909, the Vatican took the unprecendented step of accepting the members of the Society as a corporate body, allowing the friars and Sisters to remain in their established way of life.
Once members of the Roman Catholic Church, the Friars of the Atonement continued their work of advocating the reconciliation and eventual reunion of the various Christian denominations with the Roman Church, known as ecumenism. A major part of this effort was the Octave of Christian Unity , which is comprised of eight days of prayer for the various segments of Christianity and Judaism. It runs from January 18-25, starting on the date that--at the time--marked the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter in Antioch, and ending on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. This period has now been renamed as the Week of Prayer for Unity .
The Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement have established catechetical and daycare centers all over North America, serving rural communities throughout the western United States and Canada, as well as inner city locales, such as Harlem in New York City. Several accompanied the Japanese-American communities they served into the forced resettlement conducted during World War II.
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