The Community of the Sisters of the Church : an exploration of their foundations and their early struggles following their arrival in Australia in 1892

For a school which in 1994 has over one thousand students, a full time staff of over seventy and a reputation as one of the best schools not only in Tasmania, but also in Australia, the opening day of St. Michael's Collegiate School over 100 years ago on Monday 3rd October 1892 was very low key. There was no formal opening by the Governor of Tasmania. There was no Bishop. No fanfare in the local press announced the new school. No reporter from The Mercury came to write up the event for Tuesday's paper. Twelve students were brought to the new school in Harrington Street (now the offices of Murdoch Clarke & Drake Solicitors and Barristers). There the twelve first enrolments were received by Sister Phyllis, Sister Hannah and Sister May of The Community of the Sisters of the Church which had founded the School, under the name of a "Higher Grade Elementary School" as it was then called. The Dean, Dean Dundas, read prayers and to misquote T.S. Elliot, Collegiate was born not with a bang but a whisper. Lack of a "Grand Opening" did not spell lack of strong support. Many people prayed for its success. Naturally the school had loomed large in the devotions of those three Sisters and the other four who had sailed from England. The other four Sisters (Bridget, Lucy, Irene and Rose) had gone on to Melbourne and Adelaide to work for the Order there and also found schools. No one prayed for the school more earnestly than Mother Emily Ayckbowm, the foundress of both the Church Extension Association (C.E.A.) in 1864 and the Community of the Sisters of the Church in 1870; the secular and the spiritual arms of her efforts to spread Christ's messages to rich and poor. BUT - Who was Emily Ayckbowm? What was the Community of the Sisters of the Church? Who brought these Sisters to Australia? What was their work to be