Sister Christina Christie, a former Anglican nun who played a pivotal role in guiding her Catonsville-based women’s religious community into full communion with the Catholic Church, died Dec. 5. She was 94 and had been a member of the Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor for 59 years.
Sister Christina was superior general of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor in the early 2000s, a period marked by growing theological divisions within the Episcopal Church – the U.S. member church of the Anglican Communion.
As questions of orthodoxy intensified, she urged her community to respond with prayerful openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
After seven years of discernment, 10 sisters from the society were received into the Catholic Church in 2009 by then-Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien. Two sisters who chose to remain Anglican continued living with the rest of the community.
Founded in England, the All Saints Sisters of the Poor established an American presence in Baltimore in 1872 and have resided at their Catonsville convent since 1917. Following their reception into the Catholic Church, the sisters became a diocesan institute of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, formally recognized by the Holy See.
Mother Emily Ann Lindsey, current superior general, remembered Sister Christina as a woman of “gentle wisdom” and “great joy” who served her community in nearly every role over the course of her religious life. Those positions included infirmarian, sacristan, guest mistress, novice mistress, assistant superior and ultimately superior general.
“She understood that to be a member of a religious community was like being a musician in an orchestra,” she said. “Every sister had to work together, pray together and relate and respond to each other. She taught us that love and acceptance, patience, tolerance and understanding were not really options for us as sisters. They were expected.”
Mother Emily Ann said her friend showed great wisdom in how she helped members of her religious community discern coming into the Catholic Church. Over a long period of time, Sister Christina invited representatives of the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and breakaway Anglican communities to talk about their beliefs. The sisters never had meetings about anything they heard, Mother Emily Ann remembered.
“We just sat with it,” she remembered. “We did a lot of prayer, but we never talked about it.”
Eventually, Sister Christina said it was time to make a decision about the future of the community – whether to remain Anglican or join another Christian body.
Sister Christina asked the gathered sisters one by one if they thought the Holy Spirit was calling them to join the Catholic Church. Some did and some did not. She then asked whether they believed the Holy Spirit was calling their religious community as a whole to join the Catholic Church.
“It was unanimous,” Mother Emily Ann remembered. “I was in total shock because that truly was the working of the Spirit. And the Spirit led her to frame those questions in the way she did. It was very clear that it wasn’t what we wanted as individuals. We were now looking at the community. We didn’t spend hours and hours discussing pros and cons. We simply answered her two questions.”
In a 2009 interview with the Catholic Review, Sister Christina said members of her community were deeply concerned about Christian unity and orthodoxy. They were troubled by the Episcopal Church’s approval of women’s ordination, the ordination of a gay bishop and what they viewed as a lack of clarity on moral issues.
“People who did not know us looked at us as if we were in agreement with what had been going on (in the Episcopal Church),” she said. “By staying put and not doing anything, we were sending a message which was not correct.”
Sister Christina was born Dorothy Jean Christie in Ottawa, Ontario. After high school, she worked as a secretary, including in a position with a U.S. Air Force general at the Goose Bay base in Labrador, in eastern Canada. It was there that the member of the United Church of Canada was introduced to the Anglican Church. She later attended Teachers College in Toronto, taught elementary school and continued to deepen her involvement in Anglicanism, eventually being confirmed.
She was inspired to enter religious life after visiting the All Saints Sisters of the Poor in Catonsville. During her years in the community, she conducted numerous retreats and served as a pastoral counselor at Joseph Richey Hospice in Baltimore, where she was recognized for providing compassionate support to those at the end of life.
In 2012, several All Saints Sisters of the Poor accompanied a group of Baltimore pilgrims to Rome when Archbishop O’Brien was elevated to the College of Cardinals. Cardinal O’Brien surprised Sister Christina, who continued as superior after the sisters entered the Catholic Church, and Sister Emily Ann by providing special tickets for them to receive holy Eucharist from Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal O’Brien spoke at Sister Christina’s Dec. 10 funeral Mass at the Catonsville convent, saying that he never doubted the efficacy of her prayers. He knew that if she promised to pray for him, she would.
Mother Emily Ann called her friend her mentor, confidant and biggest cheerleader.
“She showed me – and she showed this religious community – how to be like Christ,” Mother Emily Ann said.
Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org
Also see:
10 Episcopal nuns in Archdiocese of Baltimore to join Catholic Church (2009)
Archbishop O’Brien welcomes 10 Episcopal nuns, priest into Catholic Church (2009)
All Saints Sisters of the Poor celebrate 150th anniversary of arrival in Baltimore (2022)
Show me the honey: All Saints Sisters of the Poor find divine touch in beekeeping (2022)
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