Society of the Sacred Mission

The Society of the Sacred Mission (SSM) is an Anglican religious order founded in 1893 by Father Herbert Kelly, envisaged such that "members of the Society share a common life of prayer and fellowship in a variety of educational, pastoral and community activities in England, Australia, Japan, Lesotho, and South Africa.""Our Society was founded in 1893 in Kennington, to train people for missionary service in Korea. Somehow we got side-tracked into training clergy for the Church in England - but that stopped in the 1970s." Members have included Gabriel Hebert and George Every.

The motto of SSM is Ad gloriam Dei in eius voluntate ("To the glory of God in his will.").

SSM was inaugurated on 9 May 1893, with Kelly, Badcock and Chilvers as its initial novices.

Central to its ethos since then has been the inclusion of ordinary men. Kelly was clear from the outset that this was not a way of life for religious virtuosos. "No system can be sound which depends for success upon rare and special gifts, rather than upon the steady use of those more limited and commonplace powers which God ordinarily wills to bestow." - H. H. Kelly (SSM, 1898)

Kelly's missionary work began in 1902 in South Africa, and the next year Kelham Hall was purchased to become the main centre, a theological college and the head office. The college was established in 1894; their hoods were "black, the cowl faced 3 inches and bound 1 inch (with) Sarum red."

"The present Kelham Hall was built between 1859 and 1862 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. He also built St Pancras Station a few years later and both building share the same Gothic style. In 1903, it became a theological college for Church of England priests known as the Society of the Sacred Mission. They added a great domed chapel in 1924. In 1969 the hall was taken over by Newark and Sherwood District Council. A few hundred yards from the hall, situated within the trees is the delightful parish church."

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Wikipedia