Can I Start a Religious Order?

Can I start a religious order?

I've been thinking about this a while, actually several years.

I would describe my call to vocation being that I knew I wanted to be a pastor by the time I was 8, but I'd wanted to be a nun by the time I was 3 or 4. It just seemed like a good idea. Then I heard that only Catholics were nuns, and forgot about it, for the most part.

These days though, I know there's Anglican nuns and Lutheran deaconess communities and Presbyterians who join Benedictine orders. I know I could 'oblate' to any order, but it doesn't quite sit right with me. There are orders I would really like to join as a full sister, but they don't accept non-Catholics, and I like being Presbyterian. There's orders that would accept me as a Presbyterian, but they're far away from the places I seem called to be, set apart from the world and from people. I think I need to be with the poor and oppressed. I think the South Side of Chicago is calling me for at least another ten years.

One question is whether I'm crazy. I could be. Protestants especially would think that anyone who chooses celibacy or poverty is a little nuts, let alone divine obedience. I have worried myself that it's too self-grandiose to start an order. I don't want to be a rock star or cult figure. But St. Theresa wasn't a rock star or cult figure; and neither was St. Francis really, nor Catherine MacAuley (Sisters of Mercy). I asked one sister friend last year how orders got founded, and she said, "Someone got up one day and started them." My friend David here wonders why I don't do just that. I hesitate, but the idea is growing on me.

The next questions are, on what principles to found an order (the 'charism'), and what to call it. Here are the principles that seem important:

--open to people of all faith traditions
--material simplicity; amassing no property, investments, or status
--resistance to militarism
--upholding the humanity of all people
--voluntary service to others, especially the poor and oppressed
--commitment to community and obedience to God
--spiritual support for those who choose to remain single; as well as those who choose to marry
--a spirit of cooperation and friendship with all other orders and groups striving to live out similar values

I've thought of names that strike me as especially meaningful, such as:

Order of Ecumenical Benedictines (OEB), using an inclusive Rule of Benedict
Order of Preachers of Poverty (OPP), encouraging a ministry that rejects the model of "success =bigger church and bigger salary,"
Order of Poor Servants (OPS), following the same model, but emphasizing the ministry of all.

So, I'm still thinking about it. I think about it actually every day.