The Hermit of Continuity

Skipping through the duller stuff from yesterday's Synod on the Comment is Free live-blog. There's no point getting excited about women bishops, as it turns out that the vote on that is in July. The Church of England now seems to have been "opening the door to women bishops" since the Flood.

But I discover the stunning information that the Church of England has 12 "enclosed hermits". Who knew that these godly people still existed, taking their religion so seriously? The world seems a better place for knowing this, somehow. There's no indication as to how or where they are enclosed, however. The details are sketchy. Are they enclosed in the manner of Mother Julian, or our own nearby and blessed Christina of Markyate? Are there twelve of them  because that's the "right" number, and whenever one wanders off to do other things or receives her/his eternal reward they have to elect another one? Presumably they don't all live together, although if they did that would be an "observance" of hermits, I discover. As opposed to a "mutual contradiction" of hermits, which would make more sense.

By contrast, here in the Beaker Folk, we used to have a small group of Hermits of Suspicion. A fairly unpleasant bunch, they had a habit of looking at you like you'd been doing something wrong and generally making you feel pretty sinful. They all had to take the name "Herman" on their inclusion in their order. But after Drayton set up his Funambulist Baptist Chapel they discovered that his was a stricter and more world-denying form of religion and joined him. All except the one remaining Hermit, Herman, who refused to deny his vows. Since he's keeping the order going all on his own now we call him the Hermit of Continuity.