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AAYRES, ANNE (3 January 1816, London–9 February 1896, New York). Education:Unknown. Career: Teacher, New York, 1836–45; religious sister, 1845–52; founding sister, Sisterhood of the Holy Communion, New York, 1852–96.Anne Ayres, the founder of the first religious sisterhood in the EpiscopalChurch, was born in London in 1816. Little is known about her early life, butshe came to New York with her father when she was 20 years old. She foundemployment as a teacher of young girls from well-to-do families, one of themthe niece of William Augustus Muhlenberg,* an Episcopal clergyman. Highlyimpressed by a sermon that Muhlenberg preached, Ayres decided to devote herlife to the work of the church. In a private ceremony at which Muhlenberg officiated,she formally dedicated herself to Christian service in November 1845.Seven years later, when he was rector of the Church of the Holy Communion inNew York, Muhlenberg sponsored the founding of the Sisterhood of the HolyCommunion, of which Ayres was the “First Sister.”Although Ayres’s order was the first Protestant sisterhood formed in the UnitedStates, it was organized in a manner different from the typical Roman Catholicorder. Its members did not take lifetime vows, but each woman pledged to remainunmarried and to serve for renewable three-year terms. The order had no monasticrule, and while there was a prescribed form of dress, members did not wear atraditional religious habit. The sisters served principally as nurses, first at a smallinfirmary at the Church of the Holy Communion, and later at St. Luke’s Hospital,which Muhlenberg helped organize in 1858. Ayres had charge of both the nursingand the household administration at the hospital. In 1865 Muhlenberg undertooka new venture, St. Johnland (a “Christian industrial community”) on Long Island,where Ayres also devoted considerable time to managing social service ministryto the poor.