Edith Langridge

In 1902, the Sisterhood of the Epiphany (SE) was formed at Barisal under the guidance of Father Edmund Linwood Strong to mirror the Brotherhood. The work of the sisters was to include evangelism, medical work, and women's education under the leadership of Langridge. Later a branch house was formed at Jobarpar, Agailjhara thirty miles north of the town.

The Oxford Mission Church, also known as the Epiphany Church, was established in 1903 based on a sketch by Sister Edith, and inaugurated on 26 January that year.^[4] Father Strong had overseen the completion of the church's design and construction through a second phase of building in 1907.^[4] The church was built on 35 acres of land surrounded by a high wall and rows of palm trees.^[5]

Langridge lead the sisterhood, formally adopting the style "Mother Edith" after she had taken her final vows in the order in 1913, and following an election to confirm her position as Mother Superior. In 1928 and 1931 she was challenged for the position, both elections ending in stalemate with an equal number of votes for both candidates. The Warden (a position held by a brother of the Brotherhood of the Epiphany) broke the deadlock on each occasion by confirming Langridge in her position.^[2]

There were several branch houses of the sisterhood, the largest at Calcutta where the sisters ran a primary school and an orphanage. In 1943 Mother Edith lost the election for Mother Superior and was replaced.^[2]

Langridge died in a hospital in Shillong in 1959.^[2]

In 1970 a parallel community to the Sisterhood of the Epiphany was founded for sisters of Bangladeshi nationality, named the Christa Sevika Sangha (CSS) (Handmaids of Christ), and in 1986 this order became independent.^[6] The foundress, Sr Susila SE, left the Sisterhood of the Epiphany to become the first Mother Superior CSS, an office she held until her death on 16 May 2011.^[7] At the same time another sister (Sr Leonore SE) transferred to the Community of St. Francis in order to follow the Franciscan Rule.

By the early 1990s only three SE sisters remained, and they left Bangladesh (where their work is continued by CSS) and returned to England, taking up residence at Ditchingham with the Community of All Hallows. The last three sisters died there, concluding the work of the Sisterhood of the Epiphany.^[8] However Sister Lucy Francis Holt was still a sister at the Oxford Mission Church in 2019 where she had taken Bangladeshi citizenship at the age of 89 so she could die there.^[9]