Down a quiet, hilly road near Domino’s Farms, the home houses six of the 17 women who are members of the Servants of God’s Love — an order established in Ann Arbor 50 years ago, in 1975.

The order began as a group of friends at and around the University of Michigan who were discerning living in community, exploring their Christian faith, and praying about how the Lord was asking them to live and serve, says Sister Dorcee Clarey, who has been a member since the order’s founding and has served as the order’s superior several times. “In early 1975, all of us were sensing that ‘now is the time; God wants us to start living together,’” she says.

The ecumenical group of women was inspired partly by a men’s group called The Servants of the Word, which continues to be an ecumenical group and was also founded as part of the charismatic renewal in Ann Arbor in the 1970s. Eventually, all the members of the Servants of God’s Love were Catholic and committed themselves to live according to the teachings of the Church in community. In 2010, the order became an associate community of the Council of Major Superiors of Religious Communities. According to the Servants of God’s Love’s website, the group is still in the process of pursuing full diocesan status as a religious congregation.

What makes the Servants of God’s Love unique, Sister Dorcee says, is its commitment to a fourth vow to the common life.

“That has shaped us in many ways,” she says. “There’s a uniqueness in that we really work at it. It’s like a good marriage — you work at it. You learn how to talk to a sister and ask for forgiveness as needed. The fruit of it is very evident in our lives. We do not want to have things that are separating us.”

Sister Sarah agrees, adding that just like in a family, the sisters have to work out their differences in order to live together peacefully, though they are all driven by the same desire: to love God. “Our relationships with one another are important, but they’re not the primary one.” she says. “It’s first and foremost the Lord.”

The order’s name represents the two-fold mission of the sisters that they came to see through prayer years ago.

“Servant means you do whatever is needed — you’re not better than anybody else,” Sister Dorcee says. “It’s to bring his love. That’s who we are; this is what it means to be a servant and to bring his love into every situation, to anybody that God brings us. That’s what we’re striving, with His grace, to do.”

The sisters’ love and servanthood is perhaps most clear in Flint, where since 2017 they have operated a mission house on the city’s east side where anyone can find material, physical, and spiritual help.

“We’re responding to the need,” Sister Dorcee says. “It can be very intense at times.”

From hosting weekly women’s groups, to helping someone find a place to stay after getting out of substance-abuse treatment, to running a summer camp for kids in the neighborhood, the mission is to meet the needs of those they encounter in the city, she says. In addition to waiting for people to come to them for help, though, Sister Dorcee says the Servants of God’s Love go door-to-door in the city, making contact with hundreds of people and following up later, which helps build a real connection with the community there.

“We ask, ‘How are you doing? Would you like us to pray for you?’” she says. “We go out into the neighborhoods, and now people know they can go to St. Mary’s.”

The sisters say the need for God and his love is evident in their work — among both the people of Flint and the high school students Sister Sarah teaches at Father Gabriel Richard High School. The love of Christ the Church offers, they say, draws them in.

“That’s what brings people to the Church: unconditional love,” Sister Dorcee says. Among the students she works with, Sister Sarah says she sees a deep need for community and authenticity.

“I see a great hunger for the Lord and for relationship,” she says. “They’ve learned to communicate better with their thumbs than their tongues. They’re looking for people who say they follow the Lord and are really living what they’re saying.”