Cay Andersen (1913-1988) and

Judy Sorensen (1927-2009)

1958,Judy Sorensen met Cay Andersen at the Church of the Holy Spirit and together eventually founded what they described as an ecumenical Christian community. The physical attraction between the two women was immediate, soon evolving into a sexual relationship initiated by Cay. They professed to represent God and called for absolute submission from their devotees, who lived communally in Cape Cod at The Community of Jesus.
Community rules denounced homosexuality, and forbade dating and courtship without the Mothers' approval. (Despite community rules discouraging drinking and prohibiting it altogether on community grounds, the women would have sisters smuggle bottles of beer and wine up to their apartment.) Married couples were prohibited from engaging in oral sex. Women and teenage girls could not wear pants, only long skirts.
"Light sessions" were the daily fabric of community life. Wives were encouraged to hit their husbands in the relentless pursuit of confronting sin. Families were ordered frequently - and at a moment's notice - to move to different houses. Children were regularly taken from their parents, placed with other couples and ordered not to speak with their mothers and fathers.
In 1985, reports that an authoritarian sect was psychologically abusing its members on the shores of Cape Cod Bay began surfacing when about 20 adherents defected, including two sons of one of the co-founders. [Cited The Globe and Mail and Cape Cod Times]

Cay Andersen (1999-1988) and Judy Sorensen (1999-2015): Project

Cay Andersen

(1913-1988)

Cay Andersen was an abusive, foul-tempered, hard-drinker plagued with childhood illnesses and later afflictions that marked her adult life - hepatitis A, chorea (an abnormal involuntary movement disorder also known as St. Vitus Dance) and petit mal seizures.

Although not nominally a churchgoer, she became attracted to a faith-healing group at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans where, Cay would berate Judy for her sins — a rough forerunner of Community of Jesus “light sessions,” stressing confession of sin in self and confrontation of sin in others (although it was always Judy’s sins, never Cay’s, that were confronted and confessed). [Cited The Globe and Mail, 2007].

Judy Sorenson

(1927-2009)

In 1958 at 31, the vivacious, articulate, attractive Judy Sorensen, who vacationed with her husband and four children on the Cape, and was acquiring a reputation as a charismatic heale, met 45-year old Cay Andersen. She was the wife of William T. Sorensen for 60 years. The family moved from Orange, N.J., in the late 1950s and lived near Crystal Lake in Orleans.

In 1992 At 65, Sorensen resigned as executive director of the Community of Jesus. She had been in poor health for years with the spread of breast cancer and congestive heart failure. She died in 2009. [Cited Cape Cod Times, 2009]

Cay Andersen (1999-1988) and Judy Sorensen (1999-2015): List