BOB ABERNETHY: Now, a profile of an ecumenical Christian monastic community; the beautiful, disciplined, growing, and sometimes controversial Community of Jesus in Orleans, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod Bay. Our story begins when we visited last summer. Early morning on Cape Cod. The Community of Jesus gathers for worship, one of six worship services here every weekday. The community was founded in 1979 with about 25 people, and has grown now to 330 members, almost all of them Protestants. They practice a high liturgy that includes Gregorian chants sung in Latin. About 90 community members live as monks or nuns with vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. But most are in families, some third generations. All have chosen full-time commitment to God and each other here, over what some of them call "the dead-end outside world." Sister Alicia grew up in the community and became a nun when she was 21 -- 10 years ago.

Sister ALICIA (Community of Jesus): I'm adopted, and I was adopted into a wonderful family, a really wonderful -- I had a great childhood, and ever since I felt like I owed God whatever he wanted me from me for doing that.

ABERNETHY: Bill Canega is the retired chief executive officer from a major accounting firm in New York.

BILL CANEGA: There is a caring for one another that we found unique.

ABERNETHY: Kate Shannon is 19, another child of the community, leaning strongly to committing her life here.

KATE SHANNON (Community of Jesus): I feel very close to lots of people here, and I think it's harder to do that when you don't live in this type of environment. It's harder to forge close relationships. I have really, really close friends here that I would just die if I had to leave them.

ABERNETHY: The Community of Jesus is probably best known for its choir, whose members have become world-class professionals.

BETTY PUGSLEY: I didn't hear any TH on "henceforth." Somebody's still subdividing those eighths. Ah. The mezzo forte comes at the end of that, not right at the beginning. Right there, one, two.

ABERNETHY: Betty Pugsley is both the community's elected prioress and the choir's demanding leader.

Ms. PUGSLEY: When we first came here, the singing was terrible, absolutely horrible. I mean, we'd gather in church and we couldn't even sing the Doxology.

ABERNETHY: Mother Betty, as she's called, a trained music director, helped turn amateurs into pros.

Ms. PUGSLEY: Anyone can sing that has a speaking voice. The problem is not in the singing, the problem is finding out the block for the singing.

ABERNETHY: And the required?

Ms. PUGSLEY: Commitment to God, a desire to love God more, a desire to praise God through singing and the worship, and a willingness to take the disciplines that were handed out in order to get there.

ABERNETHY: Under the name Gloria de y Cantoris, Singers to the Glory of God, the choir has toured in the U.S. and Europe. Other religious groups specialize in serving the hungry or sick. The community's primary ministry is music. The community band has also become a world-class performing group called the Spirit of America. Again, strict discipline is the price of excellence.

Unidentified Man #1: You've got four lines of two, and it looks ridiculous.

Group (In Unison): Yes, sir.

ABERNETHY: At a recent rehearsal, one mistake cost 20 push-ups. Community discipline also controls where people live. Each family is responsible for itself financially, and about 45 families own or co-own their homes, but the community requires the homeowners to open their houses to other community members. In this home, three families and three singles share the space and the frictions.