Anglican Communion News Service

by Brother Damian SSF

I have recently revisited Hilfield Friary, tucked away now for over 80 years in the folds of Thomas Hardy's rural Dorset in England. They say ours was the 28 acres that the farmers couldn't use - too stony. Since 1921 there has been some visible Franciscan life in the Anglican Church.

But it was earlier, back in 1894 that the first signs of friars appeared in the Church of England when the Society of the Divine Compassion was founded at Plaistow in London's East End. The neighbouring Friars Minor at Forest Gate were not then very approving, but that is an area we have made good progress over a century of ecumenical concentration and effort. The Community of St Francis for women had sprung into being in Dalston in 1905 and in the Episcopal Church of America, the Order of St Francis was founded by Fr Joseph Crookston in 1919. Amongst Anglicans, Franciscan consciousness was emerging in the devotional writings of Fr Andrew, SDC, in the life of Douglas Downes, the first Minister of the Society of St Francis (SSF), who earned the name, Apostle of the Outcast, Meanwhile, Jack Winslow, the hymn writer, who with others had begun a Franciscan Ashram at Poona. Along with Algenon Robertson, affectionately known as Fr Algy, he provided the SSF with its first written Franciscan Rule with an introduction to the first of its many Gospel directives, 'Jesus, the Master speaks': a strong reminder of our Indian connections. The amalgamation of all these early communities, including Fr George Potter's Brotherhood of the Holy Cross at Peckham heralded the establishment of SSF in 1937. The seeds of an international Franciscan Order in the Anglican Church were already showing.

The historian, John Moorman, a former Bishop of Ripon, perhaps contributed the most in forging ecumenical relations with the Roman Catholics, offering a scholarly work on the History of the Early Franciscan Order and as a member of ARCIC he was chosen as an Anglican observer at the Second Vatican Council. Earlier the Calvinist pastor, Paul Sabatier, had alerted Anglicans and also impressed the Romans with a notable early biography of St Francis.

How did all this interest in the poor man of Assisi arise in the Anglican Church? Perhaps the simple answer is because Francis was first and foremost a Gospel minded Christian. He was genuinely a Catholic but with a Bible in his hand and the words of Jesus on his lips, his unquestionable witness, once noticed, was irresistible to many beyond his fold. Emphasising a scriptural imperative with a catholic allegiance, and charismatic zeal thrown in, he appealed to the best in all of us! Working within the Church, expressing an obedience and a respect to its authorities, he was known for his loyalty and care for the unity of the body of Christ. Preaching and singing about the wider community of creation as a family under our one Father in heaven appeals to searching Christians of all ages and persuasions.

Yet in our own day, Francis is touching on the nerve of modern daily living itself, particularly where there is affluence, just as he met with an enormous response in Europe and beyond in his own lifetime, back in the 13th century. He speaks again to people who are living in an insecure world, protesting with the victims of aggressive treatment or unjust regimes, calling out in the name of our common humanity under one Father in heaven. Francis had responded in just the way Jesus himself had responded, in an humble giving of himself for the love of God. Humility was the key witness identified by Francis to the self assertive, aggressive behaviour in others. In terms of the Kingdom, he was showing the Gospel way, and it attracts many with its compelling Christlike self-offering. The life marked by genuine humility has its own ring of truth.

A similar mark in Francis' own life was the deep love which he showed to the under-dog, in the face of a strongly competitive and hard-nosed society which had little time for the poor and where compassion was seen as a soft option. Because it could almost be said that Francis was introduced to Christ by an abandoned leper, he owed his conversion towards the fullness of life by an outcast. Seeing the poor Christ in situations of deprivation and loss, he discovered all the riches of friendship and brotherly affection which give the deepest meaning to life, particularly as he discovered his one-ness in the love of the suffering Lord. Inevitably, we might say with hindsight, he received love's greatest reward in the stigmata.

The third mark which so obviously characterised Francis was his joy, his exuberant heart which so regularly overflowed in praise to God and thankfulness for his mercy and goodness. Our Anglican Franciscan Rule, noting the joy in the life and ministry of Jesus, bids us to 'cast off all gloom and moroseness' and then to 'delight in laughter and good fellowship'. But the nub comes as the shadow falls, and Francis overwhelmingly shows us how 'when I am weak, then I am strong'. The joy he knew in disappointment, in sickness and in suffering was brought about through the grace of a love for his suffering Master which transformed those worldly circumstances.

Bishop Philip - 1936-63. It was his vision (and persistence) which brought SSF to PNG

Few of us quite reach that purity and detachment, yet the vision and the truth within that hope is emmensely attractive and challenging. We have seen a growth in the Franciscan life with the Anglican Communities in two distinct ways. Answering an invitation by the late Bishop Philip Strong back in 1959 the brothers opened a friary in Port Moresby and then in Popondetta where there is a vibrant group of SSF friaries in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands which has grown to become the largest population of Brothers in SSF. Also the expansion of the Third Order, or Tertiaries, right across the world, brought another level of influence and depth to the Church as a whole. Dedication through a rule of life which aims at sharing the love of Christ, promoting ways of love and unity with all creation, living in simplicity and offering humble service, together form a strong commitment to living the Gospel, which is Francis' great cry.

As Anglicans we have certainly had a new choice about how we take up Francis' challenge to Gospel living. Without the history of the intervening centuries, and without Bonaveture's classical interpretation of Francis' as binding, we have opted for the original vision, and seize the advantage of the early followers who with Francis listened intently to the words of the Gospel, to the Word made flesh. Because he remained loyal to the Church, the work of Franciscans will always be to rebuild and renew from within, as instruments of peace. And as in Francis' own day, there is no reason why the whole movement should not again flower with the authentic marks of Gospel living, and our Sisters and Brothers be as numerous as the stones around the Friary in Dorset, but as living stones gathered around one Cornerstone, the Christ of all nations and peoples and tongues.

[Brother Damian is Minister Provincial, European Province SSF]