little portion - Third Order, Society of Saint Francis

Issue 7
September 2015
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LITTLE PORTION
The Magazine of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis, European Province
Contents
Theme Article
2
Work
5
Study
9
Prayer
12
Around the Province
17
New PCC
27
General Chapter
28
Books Recommended
30
Disability Advice Team
31
TSSF Contacts
32
____________________
To spread the spirit of
Love and Harmony
________________
Photo by Sr Joyce CSF: Francis and the Leper, Rivotorto
Principles, Days Seven to Nine
The Principles of the Society of St Francis have their origin in India, where many religions have
long lived together. It is not surprising, therefore, that some of the particular aspects of these religions are evident in the Principles. ‘Love’ is specifically associated with Christianity and
‘Harmony’ with Buddhism. Our Principles encourage us to study widely and diversely, and at
this time we are all challenged by the movements in Islam, affecting us politically and culturally.
In his book Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari (2014, Harvill Secker) described the outcome of the Scientific Revolution as a willingness to admit ignorance. That is a strong basis for any study and
dialogue, be this in science, religion, culture or politics. The first verse of Psalm 133 speaks of
brothers and sisters sitting together in unity: in love and harmony? The challenge is ours to see
and create harmony everywhere, built on humility, love and joy.
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THEME ARTICLE
Love and Harmony
Practising Fraternity:
Forming Peace-Makers
in a Pluralistic Society
Francis Rothery is part of the Exeter Local Group.
He is a freelance writer in the area of religion and
social change with a lifelong involvement in
providing social work, education and psychological
therapies in community based settings.
‘Hello my relatives!’
This is a greeting used by the Lakota people
of the great plains of North America. It
immediately creates a sense of kinship. It
also speaks of a great truth about life that St
Francis seems to have experienced directly
and in a profound and visceral way: we are
relatives. Not only are we related as sisters
and brothers, but we are related with Brother
Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Fire and Sister
Water and all animals and plants. The rays of
the sun shine into the wheat from which we
make bread, which in turn becomes part of
our own bodies as we eat it in the Eucharist.
We are made of sunlight, stardust and water.
St Francis intuited that the nature of all reality
is a conversation. In his time St Francis
described this way of mutuality and
reciprocity as fraternity. He experienced his
life as fraternal. His life also echoes
something fundamentally Trinitarian; all of the
created order is in a cosmic dance with God,
and within God; a dance of co-equal
mutuality and reciprocity. We are Inter-Being.
This is something that American Indian people
feel. Their direct and visceral experience of
kinship with all of nature forms their culture. It
is a way of life that resonates deeply with that
of our father-brother, St Francis, the nature
mystic. We are an Order of nature mystics and
that makes all the difference.
Yet as the Lakota know so
well, Europeans had lost
their sense of fraternity in
a society dominated by a
secular religion of
bureaucracy, law,
payment and
consumption. A culture of corporatism is the
polar opposite of being ‘kin’. Corporations are
not shaped by fraternal practices of reciprocity,
but by bureaucratic practices of domination.
The organizational culture and language of the
NHS or my bank is not the kingdom of God. It
is not Inter-Being. It is not Trinity. Max Weber,
the father of modern bureaucracy, noted that
all bureaucracy is ‘domination through
knowledge’. This way of domination through
knowledge is also something that has deeply
affected our church culture.
In her article Has the Church of England
Finally Lost its Reason (www.abc.net.au/
religion/articles/2012/11/23/3639111.htm) the
Anglican philosopher and theologian Sarah
Coakley coined the phrase ‘the secular
bureaucratization of the episcopate’. She
draws attention to ‘the danger of the covert
assimilation of worldly or bureaucratic notions
of power and authority into the decisions of the
Church about episcopal standing and
oversight… Along with the notable turn in
priestly life in general to the secular
bureaucratic models of "leadership",
"efficiency" and "mission-efficacy" has gone an
almost unnoticed capitulation… to the idolatry
of busyness’.
How Then Shall We Live? Practising
Fraternal Spiritual Formation
‘How then shall we live?’ is the abiding
question of spiritual formation. In trying to
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answer it we need to be aware of the forces
that have formed our church and our society.
Are we being formed by a visceral experience
of kinship and Inter-Being with all creation? Or
are our practices formed by church systems of
governance that perpetuate domination through
knowledge? What is our responsibility as
Franciscans, as kin with all creation, in a
society and church enthralled by bureaucracy,
law, payment and consumption? How shall we
Franciscans live? How shall we co-create a
Franciscan way of life and truth in a Trinitarian
spirit of dancing in reciprocity with all creation?
How can the example of St Francis reinvigorate us to live this reconciling way of life
in a pluralistic society marked by striking social
and religious differences?
A way of life shaped by the demands of
business and religious corporations has
uprooted community life. It is estimated that
about a third of the
UK population now
live alone. People
increasingly tend to
spend time with
people with whom
they are the most
similar. They seem
to find it increasingly
hard to engage with
people who are
unfamiliar or
unknown. To move
beyond our comfort
zone requires a sense of support and
belonging. To find support and belonging
means we need to take refuge in a community
of practice that will stimulate us on our fraternal
journey with Brother Francis. The communities
of practice for Franciscans are our local groups.
In a time of bureaucratic destruction of
community life we would be wise to re-engage
with St Francis’ experience of fraternity with all
creation. To do so is to learn to co-create small
communities of fraternal practice in our local
groups. This in fact is the guiding ethos of the
local group: fraternal formation and practice.
Creating Love and Harmony by Practising
Penitence
When we experience fraternity with others we
also immediately realize our need for
penitence. ‘Members of the Third Order fight
against all injustice in the name of Christ, in
whom there can be neither Jew nor Greek,
slave or free, male nor female, for in him all
are one.’ (Principles, Day 8). Practising
penitence can be a way of life that makes
things right with others by giving gifts of
forgiveness, time, attention, food, drink and
possessions. It can be a way of putting right
the wrongs done by others and ourselves that
can bring tangible healing through acts of
personal reconciliation. This is perhaps why
Francis says 'it is in giving that we receive and
in pardoning that we are pardoned.’
Reciprocity and reconciliation are social
practices that foster an increased sense of
sisterhood and
brotherhood.
These practices
also speak to our
perceived lack of
community and
group spiritual
formation that has
been so much the
topic of
conversation
within the Third
Order over the
last few years. To
some extent it
seems there has been an over-reliance on
bureaucratic practices to monitor and drive
spiritual formation. This has perhaps also had
the effect of undermining an essential and
much needed trust. Without trust there is no
formation, as all families know. Without
mutuality, reciprocity and fraternity, there is no
trust.
Kissing Lepers: Giving and Receiving the
Gifts of Peace
A recovery of penitence in its broadest and
socially connected sense, i.e. making things
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right with the neglected, despised and offended
others in society, seems central to following the
example of St Francis today. It also seems essential for our own self renewal and wholeness. It
is to understand our own need for penitence towards others and all creation. We can then begin
to participate in a wider circle of co-creation and
peace-making with God and in partnership with
the rest of society. When Francis embraced and
kissed the leper, the despised outsider, it was an
act of making peace for the wrongs done to the
leper. His action made right the rejection of
society and of St Francis himself. Both Francis
and the leper were transformed, made more
whole and found renewal. This was the tipping
point for a whole new and counter-intuitive way of
life for St Francis and a doorway to ecstatic joy.
Through Francis’ embrace of the leper, a new
kind of fraternal society is being created in which
both diseased outcast and ‘clean’ brothers belong
together.
Developing Practices of Mutuality and
Reciprocity
Franciscans can practise fraternity through penitent actions that repair the damage done to others through our choices or the choices of others.
This can be done face to face. We need not take
a corporate political stance as an Order. Yet following the example of St Francis seems to necessitate growing a culture of personal peacemaking through the practice of penitence. These
can be personal actions that repair physical, social or emotional damage done to other people or
to the environment through the misuse of possessions. In this way we can practise peace-making.
Seeing the need for penitence arises directly from
an experience of the whole of life as fraternal.
Concluding Reflection
‘Egalité, fraternité and liberté… they stood for
the things Buddha and Jesus stood for… and
Buddha and Jesus realised this through small
communities. I think it can only be lived in a
small community, in a non-violent, sharing, caring community… It is a non-violent revolution
against that power structure’. (https://youtube/
sFTYZwcAtMI Brother David Steindl-Rast, at
‘Beyond Religion’, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (2012)
By a wholehearted embrace of fraternity and
turning away from the diffidence created by
procedures and a polite and liberal tolerance
we can learn to say ‘Make me a channel of
your peace…’
Questions
Do our Franciscan spiritual practices
have an unspoken bias towards piety and the
pursuit of personal peace rather than creating
peace together with others through our social
practices?
How do we express penitence towards
others and creatively undermine the culture of
corporatism in church, state and business?
In what ways does Franciscan spiritual
formation create fraternity and social penitence
that leads to restorative peace-making in a pluralistic society?
How do we become channels of peace
together in our pluralistic neighbourhoods,
towns and cities?
Illustrations
Page 2: ‘Reconciliation’ by Josefina de Vasconcellos at Coventry Cathedral by Ben Sutherland
https://www.flickr.com/photos/
bensutherland/5588599088
Page 3: ‘St Francis and the leper’; Amazon.com
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1271771136/
tt0042477
This page: ‘The Love Embrace of the Universe’;
Frida Kahlo
http://www.abcgallery.com/K/kahlo/kahlo60.html
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Work
Love and Harmony:
Justice and Peace?
Jan Benvie, Convenor of the Edinburgh
Local Group, Scotland Area, is a Primary
School teacher with a son and daughter and
two granddaughters, but not an ordinary life.
Prior to my profession in October 2003 I was
active in my local church and involved in secular
peace and justice groups. As part of my
Franciscan journey I sought to weave these
threads more intricately through my life. In 2006 I
‘abandoned’ paid employment and for the next
four years lived in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPT), volunteering as a human rights
observer.
I supported Israelis and Palestinians working for
a just peace. I had the privilege of being watercannoned while linked arm-in-arm with Rabbi Arik
Ascherman, co-founder and president of Rabbis
for Human Rights, while taking part in a
demonstration against the confiscation of
Palestinian land. One of my most memorable
moments was celebrating New Year with
Palestinian, Israeli and international friends in the
Tel Rumeida area of Hebron (Al Khalil), looking
down on the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of
Machpelah, the burial site of Abraham and
Sarah.
There are many groups where perceived
enemies come together: Combatants for Peace
(former Israeli and Palestinian combatants), The
Villages Group (a joint Palestinian-Israeli
partnership supporting development in
Palestinian villages in the OPT), Ta’ayush
(Israelis and Palestinians striving together to
end the Israeli occupation) to name but a few.
Part of my work was (and continues to be)
writing and speaking about the wonderful
Israeli and Palestinian people who work
together. In challenging common
misconceptions, I believe I am helping to
‘spread the spirit of love and harmony.’
However, when communities have been in
conflict for a long time, mistrust, often based
on ‘ignorance, pride and prejudice’, creates
barriers. An outsider can play an important
role in helping to break down these barriers.
The average age of Israeli soldiers in the OPT
is around 19.5 years. They are raised in a
society that generally sees ‘Arabs’ as
enemies. I spoke with many Israeli soldiers
while monitoring military checkpoints; they are
young, bored and/or frightened with power and
weapons: a dangerous combination. They
were often glad to talk with a grey haired
Scottish woman who possibly reminded them
of their mother or grandmother. I hoped I also
reminded them of their own humanity and
helped them to see the humanity of the
occupied population over which they had such
power.
I witnessed soldiers harassing elderly or sick
people, physically or verbally abusing young
children or trying to drive a shepherd from
his grazing land. Seeing the soldiers as
‘belonging to God’, allowed me to engage
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with them, to challenge the injustice, but in an
open and loving way. The Palestinian
community told us that our presence reduced
the tensions, and many soldiers who later gave
testimony through the organisation Breaking
the Silence, said that having someone calmly
challenge their unjust acts made them stop and
consider what they were doing.
At times there were dangerous moments, like
documenting anti-occupation demonstrations
while bullets, tear gas and stones flew through
the air. I have run down rocky hillsides with
Palestinian shepherds, chased by rock and
stick wielding masked Israeli settlers. I have
been threatened by armed Israeli soldiers who
did not want me to document what they were
doing. I have accompanied school children,
farmers and shepherds in areas where both
Palestinian and international people were
attacked by settlers. Yet, throughout I felt held
by God, not in a sense that I was shielded from
harm, but the sense that whatever happened to
me was God’s will. ‘Even though I walk through
the darkest valley I fear no evil; for you are with
me; your rod and your staff - they comfort
me.’ (Psalm 23, 4). Or, as Paul told the church
at Corinth, ‘God is faithful, and he will not let
you be tested beyond your strength.’ (1
Corinthians 10, 13)
Photos by Jan Benvie
Page 5: Jan videotaping
This page: Um al Kher demolished house with
Israeli settlement behind
Jan with Palestinian shepherd
It is hard to live in the midst of oppression and
injustice and not get angry. I recall watching
helplessly as a nine-year old boy, grazing his
family’s sheep, was thrown into the back of an
Israeli army jeep, driven around for a few hours
then dumped, terrified, at the side of the road; I
remember a friend’s sister, on her way home
from hospital in an ambulance, being held for
hours at a checkpoint; I still see families sitting
amid the rubble of their demolished homes,
surrounded by the few meagre belongings they
were able to rescue. At moments like these, how
do we ‘reflect that openness to all which was
characteristic of Jesus’?
I find it helpful to think about the times when
Jesus got angry. Whether at his disciples, ‘You
faithless and perverse generation, how much
longer must I be with you?’ (Matthew 17, 17); at
the scribes and Pharisees, ‘woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites!… You snakes, you
brood of vipers!’ (Matthew 23); or in the temple,
‘Then Jesus… overturned the tables of the
money changers and the seats of those who
sold doves.’ (Matthew 21, 12)
I believe it is OK to be angry in the face of
injustice, but it is wrong to nurture that anger.
‘Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go
down on your anger.’ (Ephesians 4, 26-27)
Jesus modelled an anger that was controlled.
Fellow Tertiary Desmond Tutu also modelled a
controlled anger as he fought the injustices of
Apartheid in South Africa, ‘There are things that
must evoke our anger to show we care. It is
what we do with that anger. If we direct that
anger we can use it positively or
destructively.’ [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/
Anger]
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I have been home now for five years. I
returned to teaching part time and continue
to work for peace and justice through
membership of the Global Partnership
Committee of the Scottish Episcopal
Church and involvement in my local
Christian Aid group. I still write and give
talks about the situation in Palestine/Israel
and when finances allow, I donate to
grassroots groups that involve Israeli and
Palestinian people working together.
It is for each of us to discern God’s plan for
us. ‘To each is given the manifestation of
the Spirit for the common good.’
(1Corinthians 12, 7).
I have more questions than answers in
terms of understanding, let alone achieving
our second Aim, but in closing offer the
words of Rabbi Arik Ascherman: ‘Faith is
the belief that the arc of history is
ultimately moving towards God’s dream for
the world. … we are a part of God’s
tapestry, “You are not obligated to
complete the task, but neither are you free
to desist from doing your part”.’ (Pirkei
Avot [Sayings of the Fathers, 2.21; 1945,
Behrman House]). [http://rhr.org.il/
eng/2014. 23 September 2014]
Francis: From
Troubadour to Activist
Rob Axford is a member of the Gloucester
South Local Group in the Severn Area and vicar
of The Tyndale Benefice in Gloucestershire.
In 2014 I was privileged to have a three-months
sabbatical, which I used to reconnect with my
Franciscan roots and in particular to try to see
what difference it makes to be living under a
Rule of Life, and how the Principles touch our
lives as an Order. Thinking of the changes in the
life of Francis, I took as my title ‘Francis: from
troubadour to activist’ and I was keen to look in
particular at Day 9 of the Principles ‘As
Tertiaries we are prepared not only to speak out
for social justice and international peace, but to
put these principles into practice in our own
lives, cheerfully facing any scorn or persecution
to which this may lead’.’ During the three months
I visited a number of Local Groups to see how
Tertiaries put this Principle into practice and was
amazed at the variety of ways in which we
express our Franciscan calling.
Questions
Is it possible to ‘spread the spirit of
love and harmony’ but at the same time
‘fight against all injustice’? What if creating
harmony for one creates discord for
another?
How do we challenge
unacknowledged ‘ignorance, pride and
prejudice’?
Is anger ever righteous? How do we
react to angry voices of the oppressed?
What can we do within our own
local groups/communities to fight injustice?
I asked a number of focussed questions:
How do you work for social justice and/or
international peace?
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Do you do this on your own or as part
of the church community and if yes, which
community?
Do you do this explicitly as a Christian?
What is it that encourages you to do
this, to be a Franciscan Tertiary?
How do you think your action helps to
‘make our Lord known and loved’?
For Francis the call to rebuild the
church led to social action and political action;
is there any sense in which your social/
political action leads to the rebuilding of the
church today and, if so, how?
The answers to the first question were really
interesting and ranged from being part of the
International Accompaniment Programme in
Palestine through postcard and email
campaigns, protest marches and working with
disadvantaged young people to food banks,
Street Pastors, a very wide ranging prayer
ministry, and much more.
Some of these actions were as part of a
church group (food bank and Street Pastors),
but much was being done at an individual
level with very little interest shown by the local
church community. Tertiaries who shared their
stories found it to be a liberating experience
and an indication to me that as an Order we
need to find ways of listening to one another
and to have a sense of responsibility to and
for each other.
Many people acknowledged their reticence to
openly admitting that it was their Christian
faith that led them to act, but those who did
soon discovered that most people are
interested and that the acts of service, in
whatever way, lead to good and fruitful
conversations. Many newly professed
Tertiaries spoke of wearing their profession
crosses at all times and that this is a great
introduction and way into conversation about
faith and the Third Order.
There was a surprising lack of response to the
question why Tertiaries are Tertiaries and why
they acted for justice. It seems that there is still a
feeling within parts of the Order that being a
Franciscan Tertiary is about personal piety and
about an individual path of spirituality. This
misses the thrust of the Principles and our three
Aims ‘To make our Lord known and loved
everywhere’, ‘To spread the spirit of love and
harmony’, ‘To live simply’. Francis clearly spent
much time in prayer at La Verna, the Hermitage
and other places, but his prayer always led to
action. We need both prayer and action, we pray
and work for the coming of the Kingdom of God.
There were many responses showing that
explicit action is welcomed and those whose
action was not so explicit believed that the love
of Christ shone through anyway. It was notable
how very few Tertiaries saw their action as in
any way helping to build or rebuild the church; it
seemed that church life and action were
somehow divorced from each other. I think we
need to reclaim the fact that our action for peace
and social justice alongside our worship and life
can and does have an effect on the life of the
church, in the rebuilding of the church.
One of the conclusions I drew from the
sabbatical was the importance of being open
about our calling to follow Christ in the way of
Francis and to support each other in all that we
do to spread the spirit of love and harmony. This
is not a call to share our faith stories yet again,
but to have mutual accountability for how we live
according to the Principles and our personal rule
of life; how the Aims of the Order are worked out
in our lives.
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I was left with three further questions:
Why do so many people still find
Francis attractive? Some people visit Assisi
and walk the roads of Francis; others walk to
a calling as members of SSF.
How do we respond to that word of
Christ that is still valid for all Franciscans
today: ‘Franciscans, go and rebuild my
house, my church, which, as you see, is
falling down’?
What difference does being a
Franciscan make in your life?
Study
The Many and the One
John McLuckie belongs to the Edinburgh Local
Group and his 'day job' is Vice-Provost of St
Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh.
We are fellow-helpers with God,
Co-creators in everything we do.
When Word and work are returned
to their source and origin
Then all work is accomplished
divinely in God.
And there too
The soul loses itself
In a wonderful enchantment.
Matthew Fox Meditations with Meister Eckhart
1983, Bear & Co, Santa Fe, NM., p.116.
Illustration
P. 8: http://artofmob.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/howto-pose-people-in-groups.html
As we consider our Franciscan calling to spread
harmony and to work for the unity of all people, I
find myself wondering about the origins of our
disharmony and disunity. What is it that makes
us want to separate people and things, to box
them up?
One of the glories of western culture and
philosophical inquiry has been the ability to
enumerate the wonders of the world. We have a
great delight in listing, categorising, and enjoying
the sheer multiplicity of things. We are fascinated
when a hitherto unknown species of animal is
discovered and take immense pleasure in the
variety of life that we see around us. Yet it may
be that this tendency has also been a problem
for us. In refining our ability to classify these
various objects, we have got very good at
spotting differences. This is not like that and
therefore I can call it something else. This ability
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to discriminate has been one of the drivers of
scientific discovery and progress. The better
we get at specifying things to a particular
category, the better we get at observing
minute variations and the more subtle we get
at the business of precise observation that
underpins this whole process, the more we
shape our minds into discriminating tools.
While this is useful in certain kinds of
scientific exploration, it can cause us all kinds
of problems in other areas of life. It is this
same way of thinking that, taken to extremes
and applied to ‘categories’ of people, can
lead to eugenics or apartheid.
By contrast, the dominant ways of thinking in
many east Asian religions and philosophies,
such as Hinduism and Buddhism, emphasise
nondualism. This way of seeing the world
emphasises unity over differentiation and
seeks to develop an outlook on the world that
is not discriminating. In this way of seeing,
things do not have solid, fixed identities, but
exist in becoming and being in
interrelationship with other things. The Irish
Jesuit and spiritual teacher, William
Johnston, wrote extensively about this
difference in emphasis. He lived almost all of
his adult life in Japan and was greatly
influenced by the practices and insights of
Zen Buddhists. In dialogue with them, he
explored how the Buddhist insight of
emptiness as an expression of the unity of all
things is related to the Christian ideas of
communion founded on the self-emptying
God who, in Christ, humbles himself for us.
His last major work of spiritual theology,
Arise, My Love… (Orbis Books, 2000) is an
excellent overview of this sharing of insights
and I would strongly recommend it.
Johnston’s main influence in the Christian
spiritual tradition was St John of the Cross,
but for us Franciscans, there is another
towering figure who explores this enormous
question of how the many and the one,
variety and unity relate. Bonaventure’s major
work of mystical theology, The Soul’s Ascent
to God (see the version in the volume on
Bonaventure in The Classics of Western
Spirituality series, Paulist Press, 1978) deals
directly with this. The work is a classic account
of the steps through which the ‘mind’ or ‘soul’
ascends, beginning with the tangible things of
creation and moving on to invisible realms.
Curiously, he connects six stages of ascent, six
‘levels of illumination’, with Francis’ vision of the
six-winged seraph at Mount La Verna when he
received the stigmata. Although this may seem
an odd device to modern sensibilities, this
connection has the important function of
keeping Bonaventure’s exploration firmly rooted
in a direct mystical experience of the loving
presence of Christ.
The first stage is the recognition of God in his
‘vestiges’ in creation, our natural capacity to
delight in the beauty of the created world. In this
stage, Bonaventure refers to the multiplicity of
things as one of the characteristics of creation in
which we delight. This level of awareness is at
the very beginning of our journey into God. It
could be argued that much western thought has
made this first stage of spiritual knowledge as
the only level of human awareness. Our
knowledge of things at this level is vital for us,
but it is relatively superficial. It is not until we
reach the fifth of Bonaventure’s levels of
illumination that we find an awareness of God at
the level of the unity of all being. Among other
things, he uses the image of light to illustrate
this level of knowledge. Bonaventure contrasts
our awareness of different colours with our
awareness of light itself, the very light by which
we are able to see. So often we focus on the
particularity of individual beings and do not find
ourselves wondering at the mystery of being
itself. We delight in what there is without being
led to a deeper delight in the simple fact that
there is anything at all! Here is one brief
passage that sums this all up rather well:
Our mind, accustomed to the darkness of
beings and the images of the things of
sense, when it glimpses the light of the
supreme Being, seems to itself to see
nothing. It does not realise that this very
darkness is the supreme illumination of
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our mind, just as when the eye sees
pure light, it seems to itself to see
nothing. (Chapter 5, paragraph 4)
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of our quest for a just and whole world. In
Bonaventure, we learn the way of contemplation
that leads us deeper into the truth of all that is; the
truth of unity rather than division, of interdependence rather than self-sufficiency, of loving
communion rather than unbridled competition.
Questions
Where do you recognise God most in your
life?
If you had to explain your faith to someone,
what would you say? Would this be the same as
always?
Illustrations of Bonaventure
Page 9: Claude François (Frère Luc), ca. 1650:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fran%C3%
A7ois,_Claude_(dit_Fr%C3%A8re_Luc)__Saint_Bonaventure.jpg
Above: Rubens, ca. 1620
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Lille_PdBA_rubens_st_bonaventure.jpg
This takes us very close to the Buddhist
contemplation of ‘nothingness’ as a
contemplation of the fullness of all things. At
the deepest level of our awareness, there is
nothing to be seen because we are seeing
by the Light itself. The closer we get to the
deepest levels of awareness, the closer we
get to a realisation of the unity of all things.
This may sound a little abstract until we
return to our theme of harmony and love.
Our insistence on the unity of all creation
and the unity of all people lies at the heart
Therefore , open your eyes,
alert the ears of your spirit, open your lips and
apply your heart
so that in all creatures you may
see, hear, praise, love and worship, glorify and
honor your God
lest the whole world rise against you.
For because of this
the whole world will fight against the foolish.
On the contrary,
It will be a matter of glory for the wise,
wo can say with the Prophet:
You have gladdened me, Lord, by your deeds
and in the works of your hands I will rejoice.
How great are your works, Lord!
You have made all thigs in wisdom;
the earth is filled with your creatures.
Bonaventure The Soul’s Journey Into God in The
Classics of Western Spirituality series, Paulist
Press, 1978, pp 67-8. Italics in the original: line 3:
Proverbs 22, 17t; line 9: Wisdom 5:20; lines 13-17:
Pss 91, 5-6 and 103, 24.
12
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Prayer
Harmony as a
Metaphor in
Spirituality
Michael Clarke is a member of the
Calderdale Local Group. He is a
composer and music academic based at
the University of Huddersfield.
We often use the metaphor of harmony to
convey a positive quality in talking about
spirituality, or indeed more generally in terms
of society. Perhaps as with many metaphors,
we tend to use it rather casually, without
thinking through its full implications. Usually,
by ‘being in harmony’ we mean consonance,
something ‘good’, as opposed to dissonance,
something ‘bad’. The implication is that we
can improve a situation by eradicating all the
dissonance and discord and thus making
things more harmonious. In terms of the
musical origins of this metaphor this is too
simplistic; music does not really work like that.
Perhaps it also implies a too dualistic
approach to spirituality. Might a more careful
consideration of harmony in music enrich our
use of the metaphor in the context of
spirituality?
Is music really improved by making it more
harmonious and more consonant? No, definitely
not; music depends on there being both
consonance and dissonance. If we were to
remove all the dissonances, for example, from a
piece of Mozart, we would destroy the beauty of
the music. This beauty depends on dissonance
and consonance working together. Without the
dissonance the music would be dreadfully boring.
Much of the music we are familiar with in western
culture is strongly teleological, or goal directed,
moving towards a resolution over time. Such
music depends on the creation and release of
tension and that comes to a large extent from
careful control of the flow between discord and
concord.
Harmony is also relative to time and culture. What
might be considered an acceptable level of
dissonance in one era is heard as
outrageous in another. Palestrina would
probably have found much of Bach’s
harmony barbarous. Likewise, aspects of
Beethoven’s harmony would have been
unacceptable in Bach’s time. The rich and
complex harmonies of more recent
composers such as the wonderful, spiritually
inspired, music of composers like Olivier
Messiaen and Jonathan Harvey, would have
been heard as illiterate by earlier
generations. It is not just a matter of a
historical period, but also of a geographical
culture. Other cultures have different tuning
systems (e.g. the scales used in Balinese
gamelan music) and different harmonic structures
to go with them.
What about the often used argument that
Issue 7
September 2015
harmony is a natural phenomenon based on
the harmonic series? While there is perhaps
some truth in this, it is not straightforward,
especially in terms of how this is
implemented in music. For example the
western equal-tempered system of tuning,
introduced around the time of Bach, is a
compromise to allow music to be played in
many different keys without sounding too
much out of tune. The compromise, which
we all accept as a matter of course now and
are accustomed to hearing as ‘natural’, is
that with this system nothing is drastically out
of tune, yet almost everything is out of tune a
bit. Our music is based on a compromise, an
elegant human mathematical calculation
(based on the 12th root of 2) that works in
practice (or perhaps we should say is
accepted in our culture), but is not
entirely ‘natural’.
How then does harmony stand as a
metaphor for the spiritual life?
Returning to the idea of the
temporal progression of music
towards harmonic resolution allows
us to see this as a metaphor for the
eventual victory of good over evil,
or the eventual attainment of rest
and peace. Perhaps even this is
too simple and teleology is again
something that varies between different
musical cultures and eras. The rich
experience one might have from hearing a
piece of music is not simply about the final
chord, rather it incorporates the path that the
music takes towards that chord. It is not
about rejecting all that has gone before, but
rather about integrating everything into a
fuller whole. Harmony in this sense is not
about a single consonant chord at the end of
the work, but about all the different
contrasting aspects of the music coming
together and working as a whole. The
dissonance is not cast out, but embraced.
Perhaps this is where the metaphor of
harmony is at its richest. In his book I Call
You Friends (2001, Continuum, p. 108)
Timothy Radcliffe quotes St Augustine’s
13
words ‘Dissonance can be redeemed without being
obliterated’. He goes on to add: ‘The story of
redemption is like a great symphony which
embraces all our errors, our bum notes, and in
which beauty finally triumphs. The victory is not
that God wipes out our wrong notes, or pretends
that they never happened, but that He finds a place
for them in the musical score that redeems them.’
Perhaps this is what the metaphor of harmony can
offer our spiritual life? In its broader sense,
incorporating both consonance and dissonance, it
can provide a model of integration and nondualism. It can also remind us that sometimes
things we may take for ‘natural’ are in fact cultural
artifacts, related to our own time and place and that
other alternatives are perhaps also possible. Music
from different ages and places offers us an
extraordinarily rich variety of experience and in
music’s harmony we can get a glimpse of how
God’s love embraces and redeems even the ‘bum
notes’.
Question
Harmony, integration, differences and
alternatives: how do these ‘play out’ in your life?
Illustrations
Angels by Celia Kilner, used with permission.
The angels are part of a travelling exhibition and are
based on existing illustrations. They have been
exhibited in churches around Britain.
Group: put together by someone (unknown) of Celia’s
paintings
White angel: ‘The Calling to Heaven of the Elect’ (after
Luca Signorelli)
Orange angel: ‘St Cecilia’ (after J.W. Waterhouse).
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Trinity as Art
Anne-Marie Organ is a member of the
London South Area, which makes regular
trips to art galleries to explore faith and art.
Her son, aged 12, has autism and was
taught about the Trinity in his first
communion preparation when aged seven.
His clear faith, combined with his struggles
with communication, have led Anne-Marie
to explore belief in ways that are less
dogmatic and more experiential.
Most of the time when people talk about the
Trinity they try to explain it. Often they will use
examples from science: the Holy Spirit as a
force we cannot see but whose effects we
can feel (physics), or the fact that the three
properties of water, ice and steam are all H2O
(chemistry), or the three-leaved shamrock
(biology). As nice as those explanations are,
they do not really help me in my Christian
journey.
Bishop John Shelby Spong was asked to
describe the Trinity in today’s language
(Online newsletter of 21 May 2015). He said:
‘We discover that what we are trying to do is
to find words that will make sense of that
human ability to discover the “Beyond in our
midst.” What we call God is beyond every
category that the mind can develop. God
is the ultimate reality that the human mind
can embrace and it never does so except
partially.’ What if we are not supposed to
explain the Trinity in a scientific or
dogmatic way and instead look to the Arts
to guide us in our experiences of God?
For me, the Trinity is beautiful. When we
encounter beauty we should contemplate
it; it should make us stop in our tracks, we
should experience it, let it change us, and
celebrate it and tell others about it so they can
see it for themselves.
Nature is the original Art. In it we see the
harmony that inspires every artistic endeavour.
Nature gives us the measure for the harmony
that we experience as Trinity. Lydford Gorge in
Devon (see photo below) takes my breath away
and roots me to the spot. I stop, my breathing
slows and my surroundings change me. I
become part of it and am challenged by it. What
makes this place so beautiful for me is the
interplay between the water, the woodland and
the sunlight that creates the whole. It immerses
me in the Trinity of our creator, discovered as
‘the beyond in our midst’, giving meaning and
making me aware of my humanity and my
responsibility to all creation. It is the combination
of these particular things, which all look slightly
different depending on which part of the gorge I
am standing in, which make me thankful to God,
grateful for God’s variety and challenges, and
which allow me to lose myself and also to find
myself and think bigger. Richard Rohr writes
‘when we see things in a unitive way, in
conscious union with the eyes of God, what we
see is qualitatively different. Basically, it is no
longer self-referential but very expansive seeing,
and this changes everything’ (Daily meditation
for 22.06.15, adapted from Eager to Love: The
Alternative Way of St. Francis of Assisi;
Franciscan Media 2014). We are challenged to
see bigger and wider than what is visible and
tangible. Nature is Art in its widest dimension.
Issue 7
September 2015
How then do we contemplate the Trinity?
At the beginning of the Bible God said,
‘Let us make humankind in our image’
(Genesis 1:26; note the plural for God). A
Trinitarian God also creates diversity. It is
in our diversity that we are made in God’s
image. We see the Trinity when we see
the variety not only of the human race, but
of all creation and all interpretations of
God. Our many languages are like poetry
because only poetry can essentially
express what God is. I have been in
services where the Lord’s Prayer has
been prayed simultaneously in many
languages, including sign language.
Together these mellifluous voices were far
more expressive than my usual English
and my immediate understanding.
Together, this diversity was beautiful, was
Art, was Father, Son and Spirit.
We believe that Trinity is also unity and
therefore harmony. The Second Aim of
our TSSF Principles is ‘to spread the spirit
of love and harmony’ (Days 7-9) as a
practical imperative. Art, contemplation,
delight and sheer joy give us an
experience of that love and harmony from
a different angle. At the end of the
creation story (Genesis 1:31) God looked
at what had been achieved and ‘it was
very good’. The plurality of the creation
was for the good of all and everything, and
for human beings to continue this, love
and harmony are essential.
We come in different colours, shapes and
sizes. Much of modern culture seems to
tell us some sizes are OK and others are
not. Sadly, much current and past culture
has said the same of colour, sexuality and
disability. Yet how many paintings are
beautiful because of the colours? How
many sculptures and buildings are
beautiful because of their varied forms?
15
When we look at Monet’s sunset (above), we can
think of the red, yellow and blue as being three
colours on one canvas, but there are many
different shades necessary to create the beauty
as a whole. In contemplating this painting we can
see our small selves as but one pigment, coming
to life in the interaction and contrast with the other
colours. To bring the painting to life, we can lose
ourselves in the interplay of the colours, giving
meaning to one small picture, reminding us of
God’s huge creative canvas.
In the vast audacious space of Durham Cathedral
(below), we see the combined work of many
artisans creating something breath-taking and
worshipful. How many people who worked on it
would not have seen it completed in their own
lifetimes and yet still put their all into the
endeavour, much like our work for Christ’s
Kingdom? Each pair of pillars has its own pattern,
each stained glass window is different from those
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September 2015
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around it and how the interplay of light and
coloured glass affects the look and feel of the
stone around us speaks to us of God, of
fullness, of Trinity. The combination of
different things makes the whole, but also
each part.
When our contemplation and experience of art
enables us to value diversity and unity, and
we recognise that our very differences are
sanctified, that is life changing. God, ‘the
fullness of him that fills all in all’ (Ephesians
1:23) is love, and If contemplation of the
Trinity through Art enables us to see the true
value of every created thing, and especially
human beings, is this not something to
celebrate? What better way, then, than to
communicate love and harmony through a
Trinitarian experience through the Arts? If
something is truly beautiful, words can help us
to understand it, but can never truly do it
justice nor adequately explain it, but art and
contemplation can.
Questions
Which places, natural or created, take
your breath away? What can you learn of our
Triune God through them?
Which paintings, photographs or
sculptures make you contemplate love and
harmony? What is it about them that evokes
this response in you?
As a Local Group or Area, could you
visit an art gallery or beautiful space together
to contemplate ‘The Trinity as Art’?
Illustrations
P. 14: Photo by Lee Searle, http://
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lydford-gorge
P. 15 top: Monet, Sunset in Venice
Illustration above: https://www.google.co.uk/
search?hotos+of+dandelions
Issue 7
September 2015
Around the Province
17
Four Life Professions
Gordon Plumb from the North Lincolnshire
Group writes:
Wessex Marches to
Salisbury
Anne Bennett-Shaw and Wessex Tertiaries
marched for Magna Carta.
Along with 700 other pilgrims, several
Wessex Tertiaries and Brothers from Hilfield
– our banner flying high – joined the
pilgrimage from Sarum Old Castle to
Salisbury Cathedral to celebrate the signing
of Magna Carta 800 years ago. With Francis’
concern for equality and justice among
people, we felt very Franciscan, assisting
each other along this pilgrim way. Many of us
are elderly and infirm, but like Francis, we
helped and supported our brothers and
sisters in Christ to mark this journey,
sometimes praying our Franciscan prayers,
We all know the old joke about London buses:
you wait for ages and then several come along at
once! Saturday 14 March saw the Third Order
Professions equivalent of that for the Lincoln Area. At the Area Meeting at St Luke and St Martin,
Birchwood, Lincoln, the Area Minister, George
Parrott received four life professions from Kate
Rolston, Val Fenton, and husband and wife,
Melissa and David Vickers. Joy Davis was also
admitted as a novice. In my time in the Lincoln
Area going back to the mid 1980s I cannot recall
as many as that on the same occasion.
I
Photo by Gordon Plum
From left: Kate Rolston, Val Fenton, George
Parrott (Area Minister), Joy Davis, Melissa Vickers
and David Vickers
and also sharing news with other friends,
exemplifying our Aim of love and harmony at
the personal and wider social level.
Photo by Frank Willett
18
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In Response to
‘Making Christ Known
in a Multi-Faith
Context’
In response to Chris Blackwell’s article in
the last issue of Little Portion (LP6), Liz
Williams from the Ryedale Local Group in
the Yorkshire North and East Area, writes:
At our meeting on 16 April we welcomed as
our guest Abid Salik, the Imam of the York
Mosque. In his article, Chris reminded us
that St Francis had approached two sultans
with the intention of making Christ known to
them but then decided that he had
discovered the Spirit of God to be alive and
at work within Muslim people. He went on
to forbid his brothers in the Holy Land to
take part in hostile preaching and instead
promoted multi-faith dialogue and making
Christ known through praying together with
Muslim people and through joint social
service. Imam Salik began by sharing his
personal testimony, which had started in
Pakistan and at age 27 had brought him to
York via Hull. He shared some of the
common ground between our two faiths.
York Mosque, we were told, is active in the
York Council of Churches, in Chaplaincy in
the hospital and prison and is very
integrated into the community, having a
collection point for the York food banks.
Imam Salik considered the key word to be
dialogue. We very much enjoyed our
dialogue with him and I think the feeling
was genuinely mutual. At the close of our
meeting we shared in one of the Imam's
evening prayers.
Photo by Liz Williams (by mobile phone, a little
blurred). From left: Tony Lindsay, Bill Page, Abid
Salik, Pauline Percy, Pam Lindsay
The Hebrew Bible in one verse
commands, “You shall love your
neighbor as yourself”, but in no fewer
than 36 places commands us to “love
the stranger”.’ (p.58)
‘Can we find, in the human “thou”, a
fragment of the Divine “Thou”? Can we
recognize God’s image in one who is
not in my image?’ (p.17)
‘What morality restores to an
increasingly uncertain world is the idea
of responsibility—that what we do,
severally and collectively, makes a
difference, and that the future lies in
our hands.’ (p. 84)
Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference. How to
avoid the clash of civilizations. 2003. Continuum.
Issue 7
September 2015
One Creation: The
Climate of Hope,
Francis and the
Gospel
19
Francis and the Wolf: peace-making
One Creation: Ecology and communion
New Monasticism
Ageing and Wisdom
Voice and Music
On the Edge.
Tim Higgins, Link Tertiary for the Wales,
Severn, West Midlands and The Marches
Cluster describes a Cluster meeting on
4 July at Tewkesbury School.
David Walker TSSF, Bishop of Manchester,
joined our hearts and minds as he illustrated
the power we are given as individual
Franciscans. For example, by sitting in
solidarity with a person hit by poverty at a
meeting with the Benefit Officer. It should
not make a difference what the person’s
circumstances are; it means that a personal
injustice is highlighted and challenged. In
our call to a distinctive Franciscan charism,
radical expressions make the flesh and
blood of incarnation real. A small, single
action connects with the Greater Work.
These highlights of radical immersion
caught ‘fire’ when in the afternoon, the six
‘Experience Theme’ groups gathered. Story,
prayer, silence and skills were revealed and
facilitated:
In moments of deep silence at the Eucharist
closing the Day, Tertiaries responded with
written prayers to express their longings:
To step out of my comfort zone, to put my
hand in the hand of the Lord who I know will give
me courage to work with [people] on the
margins.
… That we will be a voice in society that
can be heard representing care of creation in
practical ways and speaking up for marginalized
[people].
As we left Tewkesbury School a diversity of the
Spirit also dispersed a Cluster of more than 130
experiences. The ‘incomplete’ reality of our
TSSF community disturbed us; the risks of
openness that made the day gave glimpses of
the radical relationships that flow when we know
our place in God’s creation: they are humility,
love and joy.
Photo by Penelope Bridstrup
Among the participants in this
group were
Peter Vaughan
Daphne Barham
Hilary Ibbotson
Richenda Milton-Daws
Jack Widdowson
Chris Brown
Cecile Joseph
Iris Trask
20
September 2015
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Francistide 2014 in
Northants
David Faulks, then Formation Guardian for
Northampton Area, describes a great Area
day:
We planned a very special occasion at St
Peter and St Andrew’s Church in Corby for
the feast day of St Francis. The invitation
said ‘The day will be good fun, experiential
and will ask you to participate in several joint
exercises which will have an overall theme
of building us up together, with a special
focus on the San Damiano cross that spoke
to Francis at the beginning of his
conversion.’
The first task was to build the wall of a ‘San
Damiano Church’ with the cardboard boxes
that everyone had been asked to bring. The
second exercise was to re-assemble the
San Damiano cross piece by piece from the
‘jigsaw’ of pieces that everyone had
received earlier. Tertiaries unable to be
present on the day were still able to add to
the cross by proxy, as fellow Tertiaries
placed their jigsaw piece into the image.
The third exercise saw each of us taking on
the role of Mother; Friar or Brother/Sister
Franciscans to look at our own Rule of Life
and talk over in pairs what we had done or
could do to fulfil it better. Both then drew up
or amended their Rule of Life.
This was followed by the Eucharist and
Renewal of our Pledge, and to conclude the
day we had a full explanation of the San
Damiano cross and a mediation on St
John’s Gospel as it unfolds the vision of St
Francis to the words ‘Go and rebuild my
church, for you can see it is falling into ruin’
and closed with reflections and a renewal of
our visions as Franciscans.
Write to editor@tssf.org.uk about your
Local Group or Area with
something you are passionate about,
something that is energizing,
something you are excited about,
something encouraging,
something you experienced.
Send the details of a book you enjoyed
reading or thought might help other
Tertiaries in their study on the Franciscan
life.
Play your part in building up the
community of TSSF. Don’t be shy; share,
contribute, enjoy, give, take, be part.
Issue 7
September 2015
First Irish TSSF
Retreat
Shelagh Norton, Area Secretary for Ireland,
writes:
For the Irish Franciscan retreat in Larne,
Northern Ireland, nineteen of us were
warmly welcomed at Drumalis, and
appreciated the comfort and friendliness of
the place and staff. Rev
Grace Clunie, the retreat
conductor, came from
Armagh, where she is
Director of the Centre for
Celtic Spirituality.
Thirteen of us there were
Tertiaries, nine from Ireland,
and four from Scotland,
including Jenny
Cheesbrough, the Area
Minister for Scotland and
Carol Robertson, Link
Tertiary for Ireland and
Scotland. We also
welcomed five people who
are not Franciscans, but
who had heard about the
retreat from Grace or the Church of Ireland
Gazette. There was a strong sense of
community felt by all, reminding me of the
phrase ‘They’ll know we are Christians by
our love’. The theme was ‘Brother Sun and
Sister Moon, a Spirituality of Presence’. In
four sessions, Grace considered Earth
Presence: finding God in creation; People
presence: seeing God in other people; Heart
Presence: finding God in ourselves; and
Practicing Presence: different ways of
experiencing God’s presence in daily living.
My horizons were extended and deepened
by these talks, with comfort – but also
21
but also challenges—in them.
The space and silence of the retreat were most
valuable, and we were able to stand
back from our busy lives and rest and be with
God. The worship, morning and evening, with a
closing Eucharist, bound us together and created
a loving community for the three days we were
together. We valued this experience of
community.
Photo by Shelagh Norton
From left:
Sylvia Elliott, Judith West, Carol Robertson,
Gordon Freeman*, Jenny Cheesbrough,
Sheila Freeman*, Shelagh Norton, Margaret Wilkinson,
Grace Clunie, Freda Keys, Hilary Ardis, Ted Ardis, Iris
Boyd*, Charlie Watson, Jeni McAughrey, Jason
Melia-O'Brien, Nora Jones*
* Not TSSF
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Spirituality and
Prayer Retreat at
Freeland, April 2015
As we introduced ourselves to each other we
also learned more about the Canticle that we
were to illustrate with photographs. Andrew
asked us quietly and personally to reflect on
some specific aspects and circumstances of our
lives and how we had reacted to them. Finally he
asked, ‘Where would you like to be now?’
Stevie Green from the Oxford Area,
describes a retreat at Freeland with an
unusual result.
We were introduced to a new musical version of
the Canticle of Brother Sun, courtesy of Hugh
Beach. Andrew’s own photographic/musical
pilgrimages led us to our task of gathering the
inspirational pictures to illustrate it.
Then the hard work of harvesting our pictures,
sorting and selecting them. We provided Andrew
with our inspirations – there must have been
hundreds – who then with mysterious IT mastery
sorted, filed and selected to illustrate the
Canticles’ various parts. We shared with him
where we felt they may best fit but with only four
seconds per picture there was plenty of stuff to
sift through.
Following Evening Prayer and supper we viewed
what we had captured. By way of continuing our
journeying theme, Lesley Anne then shared the
Journeying was a major theme in this
retreat at Freeland in April this year.
Not only had retreatants travelled the
length and breadth of England to
gather there ‘To find God in
Everything’, our leaders Lesley Anne
Di Marco and Andrew Baker used
their own personal experiences to
encourage each of us to see the
everyday world around us as God’s
mirror and contemplate how our own
experiences have been God
directed.
For me personally a retreat was long
overdue! Having been an Area
Minister until last Francistide, and
during those three years faced and
dealt with some large personal
challenges, I was certainly ready for
one.
Issue 7
September 2015
story of her walking the Camino de
Santiago de Compostella in Spain. There
were many moving and very Franciscan
cameos in this pilgrimage inspired by the
very personal nature of her call to make it.
We were all inspired and humbled by this
Franciscan journey, beautifully illustrated in
words as well as pictures. If anybody
requires some inspiration for an Area day
you could do a lot worse than to ask her to
share this with you.
Despite not gaining the silence and solitude that I
may have anticipated, this weekend was full,
rewarding and enjoyable. I was invigorated and
privileged to share so much of my own and
others’ journeys in the process. There were many
journeys, of both joy and pain, but somehow the
sweet God of Francis always keeping our feet
moving… in the main forward!
The Canticle video is available on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=vQQXo7ybIuY
The path is beautiful and pleasant and
familiar
Matthew Fox Meditations with Meister Eckhart 1983,
Bear & Co, Santa Fe, NM., p.131.
There was an air of expectancy when we
were to have the illustrated Canticle to
view. Our pictures managed to span the
breadth of creation. Several of us were
inspired to take this activity back to our
Areas for inspiration for similar use. Andrew
talked about Bunyan and shared some
photographic journeys tracing his heritage.
Andrew showed us his Border Symphony
made around the beautiful Wye valley and
we finished by looking and listening to the
Canticle again.
23
Illustrations
P. 22 left: photo by Stevie Green
P. 22 right: https://oscfreeland.wordpress.com/
This page left: photo by Lesley Anne Di Marco
Below: https://oscfreeland.wordpress.com/
24
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St Andrew's church,
Mickfield, Suffolk
Brother Galfrid of
King’s Lynn
Mark Wright, from the Cambridge Area,
imitated St Francis in rebuilding his local
church
Michael Steedman Taylor, of the Cambridge
Area, went in search of something unknown and
found his Patron Saint.
St. Andrew’s, Mickfield, in Suffolk is one of
many neighbouring churches, often Grade 1
listed, originating from the12th-14th
centuries. The church was declared
redundant in the mid-1970s and then
abandoned. Vandalism led the local
authority to make the building secure and
weatherproof. It then passed to the
Architectural Heritage Trust which, with
English Heritage support, restored the
historic shell in 2004. I started the Anglia
Church Trust, which acquired the building,
refurbished it and restored it for Christian
use, with modern amenities.
I am standing in front of the site of the original
altar in what is left of Greyfriars convent, Kings
Lynn. Behind me stands what is locally known as
‘the leaning tower of Norfolk’, a magnificent 90feet jumble of stones and bricks that make up the
best preserved Franciscan bell or lantern tower in
Britain, kept both as a beacon for ships and a
lookout post for townspeople waiting for ships to
arrive.
The aim was to show that this type of
spiritual centre could continue its historic
role with self-help and is therefore open with
daily Morning and Evening Prayer, sung on
Sundays. A link was established with the
Third Order while I was Area Secretary, and
St Francis continues to look down from a
niche. The nave has been restored as a
community centre and events are held there
from time to time. A team of volunteers
maintain the liturgy and the fabric. We hope
that we can show other struggling parishes
how churches can maintain their traditional
role on a self-help basis. Contact Mark,
Chairman of ACT, on 01553 617689 or
email: markwright.act@gmail.com
My journey to Greyfriars started when I entered
the Amnesty bookshop in Cambridge and pulled
out a small book that somehow revealed itself to
be the answer to a modest prayer. The book was
The Franciscans in England 1224-1538 by
Edward Hutton, published in 1926. As I leafed
through its pages I came upon a reference to the
Issue 7
September 2015
25
friary founded in 1230. There was little about
the building itself but what drew my attention
was a reference to ‘Friar Thomas [who]
speaks of it as remarkable in possessing a
man of extraordinary sanctity, Brother
Galfrid of Salisbury, who because of the
austerity of his life was said to be a second
Francis and because of his sweetness and
simplicity was called a second Anthony...’
We know the names of so few of our original
brothers, and as the description continued, it
made Galfrid seem very real, someone I
could talk to.
gallery is run by artists for artists, and would I like
to join? It did not take long to decide. At home
that night, Linda pointed out that there still might
be a few places left in an art retreat that John
Wiltshire was proposing at Freeland in just a few
weeks’ time. I emailed immediately.
I am an artist who for a while made a small
living painting scenes of Cambridge, but
now felt it was time to find a new direction; I
wanted to free myself. In early spring of
2014 my wife Linda and I set out for Kings
Lynn. The foundations of the Friary have
been carefully set out in what is now a
public garden. ‘Brother Galfrid’, I asked, ‘I
need your advice, where should I go from
here?’ I turned to go and noticed that just
across the road from where I stood, was a
small art gallery, called Greyfriars. This
My inspiration there came from a vision of Galfrid
both looking through and yet at the same time
being reflected in stained glass, broken yet
reassembled, a jumbled resurrection. The retreat
was a wonderful and very meaningful event. The
painting, which was completed in just a few hours
in the Sisters’ lovely gardens, was later offered to
Greyfriars art gallery, and along with another was
accepted as part of their annual summer
exhibition. It was carefully positioned so that as
you viewed the painting of Galfrid, you could
hardly miss the form of Greyfriars tower standing
proudly just through the window.
The painting (above) was published in Little Portion 5
(August 2014) on page 6, as a photo by John
Wiltshire, slightly wrongly acknowledged there. Ed.
Photos by Michael Steedman Taylor
26
September 2015
Issue 7
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TSSF Down Under
Making contact with Tertiaries abroad and
meeting them face to face is most enjoyable
and affirming. Shelagh Norton resolved to
get in touch with the New Zealand TSSF
before she and her husband Peter went
there in January.
We met the next group of Tertiaries in
Wellington, in the marvellous museum Te
Papa by the harbour, a new building designed to
resist earthquakes. Peter and I met with six
Tertiaries in a corner of a café and had a lively
exchange of news and ideas over lunch. Carol
Hunter had gathered Alec Brown, Jenny Barns,
Susan Davey (novice), Martha Parker, the Area
Chaplain and Ailsa Cornell, who divides her time
between New Zealand and Canada, and was
planning to move there to be near her family. It
was very good to meet like this.
John Hebenton, Minister for the Pacific
Province, forwarded my email message
to the Local Group chaplains and we had
several replies and did meet two groups
of Tertiaries and visited the Friary in
Hamilton.
We met with the first Tertiaries in
Christchurch, where Pam Barrett
collected us from our hotel and took us to
Shirley Livingstoneʼs home. There we
met Claire Preston, Marion Fairbrass,
and Pam Bosworth, exchanging news
and experiences. It was a happy and
welcoming meeting with a lively,
intelligent and competent group. We heard
about the Chapter meetings, alternately
held in North and South Islands, which
many Tertiaries attend. New Zealanders are
used to travelling long distances.
Afterwards Pam Barrett drove us round
Christchurch to see the devastation wrought
by the earthquakes in 2011 and 2012. Wide
areas are bare of housing and derelict tall
buildings are still standing, but unsafe to
enter and often roofless. We saw the two
cathedrals, both ruins, and the shopping
mall made of shipping containers stacked
two high and painted in bright colours. Pam
told us of her house, which withstood the
shocks, but the gas, sewage and water
pipes underground were shattered, and all
the people in her street used portable
washing and cooking facilities provided by
the council for three months or more.
On our way to Auckland and the end of our New
Zealand tour, we called at the Friary of the Divine
Compassion in Hamilton, which is situated in Te
Ara village with the diocesan and other offices.
The Friary provides an oasis of quiet for people
who work there. We were welcomed warmly by
Phil Dyer, a Tertiary who lives there and helps
Brothers Brian and Damian Kenneth who also
live there. Phil was busy reordering the Friaryʼs
library, but gave us coffee and we shared news
and experiences: a peaceful and enriching end to
our meetings with TSSF down under.
Te pai me te rangimārie (peace and all good)
Photo by Peter Norton in Wellington.
From left: Susan Davey, Jenny Barns, Ailsa Cornell,
Shelagh Norton, Carole Hunter, Alec Brown, Martha
Parker
Issue 7
September 2015
Chris Jenkins: New
Provincial
Communications
Coordinator
27
undertaken a number of electrical and sound
system projects in St Thomas’ and other
churches, as well as for members of our
congregations.
When I retired I wanted to do something for the
benefit of the local community and so I was
fortunate to become gardener/handyman for a
local care home, and also in a local school where
I also became a governor.
In 1999 I was in a position to spend a year on the
Island of Iona in western Scotland running the
Iona Community coffee house. It was an
experience that I will never forget and I still have
friends from that time across this country and
beyond.
With the latest in communication
technology...
I have been elected as the new Provincial
Communications Coordinator (although I
was the only person proposed and that at
the third time of asking).
I was born and brought up in Wells in
Somerset, where I still live with my wife
Sheila. Our two children are married and my
daughter Helen has two children of her own.
I spent 35 years with British
Telecommunications (Post Office
Telephones when I joined) straight from
school and took early retirement at 51. The
mortgage was paid, children had left home
and BT was offering a good leaving package
to downsize the company.
I became a Lay Reader in the Diocese of
Bath and Wells in 1985 and generally
worship in my parish church of St Thomas.
We are up the hill from the cathedral and so
we like to think that we look down on them!
As I trained as an Electrical Engineer I have
In 2002 we had a new Diocesan Bishop, Peter
Price, and I had a call from his secretary asking if
I would consider being his driver. I accepted, and
this led to my being present at services and
events, large and small, across the Diocese and
beyond, from a Sunday morning service in a
country church that held 30 if we all squeezed in,
to the enthronements of Rowan Williams in
Canterbury and John Sentamu in York.
To have experienced worship in all its forms
across the spectrum of the Church of England has
been wonderful, and to have met many people in
the process, including Bishop Desmond Tutu and
Richard Rohr, has made this not just a job but an
experience not to be set aside lightly.
I was professed as a Tertiary in 1988 and this
sense of being in an Order has undergirded
everything that I do.
In the Somerset Area we used to meet at
Compton Durville until we became too large and
had to split into Local Groups. I have been
Regional Rep (when we had Regions), Area
Chaplain, Area Minister and recently Area
Secretary/Treasurer/Communications.
I was looking forward to being an ‘ordinary’
Tertiary when a number of people suggested I put
my name forward for PCC, so here I am.
28
September 2015
Issue 7
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St Clare’s Day in
Berkshire
Gospel life together:
How are we called to act
on our Aims Today?
Lin Howland from the Berkshire Area shares
the joy of St Clare’s Day
An update from the General Chapter Steering
Group
St Clare's Day is always a day we as
Franciscans like to remember and mark with
a Eucharist service. We remember how Clare
left behind her luxurious life to join Francis,
focusing not on material things, wanting to
devote herself to a more radical living based
on the Gospel, just like Francis.
This year once again the Berkshire Area
joined together to celebrate St Clare's day,
but we were also delighted to welcome
Katherine Mary Plank into the Third Order as
she made her Profession. We were blessed
with having our new Link Tertiary, Peter
Thompson, join us for this celebration.
In the last edition of TON we described
emerging plans for General Chapter, and
announced the theme ‘Gospel life together: how
are we called to act on our Aims today?’ We
promised details in the next Little Portion, and
here they are, though they may not be what you
were expecting. There is a change of plan.
We have re-evaluated plans for a ‘gathering and
convocation’ at Coventry Cathedral in November
2016 which we reported on in TON. Time to
organise it was always going to be tight.
Estimates of costs have been rising, and we had
doubts that the proposed venue would suit our
needs. We were also no longer confident of a
good constructive outcome, bearing in mind the
time constraints. The freedom and responsibility
we share as a Province with funds, as well as
the effort and time of Tertiaries, has now led us
to a different way forward.
It was not an easy decision to pull the plug on
the plan for the events in Coventry in November
2016, but we are confident that it is the right
decision.
Photo by Lin Howland
From left: Peter Thompson, Katherine Mary
Plank, Robert Dimmick (Berkshire Area Minister),
Lin Howlnad
We are committed to building a truly inclusive
General Chapter process that listens to the
aspirations of Tertiaries across the Province for
‘gospel life together’, and which will enable us to
seize the opportunities for renewal, which your
contributions will identify.
As already announced, the process will begin
with consultations in Local Groups over the
coming year. Then a representative General
Issue 7
September 2015
Chapter (a Convocation) will consider the
conclusions of Local Groups and agree ways
forward. We are taking a fresh look at the
form the Convocation might take, and will
update you when we know what is feasible
and affordable.
We will soon be approaching 2021, 800
years since Francis founded the Third Order.
By any measure, 2021 will be a crucial
moment for reflection and rededication. Your
input in 2016 will help to ensure that we mark
it creatively. Six years might seem a long
time off, but as we have discovered, it is no
time at all in the cycle of planning for a major
Provincial initiative, let alone one to mark an
eighth centenary.
Our General Chapter Consultation 2016
In practical terms, here is an updated
sequence of events for 2016. Please take
note of this and get the three meetings
previously requested (or more if you wish!)
into your Local Group’s programme, ideally in
early 2016:
A digest of responses from around the Province
will then be circulated to allow your Local Group
to see what other Local Groups are thinking and
recommending. There will be further opportunity
to comment on conclusions from Local Groups
before the General Chapter Convocation considers the way forward and plans for the 800th
Anniversary in 2021.
You are always welcome to send us your comments, suggestions or offers of help; email
gc@tssf.org.uk or write to GC TSSF, c/o Flat 1,
11 Richmond Road, Exeter EX4 4JA. We are
looking for people who have the skills to help
make the General Chapter process happen.
Finally, please pray for us, as we do at our
meetings for you. Ask God to show us how to
serve you, so that all of us may serve as sisters
and brothers in the gospel of peace.
The General Chapter Steering Group
 The material for discussion by local
groups will be circulated by email by end of
October 2015 and available on the TSSF
website at http://tssf.org.uk/gc. It will also be
reproduced in a printed General Chapter
brochure, which will be circulated in March
2016 with the next issue of Little Portion.
 You may want to hold your meetings
between April and mid-October 2016, when
you will have the full printed brochure to
hand. However, if your Local Group is keen
to get going sooner, the material, which will
be on the web by the end of this October, will
contain all you need.
 The closing date for Local Groups’
conclusions to be submitted is extended to
30 October 2016 to allow for more responses
and deeper reflection.
29
Illustration
http://gallery4share.com
30
September 2015
Issue 7
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Books Recommended
Mark Yaconelli, Contemplative Youth
Ministry. London: SPCK, 2006
This is relevant for contemplative ministry
of any kind. We have found the 'Liturgy for
Discernment' (Chapter 10 and Appendix
2) particularly helpful in bringing a more
prayerful heart to all kinds of meeting.
Anne Spalding
Bernard Hoose, Mysterious God.
Blackrock, CO. Dublin: The Columba
Press, 2014.
Hoose begins by challenging 'The False
Gods of Christians' (Chapter 1) and goes
on to explore how to awaken to the God
whom we cannot contain. As a Franciscan, I was particularly struck by his clear
thinking on the role of poverty in being
open to the mysterious God.
Anne Spalding
Maggie Ross, Silence: A User’s Guide.
London, DLT, 2014.
Lauded by significant spiritual teachers,
this book describes the details of the practice of silence in a practical and down-toearth style, liberating some old customs
and habits.
Verena Tschudin
John Lederach, The Little Book of Conflict
Transformation. New York, Good Book,
2015
In this easy to read and short book,
Lederach articulates why traditional conflict ‘resolution’ has not worked and instead proposes a justice-based process of
‘transformation’ with an emphasis on nonviolent, non-adversarial communication to
develop understanding and bring about
long-term change.
Jan Benvie
Laudato Si’, On the care of our common
home.
Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment
offers a gospel alternative to the ‘technocratic
paradigm’ that has made humanity an agent
of ecological destruction. He urges all people
to follow Francis of Assisi and rediscover kinship with and love of the earth, and he
sketches out what that might mean in economics and international policy. Available
from the Vatican website www.laudatosi.com.
Paul Bodenham
Please send items for Books Recommended
to editor@tssf.org.uk with one sentence why
you recommend the book.
Little Portion forthcoming issues:
Issue 8 (March 2016): Living simply and
sharing. Issue 9 (September 2016): Joy
and humility. Contributions to
editor@tssf.org.uk are welcome,
preferably discussed and sent well
before the copy deadline. If a longer
piece is envisaged, please ask for
guidelines for authors. The copy date for
Issue 8 is 15 January 2016.
Relevant matters will be forwarded to the appropriate office-holders on issues when we
ask for comments or feedback.
www.tssf.org.uk
All opinions expressed in this publication are
those of the authors and contributors and not
necessarily those of the European Province
of the Third Order, Society of St Francis.
Issue 7
September 2015
The Provincial
Disability Advice
Team
Margaret Armstrong and the Disability
Team try to provide support, care and advice
for all Tertiaries who have specific needs so
that everyone can enjoy access to activities
and contribute fully to the Order.
All the members of the Team themselves
have some form of disability, therefore have
varied understandings of the sort of
challenges that individuals might be facing.
As Team leader I have built up a group of
Tertiaries with different skills and
experiences, so that when enquiries come
in, there is someone who can provide
information or advice, or knows where to get
it. The Membership Secretary, Mollie
Kingham, keeps the main database up to
date, then the Disability Team deals with the
different formats that are required, such as
the large print and CD versions of Little
Portion, TON, and the intercessions list.
Producing the mailing labels for the
packages is a wonderful opportunity to pray
for each of the recipients.
Durham and Cambridge Areas have appointed
local disability advisors who act as first port of call
for the arrangements for meetings; other Areas
might like to follow suit. All Areas have people with
skills to draw on. Why not try and identify those
people in your Area, so that Area Ministers know
where to go for local information? At present, the
Comms Team is compiling and updating a list of
the various issues to consider about access to and
use of venues at meetings and these will be
distributed to Area Teams and Convenors in due
course.
Leading the PDA Team is a real privilege, and I
enjoy the time spent talking to enquirers, users of
the alternative publications, and the team
volunteers. I also have the privilege of celebrating
the monthly Eucharist for our local ‘deaf (BSL)
church’ where my assistance dog Benny enjoys
the company of a couple of hearing dogs (see
photo).
The rest of the time my husband Adrian and I look
after our smallholding on which we are largely selfsufficient, and we manage it specifically for
wildlife. We are greatly rewarded by watching the
birds, hedgehogs, bats, and numerous other
‘visitors’. On most days God and I have a
discussion about the necessity of rabbits and
foxes, but they too have their place in an inclusive
creation!
In our Franciscan calling we have a strong
ethos of service, and a very biblical bias
towards people with particular needs, and
this is happily acted out by the people who
give their time to producing and mailing the
alternative formats of the publications.
We aim to get the big print and audio
versions of the publications to their
recipients before the main mailing of the
magazines so that everybody can take part
fully at local meetings. It does not always
work, especially if a volunteer is ill, or on
holiday, but mostly it runs smoothly.
31
Photo by Margaret Armstrong
32
September 2015
Issue 7
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Who to send things to
Changes in address, telephone number, email address, TSSF office held
Mollie Kingham, Membership Secretary
12 Buckingham Gardens,
West Molesey KT8 1TH
T: 020 8979 8053
E: memsec@tssf.org.uk
Email copy to Chris Jenkins (PCC):
comms@tssf.org.uk
Information for Little Portion
Verena Tschudin, Editor
26 Cathcart Road, London SW10 9NN
T: 020 7351 1263
E: editor@tssf.org.uk
Contributions for TON
Sue Charles, Editor
109 Tarnwood Park, Eltham, London E9 5PE
T: 020 8850 0189
E: ton@tssf.org.uk
All other matters to do with communication
Chris Jenkins, Provincial Communications
Coordinator
26 North Road, Wells BA5 2TL
T: 07860 712354
E: comms@tssf.org.uk
Contributions, TSSF expense claims and
letters about finance
John Lovatt, Provincial Treasurer
Lower Stonehouse Farm, Brown Edge, Stoke on
Trent ST6 8TF
T: 01782 503090
E: treasurer@tssf.org.uk
Enquirers interested in joining the Order
Peter Dixon, Provincial Novice Guardian
Dove House, 4 New Road, Uttoxeter, ST14 7DB
T: 01889 569722
E: novguard@tssf.org.uk
Training and Development
Paul Bodenham, Provincial Formation Guardian
Corner Cottage, Main Street, Langar, Nottingham
NG13 9HE
T: 01949 861516
E: formation@tssf.org.uk
All other enquiries about the Order
Averil Swanton, Minister Provincial
11 The Grange, Fleming Way
Exeter EX2 4SB
T: 01392 430355
E: ministertssf@tssf.org.uk
Disability Advice Team (alternative formats,
access, support)
Margaret Armstrong, Cridlands Barn,
Brompton Ralph, Taunton, TA4 2RU
T: 01984 623918
E: disabilityadvisor@tssf.org.uk
Audio, CD and large print copies of various
publications are available.
Knox Dick Fund Administrator
Rachel Cornish, Treasurer
The Rectory, Woodlands Close, Onehouse,
Stowmarket, IP14 3HL
T: 01449 257622
E: knoxdick@tssf.org.uk
Third Order Resource Material
Third Order Distribution,
The Old Parsonage, 168 Wroslyn Road,
Freeland, Witney, OX29 8AQ.
E: distribution@tssf.org.uk
Much material is available on the TSSF website
and can be downloaded. Paper copies are kept
at Third Order Distribution, where you may send
your requests and make arrangements for payment.
Chasing the Wild Goose and Assisi booklets are
still available.
Tau Cross lapel badges: £3.00
Replacement Manuals: £10
Replacement Profession crosses: £3.00
‘Martha’ (biography of Dorothy Swaine, lay
founder of TSSF): £6
Prices include p&p for UK only, overseas postage extra.
Website comments and enquiries
E: webmaster@tssf.org.uk
Contact Details for TSSF Networks
Study and Prayer: studyprayer@tssf.org.uk
Contemplatives: contemplatives@tssf.org.uk
Justice Peace Integrity of Creation:
jpic@tssf.org.uk