The Society of St Francis, European Province, is a community of vowed religious Brothers in the Anglican Communion. We live in community, under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, following Christ in the way of St Francis of Assisi.

Why did I join the Society of Saint Francis?                                          

Where do we begin telling my story? I was born in the Wirral but grew up in-between Southport and Preston. Although I grew up in a church going family I stopped attending church on a regular basis when I was 13 and only returned to church when I was at university. As a teenager I was actually very anti-religion preferring to be involved with the Socialist Workers Party. I was only reminded how anti-religion I was when I lived in Alnmouth retreat house and bumped into my favourite teachers Donna and Mr Finnerty. Donna and Mr Finnerty changed my entire life: we once celebrated Diwali in a forest and they once took my class to a convent for a weekend. I still remember staying at the convent for the weekend, as one of the nuns made us go and thank the chickens after breakfast for having provided us with the eggs we’d just eaten! This still makes me laugh!

When my teacher Donna saw me unexpectedly in Alnmouth friary, wearing a habit she totally freaked out and almost shouted, “But you were an atheist when you were a teenager! What happened to you!?” People often ask me this, “What happened that you would want to live like this?”

You might not know this but I had an unexpected religious experience when I was 20 years old that changed my entire life. After the first year of my undergrad I went to America to teach canoeing at a summer camp. During that summer, when I was alone in the small wooden cabin I was staying in for the summer, I experienced being in the Presence of God for the first time.

Being in the Presence of God for the first time is an experience I struggle to explain or put into words – but all of a sudden I found I was a Christian; No words were exchanged during this experience and I don’t know how long it lasted for. What I do know is my life was unexpectedly changed. Over the subsequent 3 years of my degree I attended church most days, I joined a prayer group and attended weekly talks on the Christian faith and signed up for a 9 month Confirmation course, which met for 2 hours each week. At the end of the course I was asked to choose a Confirmation Saint. As I was reading about Saint Francis I felt a strong interior desire to live like Saint Francis had done, not in order to pretend to be him, but to live out my own faith journey in the Franciscan way of life.

I felt an interior desire to live out the teaching contained in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick and to visit the prisoner. This was not a call to become a priest, or to pursue religious leadership; but to become a servant-like follower of the LORD in the world, as a lay Franciscan brother.

During this time I visited a few religious communities. I inquired into several religious communities but none of them seemed right to me; I realized it wasn’t the right time in my life to pursue this calling. And so after I graduated in Theological Studies from Saint Andrews University, I moved to Liverpool to spend a year as an intern with the Jesuit Volunteer Community. I think I did this because I felt a desire to help rebuild the House of God, which I experienced as having fallen into ruin. As a JVC intern I helped run a Fresh Expression Methodist Church and taught English at Asylum Link Merseyside, where I also offered informal support to asylum seekers.

During my time at these placements I felt drawn to a more  explicit form of Christian form of service, and so I applied for the Chaplaincy Assistant role at Liverpool Hope University, which I subsequently got appointed to. I worked there for a year. During that year I participated in morning and evening prayer each weekday. I liked that the morning prayer was Roman Catholic and the evening prayer was Anglican and the tabernacle had a Catholic and Anglican host reserved in it. I also liked how Catholics and Protestants felt able to pray together; which in Liverpool is quite a big deal. During this year I felt drawn to work towards Christian unity. This desire was increased when the chaplaincy community was invited to attend Cardinal Newman’s Beatification as VIP guests. While I can’t remember exactly why we went as VIP guests, it was a fun day out, and it seemed to confirm my desire to work towards some sort of Christian unity. I also went to Cardinal Newman college to do my a-levels, so somehow it all seemed to be connected?

I then trained to be a social worker at Hope Uni. Including my year as a Chaplaincy Assistant I was part of the chaplaincy community for 3 years. During these 3 years I attended morning and evening prayer each week day. I really enjoyed this way of praying and felt drawn to this way of life. I can now see that being part of a prayerful community led me towards wanting pursue a life of serious and committed liturgical prayer.

As my course came to an end I decided I wanted to live in a Christian community that had prayer as a significant part of their life, which also had an element of service. This led me to move to the Hilfield project in 2012, for 9 months, at the end of which I moved to be a L’arche assistant, which I did for around 3 years.

As a L’arche assistant I used to take adults with disabilities to church each Sunday. I used to particularly enjoy taking Dawn to church. Dawn is a wheelchair user who does not have mental capacity, she communicates by laughing or shouting; she is hoisted to and from her wheelchair and eats blended food; in many ways she is profoundly disabled. In church however she used to rock back and forwards to the music and would smile. She would often sit very quietly, as if in a deep state of peace. I always found this to be a very moving experience. On reflection I realized I was experiencing a call to be with the people at the back of church rather than being at the front. And so I was moving closer to embracing my Franciscan vocation, as a lay  brother.

I left L’arche because I had a religious experience one day when I was putting Peter’s shoes on. Peter is a wheelchair user who doesn’t have mental capacity, he doesn’t speak but communicates through laughter or through screams, he is hoisted from his wheelchair to his bed, he is fed via a tube. In many ways Peter doesn’t have a lot to be happy about; but he was one of the happiest people I have ever met. Joy seemed to shine out of Peter in a very special way. One day as I was putting on Peter’s shoes I looked up and for a few seconds saw Jesus look back at my through Peter’s eyes. You could say this was some sort of religious experience. During it, I felt I was being told, “You are now ready.” I took this to mean ‘ready’ to pursue my sense of vocation with a religious community.

Anyway, shortly after sensing I was now ready to go forwards with my sense of vocation, I moved into the Community of the Resurrection, to be an Alongsider. I was there for 5 months. During this time I visited the SSF house in Leeds. I enjoyed the simplicity of the life, and the vision of service it encapsulated. It felt like I’d found what I had been looking for – and so I applied to join the community; and was received into the Anglican Communion in June 2016, becoming a Postulant with the Community in July 2016.

Since this time I have lived in Alnmouth friary, becoming a Novice with the community in December 2016. Alnmouth is a retreat house, which focuses on showing hospitality to residential guests who stay for up to a week. I have also lived in Glasshampton Monastery, this is our monastic house. All the meals are in silence, the corridors are kept quiet, and we don’t really go out.

I have also lived in our terrace house in inner-city Leeds, where I lived with homeless asylum seeker men and helped out in local soup kitchens and church run charities. I now live in Plaistow in Newham, London, where I live with 4 brothers and up to 9 homeless adults. We give out food to at least 50 people each weekday at our front door, and I help out in 2 food banks and a soup kitchen each week, and help run our drop-in which is open from 9am-5pm each weekday.

What has sustained me in my journey as a brother, over the last 3 years, has been a deep sense of calling, a calling to serve the hidden Christ in the people I meet; to pursue the Restoration of the House of God which is falling into ruin, and to pursue a life of serious and committed prayer on a daily basis within a  Christian community.

Hospitality to the stranger is a key part of being a brother in my experience. We welcome retreatants at Alnmouth and at Glasshampton. We also welcome the stranger when we house homeless asylum seekers in Leeds and where I now live in Plaistow. For me this is a living out of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats where Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” On reflection I suspect this sense of living out the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats has been what’s kept me in SSF. For those who are being called to a life of prayer, community and service being an active brother or a sister is an amazing life, that in many ways is very fulfilling.   

To learn more about the Society of Saint Francis look at our website http://www.franciscans.org.uk/

To start a conversation with our Novice Guardian men can email noviceguardianssf@franciscans.org.uk and women can email noviceguardiancsf@franciscans.org.uk

Women exploring a contemplative Franciscan vocation can contact the Anglican Poor Clares https://oscfreeland.wordpress.com/home/