Roots and things…

The Oxford Movement called on people to look more deeply into the institutional life of the established Church to discover its inner mystery as the Body of Christ. In reading the Tracts one discovers beneath the concern for institutional structures a deep piety and spirituality, and even more a sense that the Tractarians' concern about institutions and their outward forms arose from what they believed about Jesus Christ as Lord of the Church. The immediate situation called for a defence of the Church against those who would, as they thought, destroy it. As the Movement gathered strength they were more and more nourished by a sacramental spirituality and devotion which had much wider implications. . . .

The Church is sacramental not simply because it was founded by Jesus but because it is his graceful presence in the lives of human beings. It was this vision of the Church which became so central to the Oxford Movement, first as it was expressed in the Tracts and later in sermons, manuals of devotion and theological treatises. The Church was seen as the community of grace, the means through which we share in the life of God in Christ, and as the present embodiment of Christ himself by his Spirit in the world. Therefore, it could be nothing less than sacramental: the visible presence of the invisible God; his redeeming act towards his people in their history, working through people, institutional structures, and the things of creation—water and bread and wine.

Nowhere, perhaps, is such a view better expressed than in Dr. Pusey’s Tract on baptism (Tract 67) and in his several writings on the Eucharist (Tract 81 and his sermon ‘The Holy Eucharist a Comfort to the Penitent’). In those writings Pusey draws upon the scriptures, the writings of the Fathers (especially Cyril of Alexandria) and a host of earlier Anglican divines, to show that in those two sacramental acts of the Church our redemption in Christ is made real and present to us through God’s use of the things of creation, and that through them we are truly incorporated into and participate in the real humanity of Christ himself. In the sacraments a new principle of life is imparted to us as we are united to Christ in the Church.

From Church, Ministry and Unity: A Divine Commission by James E. Griffiss, a volume in the Faith and the Future series, edited by David Nicholls (Basil Blackwell, 1983) with thanks to Vicki K Black

 

[The Franciscan Third Order] was formed in the Anglican Communion around 1936 at a time when Brother Douglas was operating from a farmhouse in Dorset, now called Hilfield Friary, and Father Algy had the vision of establishing three orders, as in the medieval church. The Third Order in Europe celebrated its Diamond Jubilee at Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday, 20th July 1996, led by its Minister Provincial, Very Revd Stephen Platten, Dean of Norwich;   In addition to Europe there are four other provinces in which the Third Order operates: America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, whilst a number of tertiaries work in isolated areas under the care of the Minister General.

from the TSSF UK website

The roots of the Anglican Franciscans run deep into the Oxford Movement, for it was within the movement that the Anglican church began to recover the legacy of monasticism:

Monastic life in England came to an abrupt end with Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII. The property and lands of the monasteries were confiscated and either retained by the king or given to loyal protestant nobility. Monks and nuns were forced to either flee for the continent or to abandon their vocations. For around 300 years, there were no monastic communities within any of the Anglican churches.

Shortly after the Oxford Movement began to advocate restoring catholic faith and practice to the Church of England (see Anglo-Catholicism), there was felt to be a need for a restoration of the monastic life. Anglican priest John Henry Newman established a community of men at Littlemore near Oxford in the 1840s. From then forward, there have been many communities of monks, friars, sisters, and nuns established within the Anglican Communion. In 1848, Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon founded the Anglican Sisters of Charity and became the first woman to take religious vows within the Anglican Communion since the Reformation. In October 1850 the first building specifically built for the purpose of housing an Anglican Sisterhood was consecrated at Abbeymere in Plymouth. It housed several schools for the destitute, a laundry, printing press and soup kitchen. From the 1840s and throughout the following one hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated in the UK and the United States, as well as in various countries of Africa, Asia, Canada, India and the Pacific.

Some Anglican religious communities are contemplative, some active, but a distinguishing feature of the monastic life among Anglicans is that most practice the so-called "mixed life", a combination of a life of contemplative prayer with active service. Anglican religious life closely mirrors that of Roman Catholicism. Like Roman Catholic religious, Anglican religious also take the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Religious communities live together under a common rule, reciting the Divine Office and celebrating the Eucharist daily.

In the early 20th century when the Anglo-Catholic Movement was at its height, the Anglican Communion had hundreds of orders and communities, and thousands of religious. However, since the 1960s there has been a sharp falling off in the numbers of religious in many parts of the Anglican Communion, most notably in the United Kingdom and the United States. Many once large and international communities have been reduced to a single convent or monastery comprised of elderly men or women. In the last few decades of the 20th century, novices have for most communities been few and far between. Some orders and communities have already become extinct. There are however, still thousands of Anglican religious working today in religious communities around the world. While vocations remain few in some areas, Anglican religious communities are experiencing exponential growth in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

from the Wikipedia article on Christian Monasticism

 

One of the results of the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church during the 19th century was the re-establishment of religious orders, including some of Franciscan inspiration. The principal Anglican communities in the Franciscan tradition are the Community of St. Francis (women, founded 1905), the Society of Saint Francis (men, founded 1934), and the Community of St Clare (women, enclosed). There is also a Third Order.

Another officially sanctioned Anglican order with a more contemplative focus is the order of the Little Brothers of Francis in the Anglican Church of Australia. Their webpage is here

There is a young Order of Ecumenical Franciscans that started in the United States. Their webpage is here

There are also some small Franciscan communities within European Protestant and Old Catholic Churches, and The Saint Francis Ecumenical Society - ^[4] Ecumenical Franciscan Society from Eastern Europe (Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and free Protestant members). There are some Franciscan orders in Lutheran Churches.

Two of the more ecumenical Franciscan Orders within the Anglican heritage are the Order of Servant Franciscans (OSF)^[5] and the Conventual Community of Saint Francis (CCSF). The members of the Order of Servant Franciscans (OSF) are committed the process of becoming ministers of Christ's message of reconciliation and love, as demonstrated by the holy lives of Saints Francis and Clare. The Conventual Community of Saint Francis (CCSF) has a special charism to serve the marginalized, including the poor and homeless, racial and sexual minorities, and others who are not welcomed by the institutional church. The OSF and the CCSF are not officially related in any way.

from the Wikipedia article on Franciscans