The Inter-Provincial Third Order Chapter with the Joint First Orders Chapters, at High Leigh Conference Centre - September 2023

Every six years the Minister General for TSSF is responsible for organising and running the the Inter-Provincial Third Order Chapter. For at least the last 18 years this has been held in conjunction with the Joint First Order Chapters. Last year it was held at High Leigh Conference Centre just out of London.

IPTOC is held every 6 years. JFOC is held every 3 years. As minister general I had the privilege of also attending that on behalf of the Third Order. This was my fourth IPTOC, a crazy number really. Most people might get to one. It is a 9 day gathering of the minister provincial and two other representatives from each of the 5 provinces, as laid out in the constitution, chaired by the Minister General. It is the ultimate decision making body of the Order. I first attended my first one in 2005. It was held at at the Franciscan Centre in Canterbury UK. It was there that Dorothy Brooker became our MG, and people suggested I put my name forward to be the new MP. I was way to busy, did not feel experienced enough, and said repeatedly "no"! That didn't work, and I attended the next one as MP at the Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York. And then I thought I was done and was grateful for the two experiences. Then the constitution was changed and i was invited to be the new MG, which meant I had to attend the IPTOC's in 2017 and 2023, one to be elected MG, and one to hand over to the new MG. Michael Twum-Darko was elected as the new Minister General TSSF, and my time in that role came to an end. He was blessed in this role by Bishop Bob Fitzpatrick, the Bishop Protector General on September 8.

The structure of the both the IPTOC and the amount of time we have spent together outside of meals and worship has varied greatly between the four I have attended. This was dependent on who the MG's were. My first one in 2005 (you can read a little bit about that here) we spent at least some of each morning together with guest speakers. It was one of the transformational events of that time away - the other was being introduced to someone by a Portuguese OFM brother at Taize as John - a Franciscan priest. It was during these joint JFOC-IPTOC seasons I found we in the Third Order were real Franciscans, and could hold our own. We also were allowed to use liturgies from each of provinces and use multiple languages which opened up the daily office and liturgical worship in a way I can't really describe. I began to understand it at a much deeper level. In 2011 we had a joint bible study lead by our then Bishop Protector General - Bishop Roger Herft. And then in 2017 we mostly did our own thing. Each was very different.

This time Br. Christopher John SSF and Sr. Sue CSF and I were keen to use our time together in a way that could help us all reflect on what might be ours to do in this time. We spent some time listening to the needs of each of the three orders (first order brothers SSF, first order sister CSF - Community of St. Francis, and Third Order - TSSF). This time from September 4 – 11, 2023, after the years of pandemic restrictions, was a chance once again to be together in the same place and to make the work and travel for people to come from around the world to be together for just over a week a worthwhile and life changing experience - maybe.

We spent quite some time planning the shape and content of these meetings. As as happened in the past, it is easy to let the time get filled up with the usual round of agenda items, reports and so on. While these are important, they are not the total of what we do together. We wanted to take the time to value both Orders working and studying together. Another thing we began to hear from different areas is that we are fundamentally contemplatives, who move then from contemplation to action.
And so we designed our time together. We took three broad themes:
1. Listening to our Sources
2. Listening to the Cry of the World
3. Sharing our Good News.

Each morning, for 6 days, was given to joint times of study and learning as we explored these themes. Our facilitators / presenters fed us each day on such a rich diet. I had high expectations but they more than exceeded them. For the first two days our reflections were led by Charlie McCarron TSSF from the USA and Paula Pearce OFS from the UK. The next theme was presented by Cathy Ross of CMS in UK and Jeff Golliher TSSF in the USA who contributed by prerecorded talk and then Zoom. Finally, for the third theme, we heard from Paulo Ueti a Brazilian theologian and advisor to various Anglican Communion bodies and Budi Tjahjono of Franciscans International Geneva.  I will spend some time reflecting on these over the next few blogs. 

After the first two days we had a day out looking and learning and bringing another layer to our learning and reflection. We visited South Woodford Islamic Centre and heard from Muslim, Jew and Christian of our common orientation to peace, not only in the past, but in the present and also our future vision. We also were greatly inspired by the Bonny Downs Baptist Church in East London and their extensive local ministries based on a radical vision of a God who is love and who welcomes all. I was grateful for the local team who organized these. Having frozen the week before in Cornwall, it was now in the 30's and we had to cut our time at Bonny Downs short as people were failing in the heat. (Sleeping at night was tough - rooms had no air-conditioning, just the meeting rooms)

Each day was surrounded by prayer and reflection. In the mornings we practiced small group lectio, a process Br Colin Wilfred SSF first introduced in 2005. It was one of these times of reflections that I heard a wee whisper of a call to stop saying no to the invitation to being MG. I always approach these carefully now. This time though we did not reflect on scripture, but on parallel passages from the Principles, using not only the current 1st and 3rd Order texts, but their original source in the Principles from Christa Seva Sangha in 1928. Most of us had not read the originals before or for awhile, and were grateful for Christopher John's work preparing these. They opened up rich times of reflection and prayer that laid a solid foundation for what was then presented later in the morning. In the late afternoon all work ceased and we were invited to sit in silent prayer for 30 minutes as preparation for the daily Eucharist. Difficult to do sometimes when you are in the middle of a thorny discussion.

After the next two days we had a day off to sightsee or just chill. Which was great for me, as that was the day Bonnie arrived in London. I was able to train out to Heathrow airport, meet her, and then take her on the Elizabeth Line back to Tottenham Court Road to then walk down to the 7 Dials area where Rebekah was working. One of my abiding memories from my time away was Rebekah's look of absolute joy when she saw her mother, and the two of them standing there, Rebekah patting her mum on the head in joy. Dads are OK, but mums are way better.

The three MG's wrote a pastoral letter at the end. We finished by saying

"It wasn’t all work and prayer! We had a completely free day with time for people to visit other places or just rest. And usually the evenings were free. The weather was unusually hot for September and so it was very pleasant to sit outside at night for relaxation and many interesting conversations.
The meeting was marked by a great spirit of togetherness between 1st and 3rd Orders and for this we give thanks. We encourage all those places where there are members of both Orders to find ways to collaborate, to pray together, and to enjoy each other’s company.
Finally, as we depart, we have the sense that the work of listening to the sources,
listening to the needs of the world, and sharing our good news, is only just beginning. May we do much more.
As Francis said on his deathbed: “I have done what is mine. May Christ teach you what
is yours.” 2 Celano 214
John Hebenton TSSF Sue CSF Christopher John SSF
Minister General TSSF Minister General CSF Minister General SSF"

I had spent the first three weeks of my time away letting go and opening myself to what might be. I saw IPTOC as the real beginning of the work as I looked ahead to 2024 and retirement, wondering who am I as a Franciscan priest, and what is mine to do now? These are the questions I held both here and in Palestine/Israel.