OEF: Welcome!

+++ Chapter/Convocation 2010 +++ How it all began +++ The Three Knots +++ Welcome to the Fellowship Friary! +++ SFO/NAFRA Chapter 2009 +++

Welcome

Grace and peace! alt

We are delighted to have you visit our web site. Here you will find basic information about who we are — enough information, we hope, to give you an accurate sense of the spirit of our Order and purpose as followers of Christ after the examples of Francis and Clare of Assisi.

The Order of Ecumenical Franciscans is a body of Christians who maintain a devotion to Sts. Francis and Clare and their interpretation of the gospel life. We are a diverse group — male and female, single and partnered/married, clergy and laity, liberal and conservative, straight and gay — with varied abilities and disabilities. Our members' church affiliations include free churches and mainline Protestant denominations, as well as Anglican and Catholic communions.

Toward Franciscan unity

The Prelude to the General Rule of the OEF says, in part: "We shall strive to be living witnesses among all nations to the great truth that in Christ "there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and freemen, between men and women" (Galatians 3:28); that there are no barriers of race or nations in God's family. There is only the All-loving Creator, the Divine Redeemer, the one fellowship in the All-Wonderful Comforter."

That principle of "no barriers" suggests a oneness which we do not yet see in Creation. We believe that the Church in general, and this Order in particular, are called to bear witness to the unity of God's family, beginning within the household of the Church and reaching out across to people of all faiths.

Chapter/Convocation 2010

Grace and Peace!

All OEF professed, novices, postulants, inquirers, and guests:
Your presence is requested!

You are warmly invited to our 26th Chapter/Convocation,
to be held June 17-20 in Belton, Texas.

Considering the Franciscan life?

Many of our visitors to this web site are drawn because of some fascination with Francis and Clare. Perhaps they simply want to know more about the thirteenth-century saints whose vision of the Gospel life turned their world on its head. Maybe those who stop by are trying to figure out why twenty-first century people would spend their time and energy on such nonsense. Perhaps they are simply intrigued by the romantic image of Francis after watching Fratello Sole, Sorella Luna (Brother Sun, Sister Moon). But for some reason, they come.

What about you? What brings you to franciscans.com today?

The Franciscan Family

Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone was born in late summer or fall, 1181, in Assisi, Italy. Renamed Francesco by his father, he became Saint Francis to the rest of the world.

Francis was reared in a well-to-do household, imitated the troubadours and knights of his time, became a prisoner of war at 21; and soon after, before the crucifix in the chapel of San Damiano, began a lifetime of spiritual transformation. He began nursing lepers and repairing broken churches. He vowed to live a life "in obedience, in chastity and without property; and to follow the teaching and footsteps of Christ."