Welcome
Grace and peace!
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
Chapter/Convocation 2010Grace and Peace! All OEF professed, novices, postulants, inquirers, and guests: You are warmly invited to our 26th Chapter/Convocation,
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. The Franciscan FamilyGiovanni 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. |



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."