When one reads what Francis of Assisi wrote, one is struck by how "unoriginal" most of his compositions were. Most were a pastiche of sacred scripture. Such a composing approach reflected his humility, suggesting that there was nothing higher or truer than Scripture, so he would "write" with the words and phrases of this truest language rather than the paltry inventions of his creation. As a humble Franciscan history of Third Order Anglican Franciscans (tertiaries) in the Province of the Americas, this book uses the composition methods of our 13th-century founder and presents a pastiche of 100 years of voices in the Province of the Americas. Papers, letters or articles written over the last century are presented whole; so, in one fashion, this history is an anthology by many authors. Many gifted people over the last 100 years wrestled with a wide variety of topics in the life of a Franciscan tertiary, and the greatest acknowledgment we can pay to them is to read what they wrote. As 21st-century Internet-experienced "readers," we are accustomed to a visual presentation of information. Thus you will find these pages filled with over 170 pictures, diagrams, and tables so that this history is also a scrapbook of what we looked like and who we were over the past 100 years. This history also has more flesh and blood stories written by those who experienced them rather than a comprehensive collection of facts. We begin by looking at the big picture of the Province and its development over the last 100 years primarily using the most basic data in the annual directories, names, and addresses. One reason to look at such a "big picture" is that the specifics of the first 50 years of the Province are missing. Only the London and the New York Custodias ("regional gatherings") left any record of their work and life before 1950. In fact, for the first 50 years of this Third Order Province, our only written notices appeared in the First Order's Little Chronicle newsletter. The following eight chapters of the book use the leaders of various eras to organize the historical information: - Father Joseph was the leader of the Third Order Secular of Franciscans, American Congregation of Franciscans (TSF) from 1917 to 1966; - Br. Paul was his successor from 1966 to 1968, and he along with the Third Order Corporation took TSF into TSSF; - John Scott was the first tertiary Guardian from 1973-80; - Kale King, second tertiary Guardian from 1980-81; - Dee Dobson, third Guardian and first Minister Provincial from 1981-90; - Alden Whitney, second Minister Provincial from 1990-96; and - Anita Catron, third Minister Provincial from 1997 to 2002. Then events of the Province became less easy to organize around single individuals, and so the next four chapters look at themes, projects, discussions or events that overlap the terms of Guardians or Ministers Provincial: - the integration of Brazil's Order of St. Francis (OSF) and the Province of the Americas; - the creation of the Safe Community and Conflict Resolution; - our final act of independence from the First Order, the choosing of our own Bishop Protector; - the evolution of the Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation network (JPIC); and - the Canadian story in our Province. The next four chapters again organize events using the terms of the Ministers Provincial: - Masud Ibn Syedullah, 2002-05; - Ken Norian, 2005-11; - John Brockmann, 2011-4; and - Tom Johnson, 2014- The final chapter finally returns to work that transcended any individual's term of office for it celebrates the work of the many authors of our Province. From Susan Pitchford's 2014 book, The Sacred Gaze; to spiritual anthropology in Stuart Schlegel's 1987 book, Wisdom from a Rainforest, to considerations of healthcare in William F. Haynes's 2010 book, Is There a God in Health Care?, tertiaries in the Province of the Americas have written many important books over a very long period.
About the Author: The Rev. R. John Brockmann TSSF has been a professed member of the Third Order Society of St. Francis, Province of the Americas for 24 years and has just stepped down as the Minister Provincial. He has been the editor of the Province's Franciscan Times for over two decades, and is currently the Province's archivist and online librarian. Brockmann is also a retired professor from the University of Delaware and four of his most recent books have focused on 19-century history in the US: From Millwrights to Shipwrights to the Twenty-First Century (1998); Exploding Steamboats, Senate Debates, and Technical Reports: The Convergence of Technology, Politics, and Rhetoric in the Steamboat Bill of 1838 (2002); Twisted Rails, Sunken Ships: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century Steamboat and Railroad Accident Investigation Reports, 1833-1879 (2002); and Commodore Robert F. Stockton, 1795-1866: Protean Man for a Protean Nation (2009). Brockmann is the rector of an Episcopal parish in the Boston area, and a trained spiritual director.