page_title: Society of Saint Francis
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Society of Saint Francis / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Friary of St Francis, Hilfield The Friary houses 7 Franciscan Brothers and also has a Peace and the Environment Project, where volunteers can live and work on the 19 acre site.
context_page_description: The Society of Saint Francis is a Franciscan religious order within the Anglican Communion. It is the main recognised Anglican Franciscan order, but there are also other Franciscan orders in the Anglican Communion.
  The Society of Saint Francis comprises the Brothers of the First Order; the Sisters of the First Order; the Sisters of the Second Order; the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order. Francis of Assisi and Clare of Assisi, the founders of the Franciscan movement produced separate rules for three parallel orders – the First Order were to be mendicant friars, embracing poverty as a gift from God and living the community life in the world and serving the poor. The Second Order were to be a parallel community of sisters living a more enclosed life of prayer and contemplation. The Third Order was to consist of brothers and sisters not living in community, nor under full monastic vows, but nevertheless taking simple promises and following a rule of life in the world. These three orders still co-exist as parts of the Franciscan family.
context_section_description: During the English Reformation all religious orders, including Franciscans, were banished from Britain. Not until the mid 19th century were the first sisterhoods refounded in the Church of England, in response to the social needs of the time. Then came a revival of interest in Francis. The Community of St Francis (CSF) was founded in 1905 with sisters living in poverty and working in the East End of London.
  Shortly after World War I, the Revd Douglas Downes, an economics don at Oxford University, and a few friends gave practical expression to their sympathy with and concern for victims of the depression by going out onto the roads and sharing the life of the homeless men and boys, looking for work from town to town. In 1921, a Dorset landowner, Lord Sandwich, offered a small farm property (now Hilfield Friary), and here the group of friends was able to offer shelter to the exhausted wayfarers and others in temporary need of help.
  In 1934, another small group (led by Father Algy) who had a clearer idea of forming a religious order, joined Brother Douglas (as he liked to be called). Gradually the little community took shape, modelling itself more consciously on the Franciscan tradition of prayer and study, as well as working with the poor. It started to look like a religious order in formal sense, with habits, a chapel, and regular worship. The Society of Saint Francis came into being, followed by the Third Order in 1936, and the Second Order in 1950 with the establishment of the Community of Saint Clare in Freeland, Witney.
  Before long, invitations came to establish centres in other places and at the start of World War II, there were houses in south London and Cambridge. After the war other centres were opened in Britain. Establishments overseas followed and the Society now has friaries in the United States, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, and the Solomon Islands. Other communities were made in (Germany), Italy, Africa and the West Indies.
  The Daily Office, SSF's office book, was among the first to be fully updated with the Common Worship lectionary, so was used in the wider Anglican Communion. It provided the model for Morning and Evening Prayer in Common Worship.
caption: The Friary of St Francis, Hilfield
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