Becoming Franciscan
You might not know it by looking at them. They don’t wear the hooded brown robe. But Lynne and Bill Quackenbush of Halifax County were professed to the Secular Franciscan Order Sunday, April 10 in a service outside Greensboro after three years of study, prayer and preparation. Then they returned to their active lives among us here in Halifax County.
You don’t have to be single or celibate to join the Secular Franciscan Order, nor do you live in a monastery. Secular Franciscans include married people as well as unmarried, women and men. They live in their homes with their families and go about their work in the world, hence “secular.”
What, then, distinguishes Secular Franciscans from average people in the pews? Members of an official order of the Catholic Church, Secular Franciscans make a lifelong commitment to live the Gospel. They profess a Rule of life which guides their group’s values and principles. Members meet in their local fraternity regularly for ongoing formation. They draw inspiration from St. Francis– “the closest imitator of Christ that I know,” said Bill– and from St. Clare.
Their Story
Lynne and Bill Quackenbush came to Halifax County in 2005. They thought they’d retire to the Shenandoah Valley, but the rolling hills of Halifax won out since one of their daughters, Tracy Q. Martin, lives locally (two other adult children Bill and Jennifer live on the west coast).
While each is originally from New York, Lynne and Bill met in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Lynne’s sister worked with Bill at American Airlines. Once the introduction was made, “We just knew,” said Lynne, a career nurse who served in a hospital emergency room and at a wound care center. Meanwhile, Bill’s work with American Airlines (in sales, management and relating to government and military) took the couple to Utah and Texas.
They weren’t always churchgoers. Bill was born Catholic and attended Catholic school, but was away from the Church for over thirty years. If the subject of God came up, “I would change the subject or leave the conversation,” Bill said. “I was a decent person and not anti-faith, but didn’t think I needed God to control life.”
When their daughter was age seven or so, Lynne (raised Presbyterian) wanted her to be in church and started going to Episcopal services. Bill would join them at Christmas and Easter.
In the late 1990’s while home recuperating from back surgery, Bill felt “a calling- a need to do something different.” He told Lynne he wanted to speak to a priest and “the weight of the world came off my shoulders.” Feeling “fresh, alive” and happy, Bill’s experience led the couple to the Catholic Church, which under Vatican II had changed a lot in the thirty years Bill was away (the mass was now said in English rather than Latin and laypeople were more involved in worship and ministry).
The Quackenbushes became enthusiastically involved at their Texas church as lectors, ushers, and leading premarital couples counseling. Participation in the lay renewal movement Cursillo (”a great group of people”) may have planted a seed for seeking deep spiritual community again later as Secular Franciscans.
Becoming Secular Franciscans
After moving to Halifax County, Bill came across “a tiny article” in Catholic Virginian magazine about a Secular Franciscan group at Rocky Mount,VA. Their interest sparked, he and Lynne later found the Greensboro group,went to an orientation, and started going as candidates.
At first Lynne wasn’t sure the Secular Franciscan Order would change their lives much. They were already leading lives of prayer, simplicity, compassion, worship and ministry. She asked Greensboro SFO leader Frank Massey, “What is going to be the difference?”
His answer as Lynne recalls: ‘You will be surrounded by like-minded people.’
Massey was right. “We have found so much with the Franciscans– it’s just amazing,” says Lynne.
Monthly meetings with the 46-member Greensboro fraternity begin at 10:30 on Sunday with mass, lunch and a meeting. The meeting involves prayer, Bible study, an educational or spiritual growth experience, and business. Members also have some laughs– St. Francis himself was joyful, after all.
Members range in age from 40’s to 80’s (they would like to attract more young members) and come from different walks of life- teachers, a real estate developer, a former New York police officer, a textiles executive. Lynne and Bill are two of seven new members professed this year.It is not unusual for couples to be in the order together, but neither is it the norm (there are eight couples currently). Lynne and Bill travel the furthest– just under two hours.
Foundational to their way of life are “Four Pillars”– spirituality, formation, fraternity and apostolate (outward ministry). They strive to live “from Gospel to life and life to Gospel” by helping others and imitating Jesus.
Secular Franciscans minister largely by being a good presence. The impact? “If 14,000 people do that, and do it in a humble and joyful manner, it makes a bit of an impact,” said Massey. One of their members won the national fraternity’s Peace Award for his role in Greensboro’s civil rights movement. The group also sends a delegation to El Salvador once a year for service and building projects. They take food to a Greensboro area shelter and are involved with immigration, international hunger and medical outreach.
The Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
A social justice emphasis takes some Franciscans to Washington to advocate for the poor and marginalized. Some in the Greensboro group have been a voice to Hollywood, successfully urging sponsors to pull ads from the tv comedy series “Two and a Half Men” due to the immoral lifestyle portrayed in a household with a young boy.
Despite good works, Secular Franciscans are not holier-than-thou. “To be Franciscan is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t put us up the totem pole higher than anyone else,” said Massey over his cell phone, just in from getting groceries after clearing his driveway of limbs after a storm.
Locally, Lynne and Bill Quackenbush are members of St. Paschal Catholic Church in South Boston where they have been active in parish leadership, worship and service. Each also visits and takes communion to shut-ins. Lynne is part of a craft group and the Red Hats, and has sewn costumes for Halifax County Little Theater. Bill is involved with the church’s Stations of the Cross during Lent. In the wider community he is a leader and volunteer with Good Samaritan and enjoys metal-detecting with the Halifax County Coin and Relic Club.
Their priest, Rev. Fr. John Kazibwe said, “Both have been an asset to our Church. I personally congratulate them upon their decision to become professed Secular Franciscans. May the Almighty God sustain them in their new commitment.”
Advice to others considering religious life? “Try it if you have the opportunity. There is nothing to lose. It will make your life better,” Bill said. For more information, contact Lynne or Bill Quackenbush at (434) 572- 8117, or Franciscan Family of Greensboro leader Frank Massey at (336) 299-5038. The National Fraternity’s website is http://www.nafra-sfo.org
Not Catholic? There are also Anglican Secular Franciscans as well as ecumenical Franciscan orders.