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N E W S

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THE PROVINCIAL CHAPTER 2008 HAS MET

The Province celebrated its 2008 Chapter from 13th to 18th July at New Hall School, near Chelmsford, under the presidency of the Minister Provincial. Elections were held of the five members of the Definitory (or Provincial Council), in which four of the existing Definitors were re-elected, that is Brs Roger Barralet, Edmund Highton, Seamus Mulholland and Reginald Gray. The fifth had completed nine years' service and was therefore not eligible for re-election. In his place the Chapter elected Br Kieran Fitzsimons. Below the new Definitors making their profession of faith before the whole Chapter.

The Chapter concluded with a solemn renewal of vows with each friar touching both the Book of the Gospels and the Rule of St. Francis, and going on to receive from the Provincial a Tau Cross to wear whenever the habit is not worn. With this act the Province began the celebration of the eighth centenary of the foundation of the Order, dating from the moment on 16th April 1209 when St Francis and his first companions obtained Papal approval of the primitive Rule. The two books (Gospel and Rule) are placed in front of the Douai Cross which since recusant days has been enthroned at every Chapter of the Province.

To read a fuller report of the Chapter with more pictures click here

To view a full list of the elections and appointments to offices published on 26th July 2008 to come into effect on 1st October 2008 click here

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WELCOME TO A NEWLY PROFESSED BROTHER

On Sunday, 6th July 2008, at the last Sunday morning Mass of the parish at St. Thomas of Canterbury Church, Woodford Green, Essex, the Province welcomed back home Brother Christopher Leigh, who had made his novitiate in Cedar Lake, Indiana, USA, where he also made his first profession of the vows of obedience, celibate chastity, and poverty, on 14th June 2008.

After having repeated his profession of vows before the Minister Provincial during the Mass, he is embraced by him and by all the other friars present in the sign of peace.

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A NEW DEACON IN THE PROVINCE

On Saturday, 21st June 2008, Brother Antony Jukes was ordained a Deacon at the Franciscan International Study Centre in Canterbury together with two friars from the Franciscan Province of Lithuania by Rt Rev. John Hine, Bishop in Kent. After a period of ministry as a Deacon, he hopes to proceed next year to Ordination as a priest. That will be the first ordination of a priest in the Province for three years.

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DEATH OF A VETERAN FRIAR - FR ANDREW CLOONAN, O.F.M.

On Tuesday, 3rd June 2008, the funeral of Fr Andrew Cloonan was celebrated at the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, Woodford Green, Essex. Fr Andrew was 90 years old. He was born on 15th August 1917 at Forest Gate, East London, and nearly all his life was spent there. He was baptised Kevin in St Antony's Franciscan church there, went to St Antony's Primary School there, then on to St Bonaventure's School, and in 1935 entered the Franciscan novitiate at Chilworth, was professed on 12th September 1936, came to Woodford to study philosophy, and then returned to Forest Gate to study theology in 1939. In 1940 all the Franciscan students were evacuated from London to the Franciscan College at Buckingham to escape the Blitz. Fr Andrew was ordained a priest at Cambridge in 1943, where he stayed on to take a degree in history. He then studied French at Birkbeck College and entered on his life-work of teaching R.E. and French at St Bonaventure's, Forest Gate. When in 1884 the friars had founded the parish at Forest Gate from their friary at Stratford, they first established there the school which they had begun at Stratford, so that it represents the very beginning of the Forest Gate parish, the foundation of the community in understanding the faith. Fr Andrew's teaching career only came to end in 1970 when he was appointed the Commissary of the Holy Land, another very Franciscan work. In 1975 he was appointed to the Franciscan community in Bristol where he remained until the friars gave up that parish and closed the Friary in 1980. He then returned to Forest Gate where he helped on the parish until the final blow when the friars left that house also in 2002, and he was transferred to Woodford, where he died on 25th May 2008. His funeral was a celebration of a life largely spent in studying, teaching and living at Forest Gate, as witnessed by the many Forest Gate parishioners and clergy who attended. The Bishop of Brentwood was represented by Msgr John Armitage, the first diocesan parish priest of St Antony's, Forest Gate, when the friars left.

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SEVENTH CENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF JOHN DUNS SCOTUS 1308 - 2008

The scene in Northampton Cathedral on 15th March 2008 as the Franciscan Province commemorated the Ordination to the Priesthood of John Duns Scotus on the 17th March 1291, part of the celebration of the Seventh Centenary of his death.

The Bishop of Northampton, Rt Rev. Peter Doyle, in front of the arch which is the only remaining part of the medieval Priory of St Andrew where Scotus was ordained. On the right, Br Seamus Mulholland who organised this event, and on the left Br George Smulski, Director of Postulants.

To read a fuller account, go to the bottom of this News section. To see more photographs of the occasion, go to the Archive of Photographs click here

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A bulletin of news & views of the Friars Minor in Great Britain, appearing three times a year

Issue No. 5 - March 2008

In this issue you will find ...

BLESSED JOHN DUNS SCOTUS 1308-2008 ... Teacher of God's Love by Seamus Mulholland OFM

FRIAR JUBILARIANS 2008

MAKING COMPASSION by Quentin Jackson OFM

SILVER JUBILEE OF A FRANCISCAN PRIEST by Donal Walsh OFM

LETTER FROM AMERICA by Chris Leigh OFM, Cedar Lake

ST FRANCIS AND THE CELEBRATION OF EASTER by Michael Copps OFM, Minister Provincial

To view this issue as a pdf file click here

To view previous issues visit the archive section

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This quarterly publication gives news of the Franciscan International Franciscan Study Centre in Canterbury

To view any issue as a pdf file click on the following link: http://www.franciscans.ac.uk/Centre/newsletters.html

To view a list of current events at the FISC click on the following link: www.franciscans.ac.uk/Centre/events.html

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JUBILEES 2008 IN THE PROVINCE

We give thanks to God and rejoice with our Brothers as they celebrate ...

PLATINUM JUBILEE - 70 Years

5 September 1938 Br Walter Hobson Jubilee of Religious Profession

DIAMOND JUBILEES - 60 Years

13 March 1948 Br Desmond McGuire Jubilee of Ordination

19 September 1948 Br Boniface Kruger Jubilee of Religious Profession

19 September 1948 Br Reginald Clancy Jubilee of Religious Profession

GOLDEN JUBILEES - 50 Years

20 September 1958 Br Austin Kinsella Jubilee of Ordination

20 December 1958 Br Simon Simmonds Jubilee of Religious Profession

RUBY JUBILEES - 40 Years

30 March 1968 Br Isidore Faloona Jubilee of Ordination

3 June 1968 Br Didacus Pierce Jubilee of Religious Profession

11 September 1968 Br John Forest Holden Jubilee of Religious Profession

SILVER JUBILEE - 25 Years

19 March 1983 Br Donal Walsh Jubilee of Ordination

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And we remember our Brothers now serving in the Province of South Africa ...

GOLDEN JUBILEES

Br Ian Laurenson was ordained priest on 22 March 1958

Br Christopher Kiernan made religious profession on 9 April 1958

Br Eunan Dooley made religious profession on 8 September 1958

SILVER JUBILEES

Br Paschal Rowland was ordained bishop 17 September 1983

Br Thomas Tshabalala was ordained priest 6 April 1983

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CONTINUED BELOW

THE SEVENTH CENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF BLESSED JOHN DUNS SCOTUS 1308-2008

Born at Duns in Scotland at the end of 1265 and received as a young man into the Order of Friars Minor, John was ordained a priest on 17 March 1291. After graduating at the University of Paris, he taught in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and at Cologne. As a faithful son of Saint Francis of Assisi, he pursued the study of Divine Revelation with the most acute insight and published many works of philosophy and theology. He proved himself a fervent herald of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, an untiring promoter of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a defender of the supreme authority of the Roman Pontiff. He was exiled from Paris on 23 June 1303 because of his refusal to sign his name to the libellous attack made by Philip IV the Fair, King of France, on Pope Boniface VIII. Having dedicated all his energies to his teaching office in Cologne, he died there suddenly and prematurely on 8 November 1308. Already during his lifetime the outstanding Christian virtues of this great Master of Theology had gained for him a high reputation for holiness, and within a short time after his death he was venerated in a public cult, not only in the Seraphic Order to which he belonged, but also at Cologne where he is buried and at Nola in Italy. This cult was confirmed by Pope John Paul II on 6 July 1991.

Our Province is marking the seventh centenary of the death of this one of its most outstanding sons with a series of celebrations. The year was inaugurated at the Franciscan International Study Centre on Scotus Day 2007, 8th November, with a Solemn Mass followed by the annual Scotus Lecture given by Br Seamus Mulholland, OFM on the significance of Scotus for today.

On Saturday, 15th March 2008, the Ordination of Duns Scotus which we know took place in St Andrew's Priory, Northampton on 17th March 1291 was commemorated in a Solemn Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Northampton, the Rt. Rev. Peter Doyle, at 12 noon in the Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St Thomas. There were about 20 friars there in their brown habits, including the Ministers Provincial of England and Ireland, the Cathedral choir, servers, and about 60 members of the parish. Br Philippe Yates gave the homily which pointed out the characteristics of Scotus's thought still relevant today. As it happens, many of the present members of the Province were ordained by the Bishop of Northampton of the time between the years 1947 and 1973 when our House of Studies was at East Bergholt in Suffolk, a part of the Diocese of Northampton before the establishment of the Diocese of East Anglia.

On Sunday, 14th September 2008, in St. Mary's Metropolitan Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotus's country of birth will be commemorated with a Solemn Mass celebrated by the Cardinal Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

On Monday, 8th December 2008, at Westminster Cathedral in London, Scotus's famous defence of the Immaculate Conception will be commemorated with a Solemn Mass celebrated by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.

To read the homily preached by Br Philippe Yates, Principal of the Franciscan International Study Centre, at the inauguration of the Year of Scotus (in a Word document) click here.

To read the article The Primacy of Christ in John Duns Scotus: An Assessment written by Br Philippe Yates in FAITH Magazine (January 2008) click on the link below
http://www.faith.org.uk/Publications/Magazines/Jan08/Jan08ThePrimacyOfChristInJohnDunsScotus.html

To read the article Incarnation in Franciscan Spirituality - Duns Scotus and the meaning of love by Br Seamus Mulholland in THE FRANCISCAN (January 2001) click on the link below
http://www.franciscans.org.uk/2001jan-mulholland.html

To read the article The Metaphysics of John Duns Scotus by Seamus Mulholland in PATHWAYS (International Distance Learning School) click on the link below
http://www.philosophypathways.com/essays/mulholland3.html

News and details of further events will be posted here as and when they become available. Some academic events in the centenary celebrations are listed at www.franciscans.ac.uk/Centre/Events/dunsScotusEvents.html

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