Franciscans In Urban Ministry

Francis of Assisi and the Strengths Perspective:Guiding Principles for Franciscan Urban Ministries

85 Francis of Assisi and the Strengths Perspective: Guiding Principles for Franciscan Urban Ministries William Margraf, M.S.W. Introduction: Social Analysis The context of urban ministry is born of social imbalances and injustices found in concentrated areas of densely multicultural populations. Situations faced by society as a whole are magnified immensely in any given urban area. The call to serve the people of these conditions and circumstances is not new, and the minister will always find abundant work. The tools and skills a minister employs are many and diverse. Franciscan ministry, as in the case of many other ministries, may use sociological assessments, community organizing, social services outreach, and ecclesial and socioeconomic networks to facilitate some change in the environments in which they serve. The goals are often the similar: rooted in the Gospel, a mode of service is developed to enhance the well-being of the socially marginalized. The plight of the immigrant, the continually scarring effect of racism, the alienation of the socially undesirable and dispossessed, and communitystarved people are the focus of urban ministry. What the urban minister can construct in terms of programs, networks, and community organizing is critical to the improvement of desperate lives seemingly trapped in a cycle of poverty and injustice. This chapter will endeavor not to analyze what urban ministries do, rather it will hope to elucidate a particular way in which the Franciscan religious or layperson may minister in the urban context. After an examination of some of Francis’ own ministerial principles and their applications , an overview of a theoretical system of social work/social service thought will be introduced to contextualize Franciscan approaches in a structured church or agency model of service. While obviously Franciscan ministerial principles stand on their own merit, the thrust of this article is to assist urban ministries begin or re-imagine their work by understanding more deeply the critical disposition of the basic relationship between the minister and the person or population served. The ministry Francis of Assisi 86 William Margraf offered is rooted in a sense of justice and right relationship among God, the one who serves and the one served. Such a tradition still holds great significance and offers impetus for contemporary ministry. Francis and an Interpretation of His Ministry In identifying himself as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Francis undertook various roles in his conception of service in the name of God. Among these roles three stand out in discerning the model of service for Franciscans in urban ministry: healer, peacemaker, and community builder. In all three ministerial dispositions Francis was singularly focused on building the Kingdom. The intrinsic element of his work was that of enabling authentic, mutual, renewed and healed relationships. The strength of this venture lay in his certainty of God’s presence in bringing about new possibilities relationally which had suffered or had been fractured by the pressures of a world in transition, despair, conflict or isolation. Francis saw a world of potential and promise. His life in ministry might be interpreted as a process of healing through the identification of both creation’s strengths and the created’s needs, all rooted in the Creator’s love. This counter-cultural focus still challenges society’s subtle and often virulent disregard in its drive to divide and scapegoat the perceived weak and alien. Francis in his own identification with poverty was able to construct an approach to loving the Supreme and all-merciful Creator through every aspect of life. Every part of creation was the source of praise for him as he dismantled the limits the world had placed on the poor, the alienated and the marginalized. The Leper and Francis: Mutual Healing As Francis was coming to terms with what his new life with God might entail, his encounter with the leper on the roadside served as a defining moment in his spiritual journey. This experience with the poor, forgotten and diseased man helped Francis begin to grasp the lived realities of poverty and acceptance. While poverty can be lived without acceptance, the saint of Assisi came to understand that the integration of the two was critical in following the Gospel life. In poverty one can identify further with the poor Christ and those who are socially marginalized and alienated. By eschewing the trappings of power and privilege, as well as convenience and content- Francis of Assisi and the Strengths Perspective 87...