The Anglican Franciscan Third Order voted overwhelmingly in favour of including The Order of St Francis from the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil as part of its Province of the Americas at a meeting from 25 August to 5 September.
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The meeting, held at the Franciscan International Study Centre in Canterbury, UK, was attended by the Brazilian Franciscans’ provincial secretary, the Reverend Francisco Sales, before the Brazilians received formal admission to the Anglican Third Order on Wednesday 31 August, an Anglican Communion statement said.

The Third Order also voted its first ever woman Minister General at the gathering of over a hundred members. Dorothy Brooker, a priest in Aotearoa/New Zealand, was also elected in succession to Keith Slater, Bishop of Grafton in Australia after six years in the office.

The meeting was also attended by Abbess Patricia of the Anglican Community of St Clare, and part of the Society of St Francis, and George Connor, Bishop of Dunedin in the Province of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Melanesia, and Protector of the three Franciscan Orders.

Speakers at the gathering included Fr Adam Bunnell of the Orders of Friars Minor (OFM) Conventual on the work and ministry of the Franciscan International Centre for Dialogue in Assisi where he is director, and Fr John Quigley OFM on the work of Franciscans International (FI).

Fr Quigley is also executive Director of the FI, the umbrella organisation for the global network of Franciscan groups within the Anglican Church. The FI is a non-governmental organisation which works in partnership with the United Nations in Geneva.

The Third Order has around 3,000 members around the world, with some 2,200 of them in its European Province alone. The Order is adheres to a form of Christian discipleship centred on the teachings and lives of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi.