Twentieth sponsorship conference: Celebrating our mission, Franciscan leadership

On Oct. 29 and 30, the FSPA Office of Mission Integration welcomed individuals from FSPA’s sponsored ministries who came together to celebrate the 20th annual sponsorship conference. Guests gathered the evening before the conference to share stories and delight in a gallery of photos from the past 20 years. The gallery also honored past Christian Mission Award recipients, an honor first presented in 1992.

Sister Paulynn Instenes welcomed guests and shared a top ten list, 10 reasons we are grateful. One reason mentioned the leadership of Sister Celesta Day who developed the ministry of sponsorship and the tool, We Are CALLED, How Can We RESPOND?, to evaluate how well the institutions carry out the FSPA mission. Later in the evening, Sister Celesta Day shared memories of her 16 years as mission integration director.

The celebration continued the next day as guests gathered at Stoney Creek Inn, Onalaska, Wis., to hear Sister of St. Francis and St. Bonaventure University president, Margaret Carney, speak about Franciscan roles and values-based leadership in today’s Franciscan institutions. About 180 guests attended the event. FSPA President Sister Marlene Weisenbeck offered the welcome, calling the conference “a time in which we meet together and renew our commitment to the mission of our religiously sponsored organizations.” She thanked those present “for opening themselves to this opportunity of education and for engaging in a heart-felt world of exchange—the definition of Franciscan mission.”

This year, the Christian Mission Award recognized the past 16 recipients. Sister Marlene asked all recipients to stand and added that everyone present is truly part of the Christian Mission Award.

Sister Georgia Christensen introduced the day’s speaker, Sister Margaret Carney, as an outstanding leader in Franciscan education. “This was recently recognized when she was named one of the top 100 leading educators in North America by Irish Voice Newspaper,” said Sister Georgia. “Sister Margaret is considered a leader with a strong impulse for collaboration—a true servant leader.”

Ideas and ideals of Franciscan leadership: Sister Margaret Carney’s research and experience
“There is something that the Franciscan movement has to say to people engaged in the world of the economy, the world of management, the world of business,” Sister Margaret began. “But there is a caution in me as I talk with you about the definition of Franciscan leadership.” According to Sister Margaret, when these terms are put together, Franciscan and leadership, and servant and leadership, they become a coincidence of opposites (a term referred to in Bona-venture’s theology). This coincidence sets up “a kind of ongoing tension.” But Sister Margaret shared some wonderful news, “being in a healthy tension is a fairly good description of a Franciscan lifestyle. As much as we proclaim peace at all times, the path to peace is filled with living in healthy tension, and ambiguity and the not yet.”

She shared some “sure things” attendees can learn from the Franciscan history—what Francis and Clare and those early companions of the Franciscan movement have to tell today’s leaders about leadership. She dubbed this “a pathway to prove helpful in their leadership roles.”

“They were two human beings who were geniuses in meeting the hungers of their age with the way of living the Gospel message of Christ, and they have a lot to tell us,” Sister Margaret assured the audience. She cautioned: “We also do well to understand the limits of their ages and the difficulty we would face if we expect them to answer all of our questions.” This, according to Sister Margaret, leads us to the bad news. “As a man and woman of medieval time, they would not have a clue about the particulars that you and I deal with every day.” She added that this does not negate their importance nor the importance for us to learn their story. “But it does under-score the very great importance of recognizing that if their story is not reappropriated, reimagined, and dare I even say re-engineered to be of service to us, 21st century seekers, it is a quaint gift of Christian anthropology and history but little more.”

Sister Margaret then credited the generation after Francis and Clare, their successors, for finding a methodology for their teachings. “St. Bonaventure, through his writings, his teachings, his defenses in the Franciscan way of life, salvaged so much that may have been cast aside by the church.”

She shared Bonaventure’s six wings of the seraph, an important analogical construct in his mystical work The Journey of the Mind to God, and offered comparisons to today’s contemporary work by Daniel Goleman, whose books include Emotional Intelligence and Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor. Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence links with concepts of love and spirituality: bringing compassion and humanity to work.

Six habits (or virtues) of a successful Franciscan leader:
The Franciscan master said zeal for righteousness and Goleman says motivation, self-awareness. Sister Margaret offered this definition, “There are those who don’t do evil, they do some good and are strong people, but they’re not concerned enough when wrong-doing occurs to courageously confront it.” She asked those present to think about this: “Where were the people [on Wall Street] who should have confronted the slight of hand that was going on in some of those financial institutions?” She added “The really great leader has great zeal for motive or action.”

The Franciscan master said piety–fraternal love or compassion and Goleman says empathy. “This is a concern for those who through physical or mental weakness cannot meet our expectations,” said Sister Margaret. “How does one extend concern to someone who has lost physical and mental stamina and capacity to perform?”

The Franciscan master said patience and good example; Goleman says self- regulation. Sister Margaret reminded the leaders present that, as a leader, “you’re going to have greater responsibilities than everybody and nobody is going to thank you for doing your job.” She said, “You have to have the ability to sustain hope in adversity. People who make excellent leaders have to live with criticism and not 100 percent approval. They also have to have a mentoring attitude—show respect for the qualities and talents to those in subservient positions.”

The Franciscan master said good judgment and Goleman says social skill. “This is making prudent decisions,” offered Sister Margaret. “It’s also knowing when to modify roles and when to delegate.”

The Franciscan master said devotion to God and Goleman says blend of spiritual awareness, mindfulness. “This is a spiritual quest,” said Sister Margaret. “The best modern research is actually defining a kind of leadership that does remind us very much of the qualities of a Francis and a Clare.”

Sister Margaret also talked about an unspoken dilemma around leadership, power, authority, executive style and responsibility. “Our institutions today share the awful anxiety and the problem of staying true to the deeper and demanding identities of the church in an era where its identity is sometimes tainted by serious scandal and question,” she said. “The other problem, when we talk about Franciscan values, is it’s easier to speak about a legacy, a culture. We need to be open to a wide variety of resources to understand how best to do this work. ”

Sister Margaret offered the values work of Harold Laswell, one of the seminal social scientists of the 20th century.

These values are: well-being (the need for safety for leisure), affection (one’s right to friendship, relationship, to be engaged freely in social community with others), respect (the right to freedom from an attack on honor, reputation), power (the right to participate in those decisions that affect my life and well-being), wealth (the right to property and a just standard of living), enlightenment (the right to receive education and information), skill (the right to acquire the abilities and competencies that will confer upon me the ability to do work) and rectitude (integrity of conscience).

“Good governance seeks to maximize all eight of those for the individuals for whom the organization is responsible,” said Sister Margaret. “Ask yourselves: How am I going to maximize these in my organization? Where are we strong? Where are weak? What are the kinds of values that should impact us? What are the embedded practices that keep us from getting to a better structure?” She added, “How do you claim the power of your structure without destroying the power of others? This is the task you are about. You are about helping to create a Franciscan structure of grace that will carry this wonderful story into the next century.”

"'My ancestors will stand with us in spirit because until now, I am the reason they existed.' Brothers and sisters, we are the reason they existed. If you and I weren't here in this room today dedicating our time and efforts to find a way to take this tradition into our daily lives and work, their existence would be meaningless. We are no less than they. We are no more than they. But we are the story at this moment and time. They existed so that you and I could stand here eight centuries later and see the truth and the beauty and the hope in their stories." - Sister Margaret Carney, on Francis and Clare of Assisi, opening with a quote from the movie "Amistad"