Our Beginnings
"Love God, serve God. Everything is in that."
- St. Clare of Assisi
The Little Sisters of St. Clare
Sister Grace Teresa Grant, LSSC/PhD [1]
Although the history of The Little Sisters of St. Clare officially begins in 2002, with its recognition by the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church, its roots extend back much further, into the last quarter of the twentieth century. And its birth, growth and development are tied inextricably to both the history of The Episcopal Church and to the theological development of Anglican religious life during that period. We have been shaped by and fostered by these two contexts. For contemporary reality requires religious life to both adhere to the essentials of the Christian faith and to creatively examine how to serve the church and the world to live the Gospel today.
Throughout our history, we have continually examined and re-examined these questions: Who and what are we? What is the purpose of religious life? Why and for whom do we exist in the first half of the twenty-first century?
We hold this tension of being a part of the world yet not of the world, and of being a part of the Church yet challenging the Church to “put on Christ” as Gospel living. We have both been a part of the Church and a part of its divisions. We have both been a part of a traditional model of Third Order Franciscans and a part of a new monastic spirituality movement that defines who we are in new and contemporary ways. Our current issues are identity and authenticity.
Our Founder
Gloria Gayle Lutz Goller, the founder of The Little Sisters of St. Clare (LSSC), was born to a farming family in Mandan, ND, on August 17, 1915. The eldest of four children in a musical family, she offered her beautiful soprano voice to her community, to family musicals, and to her church. In 1937, she moved with her family to Tacoma, WA. It was there she met and married Louis Goller, a young banker.
In 1948, Gloria and Louis moved to Bainbridge Island, WA, where with Gloria’s encouragement, Louis founded the Island’s first bank. She raised their three sons, was active in community and Seattle vocal music activities, and became a devoted member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, which fostered her deepening spiritual growth.
Gloria’s interest in a deeper spiritual path continued a devotion inherited from many generations of ministers within her family. Beginning in the early 1970s, she turned aside from the privileged social life of the wife of a community leader to respond to a call to live a more spirit-filled life. She gathered about 10 women for weekly prayer, meditation, and spiritual development in her home. She taught them Bible study, centering prayer and offered spiritual direction; later the group added Franciscan studies and began praying the rosary. This fellowship group continued for more than 25 years and became the nurturing ground for women seeking a deeper monastic spirituality.
Gloria’s initial call to follow the footsteps of Francis and Clare began when she and Sally Sulonen, a founding member of the weekly prayer group, joined The Society of St. Francis (TSSF) as Associates. There, they discovered their Franciscan hearts as they embraced the Franciscan charism, a form of life centered on the practice of evangelical poverty as a means and a sign of a spiritual poverty that can be filled only by divine grace. They continued this association until 1982, when Gloria became life professed and took the religious name Sister Gloria-Mary, TSSF, and Sally became professed with the religious name Sister Mary-Louise, TSSF.
But Gloria’s vision was to found a contemplative community specific to spiritual transformation and conversion that would as fully as possible respond to the serious vocational calling of women. She envisioned a community that responded to women’s longing for spiritual formation in the Franciscan tradition. It took her a while to find a home for this dream. But like Francis and Clare, she held firm to her vision throughout her lifetime and pursued it faithfully through challenges, disappointments, blessings and gifts of grace.
Two Communities Prior to LSSC
Beginning in the early 1990s, following her husband’s retirement from the bank, Sister Gloria-Mary and Louis spent winters in Arizona, where she met the (then) Rev. Canon Jon Lindenauer, Rector of The King of Glory Congregation in Federal Way, WA. She spoke with Canon Lindenauer of her desire to found a Franciscan order that holds to the tradition established by St. Francis himself, keeping a close relationship with first order Franciscans and being under their supervision and guidance.
Canon Lindenauer introduced her to The Rt. Rev. Jose Manuel Delgado, HFP, the Anglican Bishop of Puerto Rico, who had founded The Franciscan Order of Divine Providence (OFDP) in 1978 and was its Prior. This ecumenical traditional Order was comprised of Brothers and Sisters in Puerto Rico, the mother house, in The Dominican Republic, Spain, and the United States. It was under the protection of the Episcopal Missionary Church [2]. After a year of correspondence to work out the details, in early 1995, Sister Gloria-Mary discerned that she was called to affiliate with the OFDP and Bishop Delgado invited her to be Guardian of a new OFDP foundation on Bainbridge Island.
Franciscan Order of Divine Providence (OFDP). On October 1, 1995, the Feast of St. Francis, Sister Mary Louise Sulonen, TSSF, was professed as a Tertiary in OFDP, at Old St. Peter’s Church, Tacoma, WA, and the following spring she accepted a call to be the entire Order’s Novice Counselor, the beginning of her 20-year period of mentoring novices in Franciscan formation.
The next three years in the Franciscan Order of Divine Providence were filled with dreams expressed and dreams deferred. In 1996, there was great exchange between Bainbridge Island and Puerto Rico — Bishop Delgado came to Seattle for the investiture of The Rev. Canon Jon Lindenauer as Bishop of the Diocese of the West and visited Sisters Gloria-Mary, Sister Mary-Louise, and the entire fellowship group on Bainbridge. Bishop Delgado spoke of his dreams for a Franciscan Retreat Center in the United States and identified a property on Bainbridge Island and later a property in Little Falls, NY, for the Center. But the funds for this Center never materialized. In October 1997, Sister Mary-Louise and her husband visited Bishop Delgado in Puerto Rico and were warmly welcomed to the friary and his parish community.
By 1998 The Bainbridge fellowship group had grown to three professed, one aspirant and several inquirers, as well as its prayer group companions. Included in this group, along with Sister Gloria-Mary and Sister Mary-Louise, was Sister Ella-Maria Mora.
Continuing her commitment to a vision of an expanding Franciscan community, Sister Gloria-Mary found it difficult for the group to grow or have any feeling of stability without a nearby ecclesial jurisdiction. While there were Episcopal Missionary Church bishops and clergy available to preside at professions and gatherings in Puerto Rico and on the East Coast, there were none in the Northwest. Further, the Episcopal Missionary Church had begun another divisive conversation and Sister Gloria-Mary found these divisions placed her in an uncomfortable relationship with the church. In early 1998, with the fellowship’s agreement, Sister Gloria-Mary asked to be relieved of her commitment to OFDP.
In early spring 1998, Sister Gloria-Mary spoke again with The Rt. Rev. Jon Lindenauer about her dream for a Franciscan community of women in the Northwest and desire to be within a local ecclesial jurisdiction. He connected her with The Rt. Rev. Keith A. Ackerman, the Bishop of Quincy, IL, and the Bishop Protector and Minister General of the Franciscan Order of the Divine Compassion, of The Episcopal Church. Bishop Lindenauer thought a connection with a Franciscan community within The Episcopal Church could provide the ecclesiastical stability Sister Gloria-Mary sought.
Franciscan Order of Divine Compassion (FODC). By Trinity Sunday that year, Sister Gloria-Mary had become Mother Gloria-Mary, OSF, Guardian of the Franciscan House of Prayer, Bainbridge Island, under the episcopal oversight of Bishop Ackerman. She continued to lead Franciscan meetings, teach centering prayer based on the Thomas Keating materials, leading lectio divina and a chapel service for worship of the Blessed Sacrament, and offering spiritual direction for both individuals and groups. Her Franciscan House of Prayer invited inquiries from both women and men who lived close enough to meet monthly.
The Franciscan House of Prayer continued to grow and flourish under its affiliation with the FODC. On September 12, 1998, at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church on Bainbridge Island, Mother Gloria-Mary became an Oblate of St. Francis [3] in FODC, and Sister Mary-Louise and Sister Ella-Maria Mora were received as Sisters. The community found FODC to be a supportive and nurturing environment for its growth and development, particularly its formation program. A 1999 newsletter announced Marion Lofgren and Tovi Andrews as Companions, and Karen Williamson as Postulant. In 2000, the Community welcomed Francis Jo Yanagihara as Postulant and Karen Williamson as Novice.
Then in 2000, Mother Gloria-Mary came upon yet another organizational challenge. Her parish, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, had recently called a woman priest as Associate Rector, but her Bishop Visitor did not condone the ordination of women. Bishop Ackerman denied members of the Community permission to receive Holy Eucharist from a woman priest. As an active member of this parish, Mother Gloria-Mary realized once again the need to lead her fledgling Community into greater freedom and autonomy.
She spoke with The Rev. Joseph Tiernan, the Rector of St. Barnabas, about her conundrum and of her call to form an independent Franciscan order for women. Father Joseph agreed that it was time for such a Community and, with Mother Gloria-Mary, called upon The Right Rev. Vincent Warner, Bishop of Olympia, about this interest. Bishop Warner was joyfully enthusiastic and supportive of her desire and call, and connected Mother Gloria-Mary with The Rt. Rev. Sanford Z.K. Hampton, also of the Diocese of Olympia, who provided critical assistance and on-going support in developing the materials and profile needed for the Community’s founding recognition as a Christian Community by The Episcopal Church.
The Founding of The Little Sisters of St. Clare
From 2000-2001, Mother Gloria-Mary continued as Guardian of the Franciscan House of Prayer on Bainbridge Island, hosting monthly gatherings. The group chose St. Clare, a Franciscan and a woman as its patron saint, one who tended Francis with loving care yet honored his commitment to spiritual poverty. The group now called itself “The Little Sisters of St. Clare” and, through prayerful listening to the Spirit, helped Mother Gloria-Mary shape her life-long dream into reality.
At the same time, she and Tovi Andrews, Companion and Secretary, co-created the first official documents of this new group. Working closely with Bishop Hampton, then a member of The Standing Commission on Religious Communities of the House of Bishops, they were able to draft our founding documents responding to the yet-to-be adopted changes to canon law related to religious communities. Bishop Hampton’s counsel was invaluable and permitted our Community to be poised to meet significant change from its very first days. At the same time, Tovi, on behalf of the Community, sought approval from The Episcopal church and applied for federal status as a nonprofit organization.
This founding document, called The Manual, contained the rationale, constitution, and customary for the Community. It states:
The Little Sisters of St. Clare desire to provide an umbrella under which women in several categories may belong to a community dedicated to bringing out into the church and the world, the spirituality of St. Clare within the Franciscan ethos. This mission definition represents our effort to show the fullness of commitment available within our order, to those remaining in the world under either simple or solemn vow. Recent years have seen a decline in vocations to monastic life and paradoxically an awakening, even perhaps a deep hunger among the laity, for a richer spirituality. They are calling forth the Religious to come to their aid.
On October 2, 2002, this new Community was fully recognized by The Standing Committee for Religious Communities of the Episcopal House of Bishops as a Christian Community. On November 14, 2002, The Little Sisters of St. Clare was recognized as a religious Community in the Diocese of Olympia. Mother Gloria-Mary along with eight other women entered Franciscan religious life as the founding members of The Little Sisters of St. Clare:
Sister Mary-Louise Sulonen, LSSC
Sister Anne-Marie Chandler, LSSC
Sister Marian-Hilda Lofgren, LSSC
Sister Ella-Maria Mora, LSSC
Sister Mary-Francis Yanagihara, LSSC
Karen Williamson, Comp/LSSC
Joan Lindall, Comp/LSSC
Tovi Andrews, Comp/LSSC [4]
Mother Gloria-Mary was able to experience her dream come to fruition – the founding of the first Franciscan Community of women in the Episcopal Church. She joyfully expressed her gratitude and delight at its founding – the first Community of its kind: “I have been strengthened in these later days of my life by the quality of Sisterly love of St. Clare connecting to one another through our Lord Jesus Christ. My own vocation – the call to found a Franciscan order for women in this contemporary world has come into being. Thanks be to God. Alleluia.” The eight women who joined her in this intentional Community committed their lives to listen, speak and act out of respect and love for one another. Theirs was a communal offering to God.
From 2002 through 2007, the Community continued to grow. At first, all meetings were held at the Franciscan House of Prayer, forming Sisters and Companions spiritually using guidelines adopted from the Franciscan Order of Divine Providence. Later, once there were four Sisters coming from Sequim, WA, a second group gathered at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Sequim, under the leadership of Sister Mary-Agnes Staples as Convener. Nonetheless, Mother Gloria-Mary continued the individual formation of Sisters, meeting with each individually each month, and met with all women who inquired about a call to Community life.
During these years, as its founder moved into her nineties and its members aged along with her, the Community faced the challenges of sorting out how and when to develop new leadership, and how to continue to grow and maintain its vibrancy. It worked with a consultant on planning for a leadership change. It set policy for the creation of new chapters when there were two Sisters in a geographic area. The beginnings of a chapter in Seattle were forming. The challenges during these years centered on moving from a single leader to a more dispersed leadership model. Great strides were made in reorganizing and restructuring the formation activities; liturgies for professions and promises were created and refined each time they were used and plans for vocational growth were developed. Creative expertise was identified and mentored for each of these roles.
Sustaining this Community
In 2007, Mother Gloria-Mary recognized the time for a successor leader had arrived. After community discernment, she appointed Sister Dorothy-Anne Kiest to continue her vision and stepped back from her daily responsibilities to the Community.
During the following years, the Community discovered what all organizations discover — there is a time of confusion when an organization must move beyond a charismatic leader to become a sustaining, contributing, vital organization. Franciscan history is replete with examples of this, beginning with the time that Francis relinquished his leadership and retired to Mount Verna.
From 2007-2015, Sister Dorothy-Anne Kiest served as Mother Guardian and ably shepherded us through the organizational transition as we expanded from a single Community group with an extension in Sequim into a multi-chapter Community. She carefully listened to our founding vision and discerned the Community’s call to respond to the spiritual needs of women in a wider geographic area. Under Mother Dorothy-Anne’s leadership and guidance, The Little Sisters of St. Clare expanded into a dispersed Community of fifteen Sisters and Novices, in Western Washington, with an Oratory gathering space in Seattle and with chapters meeting in Bainbridge Island, Sequim, and Seattle.
Slowly and over time, as the energy and health of our founder and founding members diminished, Mother Dorothy-Anne fostered other emerging voices to provide leadership in the Community. By 2010, Sister Grace Teresa Grant had become Novice Mistress; Novice Patrice O’Brien had become Secretary, Sister Karen-Anne Williamson had become Convener for the Sequim Chapter, Novice Marcia Bracher had become Almoner, Sister Kathryn-Mary Little had become Convener of the Bainbridge Chapter, and Sister DedraAnn Bracher had become Convener for the Seattle Chapter. The Community’s annual participation at NAECC (the National Association of Episcopal Christian Communities) created bonds with the larger religious Community, giving us national connections and relations.
Mother Gloria-Mary died on January 18, 2012 at age 97. At her death, she left a generous bequest to the Community. In April 2012, Mother Dorothy-Anne, in consultation with the Board of Directors of the Diocese of Olympia, created a letter of agreement to establish this endowment with the sole purpose of using these funds to continue Mother Gloria-Mary’s passion: supporting the on-going spiritual formation of Sisters. The Community became a registered nonprofit organization in the State of Washington to enable receiving future donations.
The original LSSC Manual guided the Sisters from 2002 until 2013, when at Mother Dorothy-Anne’s encouragement, we undertook a three-year study process to revise our Manual and field test its recommendations before an expected final adoption in 2016. The resulting documents – a Community Rule, a Constitution, and a Customary – more accurately reflect our current organization and twenty-first century ways of being in the world. But these documents retained our founding values: our commitment to listen, speak and act out of respect and love for one another and all of creation. We continue to discern who we are as a Community while also discerning and developing individual gifts.
In 2015, following the provisional adoption of its revised Constitution, the Community engaged in a three-month community discernment process prior to holding its first election of officers. In August 2015, Sister DedraAnn Bracher was elected to a three-year term as Mother Guardian; Sister Brigid Kaufmann was elected to a two-year term as Treasurer, and Patrice O’Brien was elected to a one-year term as Secretary.
Throughout our years as a Community, we have been guided by wise and caring clergy. At our founding in 2002, our Community invited as Chaplain the Rev. Joseph Tiernan, Rector of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church on Bainbridge Island; following Father Joseph, each new Rector assumed this role. Then in 2015, we elected to a fiveyear term as Chaplain The Rev. Katherine Sedwick of St. Michael and All Angels, Issaquah, to further reflect our growing understanding of who we are as a Community of women. The Rt. Rev. Sanford Z.K. Hampton served as Bishop Visitor from our founding until his full retirement in 2015. His pastoral presence contributed significantly in our early years, as an image of faithful service and wise guidance to our leaders and encouragement to individual Sisters. He presided at the profession of fifteen Sisters and the life profession of three. Upon his full retirement in 2015 we elected to a five-year term as Bishop Visitor The Rt. Rev. Gregory Rickel, Bishop of Olympia.
We continue to grow new leadership while meeting the needs of our aging Sisters. In 2018, Sister Brigid Kaufmann was elected Mother Guardian for a three-year term. Officers serving with her are Sister Dorothy-Anne Kiest, Secretary and Sister Julian Ortung, Treasurer. Appointed leaders include Sister Dorothy-Anne Kiest, Deputy Guardian; Sister Kathryn-Mary Little, Vocations Guardian; Sister Grace Teresa Grant, Formation Guardian; Sister Marcia Elizabeth Bracher, Almoner; and Sister Brigid Kaufmann, Liturgist. Chapter Conveners are Sister Judith Kenyon in Sequim and Sister Grace Teresa Grant in Seattle (the Bainbridge Chapter was disbanded in early 2017 because there were no longer two active Sisters resident there).
Who are we now?
- We embrace the calling of all Christians to be Christ-like and live out that calling under the evangelical counsels of simplicity, fidelity, and purity, as our response to the Gospel, in obedience to our Community Rule, Constitution, and Customary.
- We balance our following of Clare and Francis, embracing Clare’s feminine spirituality while following, as she did, the charism of Francis.
- While we have grown to an expanded Community of fifteen Sisters and novices, we continue to hold fast both to our full respect for the monastic life, and to our focus on mission. We remain committed to our founder’s vision: (1) to make our Lord known and loved, and (2) to bring the contemplative spirituality of St. Clare from the cloister to the world.
- We continue to gather monthly, just as those first women gathered for prayer and formation with Mother Gloria-Mary nearly forty years ago.
- We take joy in experiencing our monastic Community as an expression of tradition and stability. We continue to be rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition that includes both contemplative prayer and active ministries to others. We continue to navigate the tension between transcendence and practicality, between developing an interior life and serving others, between a commitment both to contemplation and to activism.
- Like Mother Gloria-Mary, we acknowledge our need to move flexibly with changing times and challenges, to foster new leadership, and to be open to the Spirit’s calling. We continue to ask ourselves the central questions: Who and what are we? What is the purpose of our religious life? Why and for whom do we exist in the first half of the twenty-first century? What are we not? What can’t we be any more? What is perhaps unfaithful to be any longer?
[1] I am grateful to these women who helped in compiling this history:
- Sister Mary-Louise Sulonen and Companion Tovi Andrews who shared their personal archives with me.
- Sister Mary-Louise, Companion Tovi Andrews, Sister Dorothy-Anne Kiest, and then-Mother Guardian DedraAnn Bracher, who answered my continuing questions.
- Sister Dorothy-Anne, who entrusted me with the entire LSSC Community Archives.
- Diane Wells, Archivist for the Diocese of Olympia, who searched her resources in answer to my questions.
[2] The Episcopal Missionary Church (EMC) is a Continuing Anglican church body in the United States and a member of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas. Its founding in the early 1990s can be traced to the protests of members of The Episcopal Church who were concerned that their church had become massively influenced by secular humanism (i.e., liberal theologies) (Wikipedia, retrieved 10/16/20016).
[3] In the Franciscan Order of Divine Compassion, Oblates of St. Francis are required to adhere to more vows than a Sister; Oblates adhere to the vow of Obedience, in addition to the vows of Simplicity, Fidelity, and Purity.
[4] These are the women whose names were submitted in our application to the House of Bishops” Standing Committee for Religious Communities and to the Diocese of Olympia. Other women were present with the Community but had not yet become Sisters or Companions