We are Five weeks away from many of us coming together in St. Louis for the Annual Federation Conference. This AFC Advent prayer series has been put together by the AFC Planning Committee. Those members include Michele Dunne, OFS; Susan Marie Pleiss, OSF; Carolyn Townes, OFS; Cheryl Wint, OSF; Brother Ian Boden; Jamie Caporizo; and Sara P. Marks.
Included in the AFC Planning Committee are two sisters, who have acted as wisdom voices to guide our planning to keep continuity while also exploring new ways of doing things. Those two sisters are Michelle L’Allier, OSF and Shell Balek, OSF.
And finally, Krista Clements, who you may remember from her facilitation of the Emergent Group, joins us as our conference facilitator.
As you all know, our conference theme: Awaken Joy: There’s Room for You in the Crib, celebrates the 800th anniversary of Francis at Greccio. As such, the planning committee thought it would be a nice addition to our conference to offer four AFC Advent prayer evenings. Each session will be recorded and posted Thursday morning.
Wednesday, May 3rd, we commissioned Carolyn Townes—who will be traveling to Assisi and Greccio the second week in May with Franciscans International. Carolyn has committed to writing a prayer for us that she will pray at Greccio and bring back to our opening ritual at AFC in June! Below is the recording of Carolyn’s Commissioning.