Brother Clark Berge, SSF, has become accustomed to a certain amount of running in his life, both figuratively and literally, but there was a time when he would have preferred to stay still, avoid movement and change, and keep from rocking the boat too much. God has a way of piercing through our spiritual and mental haze, though, with a clarion call to rise up, meet our unique path, and begin to walk—or, in Friar Clark’s case, run—in the direction it seems to be inviting us.
For a few, this call might happen in a dramatic instant, as in the conversion of St. Paul. But for many, perhaps most, God’s beckoning to us is like a constant, low-volume radio message, filled with the static of our distracted thoughts and worries.
As Brother Clark’s story attests, if we tune in and decipher that message, the path forward is illuminated for us. But like any marathon, it begins with one step.
Non-Catholic Franciscans?
First of all, some readers might not be familiar with the letters following Brother Clark’s name, SSF. This stands for the Society of St. Francis, an Anglican Franciscan religious community founded a little over a century ago, which also includes Episcopalian Franciscans in the United States.
I, for one, was only vaguely aware of the existence of non-Catholic Franciscans, but there certainly are vibrant communities around the world living in the same spirit of St. Francis as their Catholic counterparts. In fact, many non-Catholic Franciscans work right alongside their Catholic brothers and sisters in various ministries around the world.
Raised in an Episcopalian family in Snohomish, Washington—about an hour north of Seattle—for some time, Brother Clark struggled with his identity. Eventually he acknowledged and became comfortable with the fact that he is a gay man, something he had long suspected but that had been pushed to the peripheries of his mind. His love of Christ, deep connection with his faith, and passion for serving others led Brother Clark to becoming a deacon in 1984 and then ordained a priest in 1985. However, Brother Clark found himself feeling lonely in the role of parish priest and school chaplain. He loved his faith, but he yearned for community, a family.
A chance gift of the book God’s Fool, by Julien Green, opened Brother Clark’s eyes and heart to the story of St. Francis, and upon reading it during a camping trip, he made up his mind to join the Franciscans. “[St. Francis] was trying to conform to society’s expectations by being a knight,” he says. “But I sort of felt like, you know, I was an Episcopal priest. I was in this wealthy parish school. I was conforming to society’s expectations. Everybody was happy with me.” But he wasn’t at peace. Again, a poor, holy man from 800 years ago offered him an example.
“I think it was the way in which [St. Francis] sort of claimed the narrative of his life,” Brother Clark says. “He had this sense that this is what God was calling him to. And he had the courage to do it over all the objections of his family and the ridicule of his peers.” At the time, some of Brother Clark’s own family members pushed back against his decision to join the Franciscans. It’s a kind of resistance some might be surprised to find those discerning religious life have to deal with.
In 1989, Brother Clark joined the Society of St. Francis, taking his final vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in 1993.
Change in the Wind (Again)
After a few years as an Episcopalian Franciscan friar, Brother Clark faced another tough decision: giving up alcohol, which was beginning to impact his life negatively. But after successfully cutting it out of his life, Brother Clark still felt a sense of unease.
“There wasn’t a crisis, but after five years without alcohol and nearly 15 years as a Franciscan brother, I had to acknowledge that something still wasn’t right with my life,” he writes in his book Running to Resurrection: A Soul-Making Chronicle (Canterbury Press). A visit to the chiropractor and a seemingly insignificant question (What do you do to exercise?) led Brother Clark to consider taking up running, an activity he did earlier in life, but not something he was ever passionate about.
Feeling out of shape physically and spiritually, slowly but steadily, Brother Clark began to incorporate running into his daily life. His life as a Franciscan would continue to shift him around various locales, depending on the ministry or expertise needed. As he lived in or visited different places—New York, the Solomon Islands, Assisi, California, the Holy Land, and more—he kept running. And a huge part of what kept Brother Clark running was prayer.
Many of Brother Clark’s travels occurred from 2007 to 2017, when he was the minister general of the Society of St. Francis, an international order with about 145 members and five provinces. In that time, he met with Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, and England’s Queen Elizabeth II.
For six years following his leadership of the order, Brother Clark served as guardian of the idyllic Hilfield Friary in Dorset, England. Since 2023, Brother Clark has been living at the San Damiano Friary in San Francisco, where he is actively involved in the nearby St. John the Evangelist Church. He also volunteers at San Francisco’s Botanical Gardens and previously volunteered with the National Park Service, cleaning up Ocean Beach, just south of the Golden Gate Bridge.
While Brother Clark was guardian of Hilfield Friary, he wrote Running to Resurrection, which was published in 2019. One of my favorite lines from his book not only nicely sums up his reason for running, it also points to his love of and loyalty to the Franciscan charism: “Running is a salutary reminder of whose world I inhabit,” Brother Clark writes.
