Joseph Kline played his first organ recital in Philadelphia at age fifteen. He went on to study privately with Alexander McCurdy of the Curtis Institute before entering the Juilliard School as a student of Vernon deTar. During his last year at Juilliard (1970-1971), he presented the complete organ works of J.S. Bach in fourteen recitals, inspiring an editorial in the Christian Science Monitor and a feature article on the twenty-one-year-old in the New York Times. The Philadelphia Musical Fund Society sponsored the Bach cycle the following year and the Columbia Records recordings of these thirteen recitals are still aired today.

His musical career, which included appearances on the Voice of America and as a featured soloist at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, came to an abrupt halt in 1972 when he entered the Trappist monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky and took the name of Francis. He studied theology in Europe from 1980 to 1984, and was ordained a priest in 1986. On January 21, 1990, he was elected third Abbot of Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina, and was appointed Director of the Office of Prayer and Worship for the Diocese of Charleston in March of 1995.

Under Father Francis' guidance, Mepkin Abbey has continued to flourish as a spiritual sanctuary while simultaneously offering an open door to diverse spiritual seekers. The SKSF first learned of Mepkin through Josh Skudlarick, a student Duke SKS member who spent a summer in the contemplative monastery as a Monastic Guest, a kind of temporary "lay monk." SKSF Executive Director Augie Turak recalls he was at work when Josh called him from the monastery: "This kid was completely changed. Just the tone of his voice made me sit up and forget about all the business I was buried in. I knew I had to get down to that monastery right away, to see what he'd seen." After visiting, Turak was in awe of the brothers' quiet selflessness, service, and love of God. He was also impressed with their Abbot, Fr. Francis. Soon after he invited Fr. Francis to play a rare, public recital at Duke Chapel in October of 1997. Entitled "The Spiritual Bach," the concert was part of the SKS "What is Enlightenment?" event series, which also featured the legendary Huston Smith. With over 1700 attendants, the concert set a new attendance record widely covered in local media.

Fr. Francis commented upon joining the SKSF Advisory Board, "The SKSF provides a compelling new model for the spiritual search today, especially for young people who are hungry for meaning. They're a spiritual community without monastery walls, but nonetheless committed in their profound desire for God. I am pleased to be part of their work."

In the spring of 2000, the SKSF sponsored a for-credit course and alternative spring break program offered to students at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. The course focused on finding the meaning of work and prayer within oneself and the greater community. The spring break trip was hosted by Mepkin Abbey and allowed twenty of the students from the course to experience work and prayer specific to Mepkin.

SKSF Program Director Mary Alice Scott said, "The Self Knowledge Symposium and the Self Knowledge Symposium Foundation are eternally grateful to Father Francis and all the monks at the Abbey, for allowing us to share in their community and their service, worship, and love of God. The students couldn't wait to enroll in the new program."

Click here for a full list of the SKSF Board of Directors.

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Mepkin Abbey is a Trappist-Cistercian monastery founded in 1949 at Mepkin Plantation on the banks of the Cooper River outside Charleston, a gift to the monks by Clare Booth and Henry R. Luce. The brothers of the community pray, work, and study on land that played an important role in the American Revolution and in the subsequent history of South Carolina. The monks support themselves by egg production, the manufacture and sale of organic compost (Earth Healer), and a large timber farm. The Luce gardens and the Abbey Church are open daily to the public. The monastic community welcomes visitors seeking spiritual renewal in silence. Accommodations are available to men and women for an overnight stay or a retreat of several days. For more information, visit www.mepkinabbey.org.

The Self Knowledge Symposium Foundation (SKSF) is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging people to consciously develop their own personal, moral and spiritual values and to live according to them. The SKSF has been praised as "the hottest thing happening in higher education today" by Dr. William Willimon, Dean of Duke University Chapel, ranked by Newsweek as one of the top ten preachers in the English-speaking world, and author of the The Search for Meaning. At the forefront of the national interest in spirituality, the SKSF creates experiential learning programs and social contexts within which people can explore the deeper questions in life, developing intellectual understanding and personal character in a quest for the life worth living. The SKSF advises the SKS campus groups, sponsors a non-student discussion group, and co-sponsors meetings, lectures, retreats and The Symposium spiritual journal. For more information, visit www.selfknowledge.org.