The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort...St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Homily on the Occasion of his Formal Institution as Ordinary

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Englishman makes Catholic history in Canada

Fr. Lee Kenyon (left) and Fr. John Wright (right) concelebrate at the Mass of their ordination with Bishop Frederick Henry.

On Saturday 30th June an Englishman became one of the first former Anglicans in Canada to be ordained for service in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter. He was ordained by the Bishop of Calgary, the Most Revd Frederick Henry, at the request of the Ordinary, Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson.

Fr Lee Kenyon, who trained for the Anglican ministry at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, and served as a curate in the Anglican diocese of Blackburn, is part of the first ordination class for the Ordinariate in the US and Canada. He was ordained following a four month formation programme run from St Mary's Seminary in Houston, Texas.

Fr Kenyon was born and raised in Manchester, Lancashire. He is married to Elizabeth, and they have three children.

Fr Kenyon’s parish, St John the Evangelist, was the second oldest Anglican parish in Calgary, founded in 1905 as a parish of the Church of England in Canada (from 1955 the Anglican Church of Canada), until being received, en masse, into the Catholic Church in December 2011. The parish community remains at its historic property through a lease/purchase agreement with the Anglican Diocese of Calgary.

For more information visit: www.calgaryordinariate.com

Hat tip to Br. Charles Gilman, OSB.

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