With joy and thanksgiving we welcome Joshua Jair Whitfield and his wife April Allison, with their little children Magdalene and Peter, into our Parish Family. In fact, of course, they have been part of this family for some two and a half years already; but Josh has now been ordained to the Diaconate and is about to be or- dained to the Sacred Priesthood – so, as Father Josh, that relation- ship to the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin will be deepened and changed in character. Josh has a distinguished academic back- ground, including study at Duke University under Stanley Hauer- was. His seminary training was in England at the College of the Resurrection -- a seminary connected with the Community of the Resurrection, an Anglican monastic community at Mirfield in Yorkshire. (My own last parish in England had numerous con- nections with – and vocations to – the Community of the Resur- rection; and my priest-father would make his annual retreat there.) As you will know, Josh served for a number of years in the Anglican priesthood; and thus he is an experienced pastor – most recently, until three years ago, as Rector of the Anglican parish in Mansfield. He and his wife were received into Full Communion in the Catholic Church by Bishop Vann in Novem- ber 2009, at which time they became members of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin; and he has been working as Director of Faith Formation at St Rita’s Catholic Church in Dallas.
Fr. Joshua Whitfield will celebrate his solemn Mass of Thanksgiving for his ordination at St. Mary the Virgin on Sunday, July 8th at 10:30 a.m. with a reception to follow.
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