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

Friday, November 8, 2013

St. Thomas More, Scranton establishes mission in Bath, PA

From the monthly newsletter of St. Thomas More Church, More News:

But we have something even more exciting for which in God’s providence Fr. Rojas arrived just in time. The Bishop of the Diocese of Allentown, Bishop John Barres, has approved our request to begin celebrating our variation of the Roman Rite at Sacred Heart Church in Bath, about an hour south of here. Msgr. Steenson has agreed to designate this community a mission of St. Thomas More Parish. Fr. Rojas’ presence among us will make this new mission possible, since in all likelihood the Mass will be celebrated in Bath on Sunday evenings, when there is already a Mass scheduled here each week. Msgr. Frank Nave, our host in Bath, and I have much still to work out with regard to the details, but we expect that this mission will get off the ground next month during the season in Advent. I ask your prayers for this new venture, that by it we will bring more souls home to the Catholic faith.

This is no surprise to anyone who knows Fr. Bergman, a man on fire to spread the word of Christ, but it is happy news indeed to see a new mission being planted and nourished. Read the rest of Scranton happenings in More News.
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 8, 2013 at 1:51 PM

    Thank you for the news - especially that St. Thomas More's November newsletter has not been posted on-line yet.
    Seems that some other communities are growing as well. St John Vianney, Cleburne, has recently posted the following news: "Starting on November 3rd, mass will be held at Marti Elementary located at 2020 W. Kilpatrick in Cleburne. We are growing rapidly and moving mass to accomodate this growth."
    And the weekly bulletins of OLW, Houston now regularly report attendance of 600+, while it used to be just 450-500 earlier this year.
    BTW, will the new Divine Worship liturgy be used at St. Athanasius, as well?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve CavanaughNovember 10, 2013 at 5:22 AM

    No plans as of yet for the new Divine Worship liturgy at St. Athanasius. I plan on asking Fr. Phillips about plans at Atonement when he returns from Rome with his pilgrims. Fr. Bradford in Boston hasn't received any communications about the new rite as of yet.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)