St Gregory the Great Ordinariate Community announces formal membership enrollment

Formal Membership Enrollment September 8th!

AUGUST 27, 2013

Those wishing to enroll as formal members of our parish will do so on 9/8 during Mass. Fr. Liias asks all who wish to be enrolled to bring a copy of the form requesting membership in the Ordinariate, whether they have sent one to the Ordinariate or not. Find out more and get what you need here.

News from St. John Fisher Catholic Ordinariate Community

Dear Friends of the St. John Fisher Catholic Ordinariate Community,

Happy Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo.

Thank you for your patience.  Even the relatively slow month of August has been a busy one behind the scenes.  We have a list of several Ordinariate-related events to share with you this time.

Revised schedule:

Due to scheduling (and other) factors, we are planning a service of Anglican Use Evening Prayer on Sept. 8 at 5:00pm at Holy Spirit Catholic Parish.  We had hoped to begin a regular Mass at St. Mary of Sorrows Historic Church on that date, but scheduling conflict has sent us "back to the drawing board" on that front.  We hope to have more news on this in fairly short order.  In addition, we have learned recently that the revised Ordinariate Mass is to be introduced this fall, so we are weighing the relative merits of spending perhaps less than two months with the existing Book of Divine Worship and then switching to a different version in October or November.

***Note that the weekly Anglican Use Mass at Our Lady of Hope (5:00pm) will continue during this time, in any case.***

Fr. Sly on EWTN Radio tomorrow:

Fr. Randolph Sly, our chaplain, is scheduled to appear on the "At Home with Jim & Joy Pinto" radio show at 2:00pm tomorrow, August, 29.  To listen online or find your local station, see the website:  https://www.ewtn.com/radio/other/athomewithjimandjoy.asp

"Devil's Advocate" debate series:

The Office for Family Life of the Diocese of Arlington will sponsor a series of three "debates" on successive Tuesdays in September - Sept. 10, 17 & 24, 7-9pm at the Bishop Ireton High School auditorium.  Flyer is attached below.  The Sept. 17 debate ("Protestant Critiques of Catholicism") will feature our own Vaughn Treco.  Map: http://mapq.st/16LJV6J

Fr. Bergman to speak at Institute of Catholic Culture (ICC) event:

On Sunday, Sept. 22 at St. Michael Catholic Church in Annandale, VA, Fr. Eric Bergman, pastor of St. Thomas More Catholic Church, the Ordinariate parish in Scranton, PA, will speak at the second of two presentations, "Catholic for A Reason: Stories of the Conversion to the True Faith."  The Institute of Catholic Culture (website: http://www.instituteofcatholicculture.org/) will be familiar to readers of our email newsletters.  The first presentation in the series (Sept. 15) will feature Msgr. Stuart Swetland of Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD.

For directions and more information about these events: http://www.instituteofcatholicculture.org/catholic-for-a-reason-stories-of-conversion-to-the-true-faith/

Remember, this and many other ICC events can be viewed live online and are available after-the-fact via video or audio through their extensive Media Library: http://www.instituteofcatholicculture.org/library/

40 Days for Life begins Sept. 25:

The Fall 2013 40 Days for Life Campaign, a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access God's power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion, will take place from Wed., Sept. 25 through Sunday, Nov. 3.  To learn more about campaigns in the local area, including Alexandria, Falls Church and Manassas, visit their websites -

Alexandria:  http://40daysforlife.com/alexandria.html

Falls Church:  http://40daysforlife.com/fallschurch.html

Manassas:  http://40daysforlife.com/manassas.html

Updated form to request membership in U.S. Ordinariate:

The form requesting membership in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter has been updated recently.  Those of you who have not yet submitted a form will want to use the updated version.  Those of you who have already submitted a form would do well to re-submit your request using the new form, which is attached below the "Devil's Advocate" flyer below.

Contribute to the work of the St. John Fisher Ordinariate Community:

We invite you to contribute to the work of the St. John Fisher Ordinariate Community. Your financial help will assist us in our growth and development.  (We also welcome volunteer help with the numerous other tasks necessary to do a weekly Mass.)

Please make checks out to St. Luke's Catholic Church and add "St. John Fisher Ordinariate Community" on the "For" Line.   Checks may be mailed  to:

SJFOC

C/O Bernard L. Seward, Jr.

8308 Fox Harrow Lane

Annandale, VA  22003

In Christ,

Heide Seward
Secretary
St. John Fisher Catholic Ordinariate Community,

a mission of St. Luke's Catholic Church, Bladensburg, MD

Amendment to Apostolic Constitution Complementary Norms Emphasizes Mission to Evangelize

We recently received some very good news from Rome that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, approved on May 31, 2013, a significant modification to the Complementary Norms for Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus, which establishes and guides the work of the Ordinariate.

The modification addresses a particular question of who is eligible for membership in the Ordinariate.  Here is the modification in the Complementary Norms:
5§2:  A person who has been baptized in the Catholic Church but who has not completed the Sacraments of Initiation, and subsequently returns to the faith and practice of the Church as a result of the evangelizing mission of the Ordinariate, may be admitted to membership in the Ordinariate and receive the Sacrament of Confirmation or the Sacrament of the Eucharist or both.
In communicating this modification, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stresses that the objective criterion of an incomplete catechesis is the baptized Catholic who lacks one or other of the Sacraments of Initiation (Confirmation, reception of the Eucharist).  Catholics may not become members of the Ordinariate “for purely subjective motives or personal preference.”
I certainly welcome this development, which further establishes our place in the work of the new evangelization.  Our primary mission remains the reconciliation of Christian people coming from the Anglican tradition who are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.  Particularly in North America, with large percentages of “unchurched” peoples, it is inevitable that we will encounter those who have no formal ecclesial relationships but who are seekers of truth.  The Great Commission thus becomes more and more the heart of our work.
The episcopal conferences of Canada and the U.S. have been generous and enthusiastic in their support of us in the Ordinariate, as co-workers of the Gospel.  It is heartening indeed to have this formal encouragement from the Holy See.
So let us renew our efforts to commend the Gospel to all people!

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson

from the web site of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Fr. Steenson: Pastoral Letter, 31 January 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Greetings in the Name of the Lord! The Ordinariate is finally off and running, after much anticipation, work, and prayer. We have many exciting things that are happening, and we want you to be aware of them as we launch this new endeavor. We are going to try to use our website and our Facebook page as our vehicles to keep you informed of current news until our communities and our communication are better organized.

Candidate Formation Weekend

We have just completed a wonderful Formation Weekend in Houston for the priest candidates and their wives for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. With deeply moving contributions from His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, the formation faculty of St. Mary’s Seminary, Marcus Grodi of the Coming Home Network, Fr. Paul Lockey (Pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Houston), Fr. Scott Hurd (Vicar General) and Dr. Margaret Chalmers (Chancellor), we have begun to take the first steps in preparing a group of very dedicated men for ordination.

As the Ordinariate was only established this month, this was our first opportunity to come together in mutual discernment and encouragement. There were many questions asked, and we certainly don’t have all the answers, but we know where to look. The goal of coming into full communion with the Catholic Church orients us in the right direction, and we are joyfully confident of our future. I am deeply moved by the courage and the faith of these men and their wives, who are going to be used by God to contribute to the building up of the Body of Christ.

We dealt particularly with the theological foundations for the Ordinariate, very much in line with Pope Benedict’s moving words about the nature of the Ordinariate in his address to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Jan. 27. He spoke of the importance of distinguishing the Tradition with a capital T from particular traditions by pointing to the groups of faithful coming from Anglicanism, “who wish to join the full communion of the Church, in the unity of the common and essentially divine Tradition, preserving their own distinctive traditions, spiritual, liturgical and pastoral, that are in keeping with the Catholic faith.” It is indeed a journey to full communion that we are on, but our identity is embraced by the Catholic Church. “There is, in fact, a spiritual wealth in the various Christian confessions that is the expression of the one faith, a gift to be shared and to be discerned within the Tradition of the Church.”

Installation of the Ordinary

On Feb. 12, Cardinal Wuerl and Cardinal DiNardo will help to inaugurate the Ordinariate at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston. At this mass at 3 p.m., I will be invested liturgically with the responsibility of leading the Ordinariate. Your prayers and your presence are very welcome! I have been overwhelmed with the prayers and good wishes of so many in the Catholic Church who have opened their arms and their hearts to us. And very touching too have been the words of encouragement from other Christians as well who rejoice to see God’s people listening to and following their consciences.

We are now working diligently to lay proper foundations for the Ordinariate, both canonical and civil, and once this has been completed, we expect to be able to receive groups and congregations in the near future. We know that communities have lots of questions regarding the entry into the Ordinariate. There is an information form on the website (www.usordinariate.org) for those who may wish to explore this further – particularly in the “Resources” section of the site.

We are expecting that the Ordinariate will include three categories of corporate membership – parishes, quasi-parishes more commonly known as missions, and smaller groups of people that could be designated public associations of the faithful. All former Anglicans who are now in full communion with the Catholic Church or who are preparing to be received are eligible to belong to the Ordinariate. We will work carefully with the local Catholic bishop to facilitate this process of discernment for those communities who approach us.

How To Join the Ordinariate

There have been many questions regarding how one joins the Ordinariate. Our founding document, Anglicanorum Coetibus gives us direction regarding membership in the Ordinariate.

AC IX. Both the lay faithful as well as members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally part of the Anglican Communion, who wish to enter the Personal Ordinariate, must manifest this desire in writing.

As the document indicates, no one is automatically a member of the Ordinariate. Rather, it is required that anyone who wants to belong to the Ordinariate needs to submit a petition in writing for membership. All membership request letters need to be sent via the US mail so that the Ordinariate has a hard copy record with both names and signatures. We also request that any other documents or lists sent to us electronically need to be in PDF format and sent as attachments. A sample membership letter can be found on our website, as well as the community profile questionnaire and a clergy information form.

Please be patient with us in responding to these requests. We have very limited personnel, and it may take some time before you hear back. But do not worry! The Ordinariate will soon be served by a very competent administrator to help manage this very complex process of incardinating clergy and incorporating groups. This will help us in our ability to respond to questions and requests in as timely a manner as possible...

Read the rest of Fr. Steenson's Pastoral Letter at the web site of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

All former Anglicans can join ordinariate, says bishop

An English bishop has confirmed that Anglicans who were received into the Catholic Church years ago can join the personal ordinariate created by Benedict XVI last year.

The Pope established the world’s first personal ordinariate for groups of former Anglicans that wished to enter into full communion with Rome in January 2011. There was discussion at the time about whether Anglicans received before 2011 could also join the structure under the terms of Anglicanorum coetibus, the apostolic constitution describing the nature of personal ordinariates...

Read the full article on The Catholic Herald.

Hat tip to Fr. Chadwick at The English Catholic.