Msgr. Steenson to visit Beverly, Mass. Sunday May 6th

See also this posting at the blog Ebb and Flow regarding this new Anglican Use/Ordinariate community on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

Oshawa ACCC group received into full communion

by Paul Nicholls Today at the Church of St. Gregory the Great, Oshawa a number of members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada were received into the Catholic Church by Bishop Vincent Nguyen of the Archdiocese of Toronto. Bishop Nguyen celebrated the Anglican Use mass. Former Anglican Church of Canada priests, Fr. James Tilley and Fr. David Garrett were received and assisted as altar servers during the course of the mass. Fr. Eric Rodrigues of the Archdiocese of Toronto also assisted at the mass. Rachel Mahon of Toronto served as the organist and Fr. Chris Lepage of the ACCC served as cantor. The mass was well attended by friends and family as well as by a number of Roman Catholics from the local Oshawa parishes. A number of members of the Oshawa fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order were also in attendance. A reception was held after the mass at the Church of the Good Shepherd. The group from now on will be known as the Sodality of the Good Shepherd. The congregants of the Sodality are most appreciative of the support they received from the Archdiocese and the clergy and people of St. Gregory the Great Church. Fr. Eric Rodrigues will provide the weekly Anglican Use mass until former Anglican priests are ordained...

Read the full report with photos of the reception in Oshawa, and the continuing life of the new ordinariate group in Ottawa at Deborah Gyapong's blog Foolishness to the world.

Sacerdotes Domini

Another truly groundbreaking few days for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. This weekend, for the first time in the Ordinariate, we witnessed the ordination to the Sacred Priesthood of former Anglicans who had never been Anglican priests. This was a sign of progress, a sign of continuity and a sign of hope for the future. Below you will see a picture of most of the Marylebone Ordinariate Group with the newly minted Fr James Bradley...

Read the rest of this story at the web site of the Marylebone Ordinariate Group.

Msgr. Steenson delivers benediction at National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, Ordinary of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, was invited to deliver the benediction at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC today. Joining him at the event were Very Reverend Scott Hurd, vicar general, and eight seminarians from the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region who are in the Ordinariate's formation program.

Nearly 800 people attended the breakfast, which featured remarks by Supreme Knight Carl Anderson; a keynote by Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations; and a spiritual reflection by Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V., superior general of the Sisters of Life.

from the US Ordinariate web site.

Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, the newly appointed Ordinary for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter concluded the breakfast with some remarks and a benediction. The words he chose, which came from Book I of St. Augustine's City of God clearly put the call to action heard throughout the morning in context.

From Augustine's writings, part of what Msgr. Steenson quoted said, "But let this city bear in mind, that among her enemies lie hidden those who are destined to be fellow citizens, that she may not think it a fruitless labor to bear what they inflict as enemies until they become confessors of the faith.

"These men you may today see thronging the churches with us, tomorrow crowding the theatres with the godless. But we have the less reason to despair of the reclamation even of such persons, if among our most declared enemies there are now some, unknown to themselves, who are destined to become our friends."

from a Catholic Online story by Randy Sly.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

by Deborah Gyapong

In 1990, I visited a nearby Baptist Church. I told Pastor Doug Ward that I was a maverick and a heretic and had never been able to sign on the dotted line to join any church. "Maybe this church is big enough for you," the pastor said. And thank God, he did. Because if anyone had tackled my various Gnostic heresies head on, I would have left.

I spent ten years or so at Kanata Baptist Church, a parish with a seeker-friendly mission. Upon entering, I had had problems with the notion of three Persons in the Trinity, though none with the Divinity of Jesus. Through the love and care of this wonderful community, many of my heresies fell away. It was during my time with them that I realized I could no longer be a cafeteria Christian, picking and choosing what to believe. I hungered for an Apostolic faith. But where would I find that in its fulness?

It was then I came across the little Anglican Catholic Church of Canada's then Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ottawa. It is now the Sodality of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as we were received into the Roman Catholic Church by Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast on April 15...

Read the rest at The Anglo-Catholic blog.

Msgr. Steenson in Calgary, Alberta

Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson preaching
at High Mass at St John the Evangelist Church,
Calgary, Alberta, on April 15, 2012.

Another (in-depth) post on the reception of ACCC groups this past weekend

Canadian Anglican groups welcomed into Catholic Church

Tuesday, 17 April 2012 09:01

Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News

Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast at the Rite of Reception of Anglican Catholic Church of Canada members.- Photo by Robert Du Broy, courtesy of the Archdiocese of Ottawa

OTTAWA - Bishops in Ottawa and Victoria received two groups from the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) into the Roman Catholic Church April 15, including two former ACCC bishops and about a half dozen clergy.

"Today, the Body of Christ is a little more healed, a little more unified," Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast told more than 700 people who packed St. Patrick's Basilica. "Today, after half a millennium, separated brethren are separated no more. We are brethren, rejoicing at the same banquet table. Hallelujah."

In Victoria, an estimated 600 people packed St. Andrew's Cathedral, where Bishop Richard Gagnon welcomed the former metropolitan bishop of the ACCC, Peter Wilkinson.

The two groups received on Divine Mercy Sunday will soon become part of the Canadian Deanery of St. John the Baptist of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter under Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, who was named the Ordinary when the American Ordinariate was erected Jan. 1. Steenson, a former Episcopal (Anglican) bishop, is a married Catholic priest who teaches theology at the University of St. Thomas and St. Mary's Seminary in Houston...

Read the rest at The Catholic Register.

Agenda for Annual Anglican Use Conference posted

Tentative Schedule
Thursday, November 8
	5:30 p.m.	Solemn Evensong Cathedral
	8:00 p.m.	First Session: TBD
	9:00 p.m.	Compline
Friday, November 9
	8:30 a.m.	Morning Prayer
	9:15 a.m.	Second Session: Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson: Topic TBD
	10:30 a.m.	Break
	11:30 a.m.	Third Session: Fr. Ian Ker: Blessed John Henry Newman and Pope Benedict XVI's Heremeneutic of Continuity: A Crucial Inspiration for the New Evangelisation
	12:30 p.m.	Lunch
	1:30 p.m.	Fourth Session: Fr. Ian Ker: The Anglican Patrimony as an Aid to the New Evangelization
	2:30 p.m.	Break
	3:00 p.m.	Fifth Session: James Carlyle, Fr. Eric Bergman, Fr. Andy Bartus: Practical Congregational Growth and Development
	4:00 p.m.	Break
	5:00 p.m.	Solemn Mass: Principal Celebrant: The Most Rev. Robert Finn, Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph; Preacher: The Most Rev. Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary, Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter
	7:00 p.m.	Banquet, After Dinner Speaker: Rev. Fr. John Jay Hughes: The Anglican Patrimony and New Evangelization: Observations by a Pre-Vatican II Convert
Saturday, November 10
	8:30 a.m.	Morning Prayer
	9:00 a.m.	Low Mass
	10:00 a.m.	Sixth Session: TBD
	11:00 a.m.	Break
	11:15 a.m.	Annual Meeting of the Anglican Use Society

Anglican Catholics in Canada

On the Sunday of the Divine Mercy of the Lord, the first Anglican group in Canada is received into the Catholic Church with the intent of joining an Ordinariate for former Anglicans. The group includes 40 members of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Ottawa, which has been a member of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) and of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC). They were received into full communion with the Catholic Church in St. Patrick's Basilica in Ottawa by Archbishop Terrence Prendercast earlier today.

With Benedict XVI's apostolic constitution Anglicanorum cœtibus (and complementary norms), personal ordinariates can be established in countries where sufficient number of Anglicans wish to enter into communion with the Catholic Church. Similar to a Diocese, an Ordinariate possesses public juridic personality in Canon Law, and has jurisdiction of possibly a whole country. These Ordinariates can celebrate the Holy Eucharist and other sacraments according to the Anglican tradition which have been approved by the Holy See.

Former Anglican bishops who enter an Ordinariate (as Ordinary or not) may receive ordination to the diaconate and priesthood, but only those who are not married can receive ordination to the episcopate. The head of an ordinariate is called an Ordinary. He must receive ordination as priest from the Catholic Church but would have similar power to a diocesan Bishop and be similarly vested. The only difference for Ordinaries who cannot receive episcopal ordination in the Catholic Church is that they cannot perform ordinations.

Canada does not have sufficient members to form a personal ordinariate of its own. Anglicans from the country will join the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in the United States, established four months ago. This is only the second ordinariate for Anglicans, with the first one being the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England, established in 2011. The Canadians will form a Deanery within the Ordinariate, under the patronage of St. John the Baptist, who has special significance to Canada...

read the full post at Sacrosancta Ecclesia.

US Ordinariate Web site sums up Holy Week and Easter Week Activity

First Ordinariate-Bound Canadian Group Received into Catholic Church, April 15, 2012

Forty Anglicans are being received into the Catholic Church in Ottawa on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 15, with the intent of joining the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The Houston-based Ordinariate, under the guidance of Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, will have oversight of Canada as well as the United States.

The 40 are members of the Cathedral of the Annunciation parish, part of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. They are being received by Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J. at St. Patrick’s Basilica in Ottawa.

Earlier this month, communities in Philadelphia and Indianapolis came into full communion with the Catholic Church and Jon Chalmers became the first of the candidates preparing for priestly ordination in the Ordinariate to be ordained a transitional deacon.

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

New Ordinariate community in Greenville, South Carolina

Fr. Scott Newman writes on the web site of St. Mary's Church today:

Dear Friends in Christ,

Several items for your attention:

1. Last Wednesday, Jon Chalmers was ordained to the diaconate for service in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, the pastoral structure created by Pope Benedict for former Anglicans who come into full communion with the Catholic Church. Deacon Chalmers will be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Guglielmone here at St. Mary’s on Sunday 3 June 2012 at 6 pm, and all are welcome to attend.

2. In the weeks ahead, local Anglicans who desire to join the Catholic Church and preserve their patrimony will be organized into a community of the Ordinariate under the patronage of St. Anselm. This community will be meeting at St. Mary’s under the leadership of the once and future Father Chalmers, and in due course, he will be celebrating Mass on Sunday evenings according to the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite. Once it is established, this Mass will be open to any parishioner who wishes to attend, but it will be primarily for the benefit of the members of the Ordinariate. For more information about the newly forming community of St. Anselm’s, Greenville visit www.ordinarychurch.org...

Anglicans received into full communion

In Canada, this Divine Mercy Sunday sees two former Anglican bishops, Peter Wilkinson and Carl Reid received, with members of their congregations, into full communion with the Catholic Church, in accordance with Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 Apostolic ConstitutionAnglicanorum coetibus, which provides a structure for welcoming Anglicans into the Catholic Church. The ceremonies of reception will be held at special Masses, one in Ottawa, the nation’s capital; the other in Victoria on Canada’s west coast.

“We’ve tried to respond to a request from a certain group of Anglicans, who wish for full communion now,” said Catholic Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa. “And we also realize that we have to continue to work for the full unity of the Church in whatever way Christ would like that to be, however He wants to bring it about with the remaining Anglicans.”

Archbishop Prendergast spoke about Sunday’s liturgy: “I’ve learned how to celebrate Mass in the Anglican tradition that’s been approved for this group of Anglicans to come over, and I’ll be celebrating their liturgy on Sunday afternoon. And the priest who’s has been working with them has also learned their liturgy as well, so I think that will encourage them and comfort them.”

He also put the event into a larger, ecumenical context: “I think anything that will strengthen unity among Christians is going to be a positive sign for others. One of the great scandals, of course, in our world is that there are so many Christians who believe in Jesus Christ and all that He has brought to us and yet that we go about it in such different ways. Our disunity is a countersign to the evangelisation of our world, and I think anything that will bring us closer together that recognises unity in diversity is going to be rich blessing for us and a help to evangelisation.”

Listen to the full interview of Archbishop Terrence Prendergast with Christopher Wells:

From Radio Vatican.

ARCHBISHOP PRENDERGAST WILL RECEIVE MEMBERS OF THE ANGLICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF CANADA INTO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Rehearsal for Anglican Use Liturgy in St. Patrick’s Basilica
The Most Reverend Terrence Prendergast, S.J., Archbishop of Ottawa will receive some 40 members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada’s Ottawa Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Roman Catholic Church on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 15, 2012 at 3:00 pm at St. Patrick’s Basilica – 281 Nepean Street, Ottawa. Archbishop Prendergast will celebrate the Anglican Use Mass, approved for use in the Catholic Church. The parish-in-waiting will eventually join the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter under Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, as part of a Canadian Deanery of St. John the Baptist. All are welcome.

“April 15, 2012 is a date for us to remember for posterity, the day of our individual and collective reception into the Catholic Church,” said the Right Reverend Carl Reid, Auxiliary Bishop of the Pro-Diocese of Our Lady of Walsingham. “And not only us from the Annunciation, but also from several other parishes and fellowships across the country,” he added. “Initially, we shall be a ‘sodality,’ which would best be described as a ‘parish in waiting.’”

“I am honoured to receive members of the Anglican Catholic Church into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church,” said Archbishop Terrence Prendergast...

Read the rest at Deborah Gyapong's blog Foolishness to the World.

Infocatolica: Interview with Fr Edwin Barnes

April 5, 2012

The Spanish-language site Infocatolica carries an interview with Fr Edwin Barnes. It is available in Spanish here. A translation follows below:

- Fr. Barnes, when I interviewed you two years ago, you were an Anglican bishop. Now you are a Catholic priest. Are you happy with the change?

Yes, very happy indeed. No regrets.

- Has your relationship with God, with Our Lady, with the saints changed in any way?

I hope it has deepened, but that is not for me to judge

- Have you felt welcome in the Roman Catholic Church? Any bad experiences?

Thoroughly welcome; and no bad experiences at all.

- Have you received/are you receiving any training as a Catholic priest?

Yes, I attended an initial three-month course with weekly sessions at Allen Hall Seminary in Chelsea. Now, as a former Anglican bishop, I am not required to continue attending, but I do so on a monthly basis and intend to continue for the next two years. I am also receiving great help and support from local priests in developing a certain ‘Romanitas’.

- What are your current tasks in the Ordinariate? Do the priests of the Ordinariate work only with their Anglo-Catholic parishioners or do you also help at diocesan parishes?

I have temporary responsibility for an Ordinariate Group which meets twice each week in Bournemouth, in a Catholic Parish Church. I also assist in our local Catholic parish – I have said Mass there three times this week, and have also heard confessions. Besides this I join with other priests in the Pastoral Area and in the last two weeks have been present at two liturgies of reconciliation, hearing confessions. I have also spoken to groups of priests about the Ordinariate and have joined CCC (the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy).

- Have you petitioned the Holy See to be able to use mitre and crozier, as is your privilege as a former Anglican bishop?

No, nor shall I. I am simply a priest of the Ordinariate and am happy to remain so...

Read the rest of this interview with Fr. Barnes at the Ordinariate Portal.

Indianapolis Anglican Community to Join Catholic Church on Easter Vigil

Eighteen members of an Anglican community in Indianapolis will be received into full communion with the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 7, 9 p.m., at Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral, 1347 N. Meridian Street. Bishop Christopher Coyne, Apostolic Administrator for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, will be principal celebrant.

The St. Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Use Society is the first community in Indiana to join a new national structure created by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglican groups and clergy who are becoming Catholic. Luke Reese, an Anglican priest who leads the group, is studying for ordination as a Catholic priest.

The Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is similar to a regular Catholic diocese, but national in scope. Pope Benedict XVI established it on January 1 in response to repeated requests by Anglicans seeking to become Catholic, and appointed Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop based in Houston, TX, as the leader. Ordinariate parishes will be fully Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage and traditions, including liturgical traditions.

“We are very grateful to Pope Benedict for giving us this opportunity to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining our Anglican heritage, and to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis which has been very welcoming and kind to our group during this journey,” said Reese.

Msgr. Steenson noted, “I deeply appreciate the support that Bishop Coyne and the Archdiocese have given to this community. This has been a wonderful example of Christian unity and what I believe Pope Benedict intended when he created the Ordinariate."

The members of St. Joseph of Arimathea studied the United States Catechism of the Catholic Church for Adults, working closely with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. They are among more than 1,400 people in 20 communities across the United States who have asked to join the Ordinariate; and the third community in the United States to be received since January. The others are in Baltimore, MD and Philadelphia, PA. Nearly 40 former Anglican priests currently are studying to be ordained Catholic priests.

Throughout Lent, the community has been leading Morning Prayer at Holy Rosary Parish, 520 Stevens St., Indianapolis, IN. The group will attend Mass there in the near future.

For more information on the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, one of only two ordinariates in the world, visit www.usordinariate.org. St. Joseph of Arimathea is online at www.stjoearimatheasociety.org.

First Ordination for Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter scheduled

Fr. Jay Scott Newman reports:

Jon David Chalmers, a former priest of the Episcopal Church, will be the first candidate ordained for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Chalmers will be ordained to the diaconate on Wednesday 11 April 2012 and to the priesthood on Sunday 3 June 2012, with both ordinations taking place at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina.

Chalmers was called to Holy Orders by Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate created by Pope Benedict XVI in January 2012 for former Anglicans who come into full communion with the Catholic Church. Both ordinations will be celebrated by the Most Reverend Robert E. Guglielmone, Bishop of Charleston, but Chalmers will be ordained for service in the Personal Ordinariate.

Chalmers holds degrees from the University of Alabama, Harvard, and Yale, and as a priest in the Episcopal Church, he served in Alabama and South Carolina.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

‘Bells of Peace’ to ring in troubled neighborhood

The Rev. Ernie Davis (from left), Bruce Prince-Joseph and the Rev. Jeffrey Hon have worked
together to rejuvenate an electronic carillon in its new home,
St. Therese Little Flower Church.

Volunteers hope vintage instrument will ring out hope for neighborhoods plagued by crime.
BY EDWARD M. EVELD

A rare and vintage electronic carillon, a Kansas City treasure known as the Bells of Peace, first rang from the Liberty Memorial in 1961.
It was a gift from Joyce C. Hall for the memorial’s rededication, attended by Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. The carillon, a collection of “bells” played from a keyboard, has twice fallen silent, a victim of its somewhat old-school technology.
So maybe it’s appropriate this spring that the Bells of Peace once again are being resurrected. But this time it’s away from downtown, in a part of the central city dubbed Kansas City’s Murder Factory in a series by The Star, which found the 64130 ZIP code was home to more convicted murderers than any other in the state.
Just last week, police responded to reports of gunfire one evening and found the body of a 21-year-old man in a front yard near 55th and Euclid streets, three blocks from the limestone bell tower, five stories tall, of St. Therese Little Flower Church.
No bell was ever installed at the church, built in 1948. But soon four loudspeaker “horns” will be installed in the tower, and the carillon will chime on the hour and regularly serenade the neighborhood with its orchestra of 405 “bells,” actually brass rods. How soon depends on whether volunteers reviving the carillon can coax sound from some obstinately quiet rods.
“This is a thing of beauty,” said the Rev. Ernie Davis, pastor at St. Therese. “It’s a reminder of the divine, of God’s presence.”
No doubt people’s lives in these city neighborhoods are troubled by poverty and violence and struggles of all kinds, he said. The bells will be a signal of hope, Davis said....

A few months into the installation at St. Therese, McDonald, who again was enlisted to help, died suddenly. Hon is trying to complete the work, with the assistance of electrical engineer Brian Haupt, but they have hit a snag.
A large number of the bells, including the robust Flemish bells, refuse to ring, and they aren’t sure why. Hon said he would welcome input from anyone with ideas, particularly those with experience in vacuum tube and amplification technology from the 1950s and ’60s.
Initially the hope was for a carillon concert on Easter. But although many of the bells are working, Davis and the others didn’t want to showcase the carillon until it was in full voice.
Davis has confidence the carillon’s final crankiness will be resolved and the parish, active in the community, will be able to present its new gift. St. Therese serves about 220 families, provides charitable ministries including a food pantry and utility assistance and offers a Gospel Mass and a form of “High Mass” on Sundays. Its former parish school houses Hogan Preparatory Academy Middle School.
“I think that St. Therese — not the church, but the saint — is interested,” Davis said. “I think she’s pulling strings.”

Read the entire story at The Kansas City Star.

A Spiritual Autobiography

by the Rev. Jurgen Liias

This has been written as part of an Application Process seeking Ordination in the Catholic Church through the Anglican Ordinariate..

This last year I gathered together at 8a.m. on Saturday morning- (the time was intended to find only motivated folk) -a group of parishioners of CTR to explore the meaning of the invitation of Pope Benedict in Anglicanorum Coetibus.  We began our study under the brilliant tutelage of Dr. Thomas Howard addressing the question for ten weeks: “What does the Catholic church really teach?” A convert from Fundamentalism and Anglicanism, Dr. Howard was able to instruct us both biblically and cogently about those subjects most troublesome to evangelical protestants: Marian dogma and devotion, the primacy of Peter, the infallibility of the Pope, the veneration and intercession of Saints, the doctrine of purgatory, prayer for the dead etc.   A second ten week study program was focused on Anglican- Catholic Ecumenical Conversations and initiatives: ARCIC, the Pastoral provision, Anglican-use Catholic churches, and finally the idea  of an Anglican Ordinariate proposed by the Pope’s decree.    I concluded that series with an invitation: If twelve individuals feel called personally to respond to the Pope’s invitation to Anglicans to come into full communion with the See of Rome through the Ordinariate, I would lead them forward.  I initially received nine commitments; a tenth joined us in November; on December 31 I received 11 and 12! On January 1, the US Ordinariate was established. God could not have been clearer.

I am as well convinced that this was the Kairos for me precisely because of the Ordinariate. Though I might have journeyed earlier to Rome in my own personal history, this was a collective historic moment  for the beginning of the fulfillment of the vision of the reunion of Rome and Canterbury. That was the dream of our tractarian fathers, that was the explicit goal of Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Ramsey at the launching of the ARCIC dialogues, this was an implicit hope in the bold ecumenical theology of Pope John Paul II in Ut Unum Sint and his revisioning of a Papacy for the whole church. I am humbled to be invited by God to be a small part of this historic work.

Read the whole of Fr. Liias' spiritual autobiography at his eponymous blog.

Canadian Anglicans to unite with Rome

April 9, 2012
DEBORAH GYAPONG
CANADIAN CATHOLIC NEWS
OTTAWA – On Divine Mercy Sunday April 15, two bishops of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) – Bishop Peter Wilkinson in Victoria, and Bishop Carl Reid in Ottawa - will lead their clergy and people into the Catholic Church.

Other congregations and fellowships across the country, part of the ACCC's temporary Pro-Diocese of Our Lady of Walsingham, will follow on April 22 or dates soon to be announced to become ordinariate parishes-in-waiting in their respective Roman Catholic dioceses. There are groups in Edmonton, Oshawa, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Montreal and possibly Vancouver.

Victoria Bishop Richard Gagnon and Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast will receive the groups at special Masses and afterwards provide spiritual oversight and priests for the new Catholics until their priests are ordained and the parishes can join the American ordinariate.

Until the ACCC priests are ordained, Catholic bishops will supply priests to celebrate the Anglican Use liturgy for the new ordinariate parishes-in-waiting.

These parishes will join two already received into the Catholic Church to eventually form the Canadian deanery of St. John the Baptist of the American Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter that was established on Jan. 1, 2012 with Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, a former Episcopalian bishop and married Catholic priest, as ordinary.

FIRST FRUITS
Prendergast described the move as "among the first fruits" of the response to Anglicanorum coetibus, Pope Benedict's apostolic constitution that offered a way for Anglicans to become Catholic while bringing in approved aspects of their tradition, including their liturgy.

"While the apostolic constitution left open the possibility of an ordinariate in Canada this linking Anglicans in Canada to the United States ordinariate as a deanery attached to it is a good step for now," said Prendergast.

from The Western Catholic Reporter.

Hat tip to Fr. Bartus at Anglican Patrimony.

Ordinariate-bound priests engage in Saturday Seminary online training

April 3, 2012
By Mary Ann Mueller in Houston

HOUSTON, TEXAS---It's a Saturday in March. While other men are busy with early spring weekend household chores or yard work, 62 Episcopal and Anglican priests head for their computers to make sure the webcam is working and focused, the computer microphone is squelched, and the system's speakers are turned to full volume. It's almost time for another in a series of Ordinariate online Saturday Seminary sessions bringing them one step closer to their cherished goal: the Catholic priesthood.

The weekly-appointed hour for the short intense seminary sessions is 9:30 a.m. Central time. The beating heart of this unique online seminary comes from Vianney Hall at St. Mary's Seminary in Houston. However, the online seminarians are scattered all over the United States and Canada with one military chaplain listening in from Afghanistan. So Houston's 9:30 a.m. is 10:30 a.m. in Virginia, Maryland and Florida, but an early 7:30 a.m. in California. But because it is 8 p.m. in the Afghani desert the military chaplain's online Saturday Seminary session will go into the wee hours of the morning by the time the live Houston session signs off.

This is a transformation unlike any other. The online Catholic seminarians are all previously ordained Episcopal or Anglican or Continuing Anglican clerics who have decided to follow their Anglo-Catholic conscience into the Roman Catholic Church and ultimately seek the living out of their own priesthood as fully-fledged Catholic priests. In order to accomplish this goal, they must undergo some tweaking in their own priestly academic and ministerial formation to gain greater insight into the history, theology, sacerdotal practice of Catholicism, and the soul-etching character of the priesthood.

This is not only a challenge to what they have been originally taught and held deeply as Anglicans, but it is also an unfolding joy to fully discover the Catholic aspects of their priesthood and to mine their own understanding of the deeper dimensions of Catholicism. Focusing on the formation needs in the historic theological divergences in the Catholic understanding of the priesthood, the Houston seminary has devised an intense nine-month program of religious studies for those previously trained Episcopal and Anglican priests who are seeking to continue their priesthood in the Catholic Church...

Read the rest on Virtue Online.

Philadelphia Anglican Community Joins Catholic Church During Holy Week

The rector and members of St. Michael the Archangel Anglican parish in Philadelphia were received into full communion with the Catholic Church on April 2. This is the first Anglican community in Pennsylvania to join a new national structure created by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglican groups and clergy who are becoming Catholic. The rector, David Ousley, is preparing to be ordained a Catholic priest later this year.

Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, the head of the U.S. Ordinariate nationally, will celebrate Mass and preach for the new Catholic community on Holy Thursday, April 5, 6 p.m. at Holy Cross Church, 140 E. Mount Airy Avenue in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia.

The Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is similar to a regular Catholic diocese, but national in scope. Pope Benedict XVI established it on January 1 in response to requests by Anglicans seeking to become Catholic, and appointed Msgr. Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop based in Houston, TX, as the leader. Ordinariate parishes will be fully Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage and traditions, including liturgical traditions.

“We are very grateful to Pope Benedict for giving us this opportunity to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining our identity as Anglicans,” said Father Ousley.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said, “It’s my pleasure to prayerfully welcome Father David Ousley and the faithful of Saint Michael the Archangel Anglican Parish as they enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. We will support our brothers and sisters in Christ on their spiritual journey. May the Lord grant them peace and every blessing.”

Fr. Ousley noted, “We look forward to developing the work of the Ordinariate in Philadelphia, in cooperation with Msgr. Steenson and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Father James Cox, pastor of Holy Cross and St. Madeleine Sophie Catholic parishes in Mount Airy, and Auxiliary Bishop John McIntyre have been welcoming and unfailingly helpful in our transition into full communion. As with any such transition, it has been a challenging journey. Yet, we already have heard from former Anglicans who are interested in joining us.”

Msgr. Steenson added, “I deeply appreciate the support that Archbishop Chaput and the Archdiocese have given to assist this community in this great adventure of Christian unity. I think this is precisely what Pope Benedict intended when he created the Ordinariate for Anglicans who desire to join the Catholic family that Anglicans originally came from. Fr. Ousley himself is a distinguished representative of this great tradition of learning and spirituality. I have known him for many years and am confident that he and his congregation will find a warm welcome within the Catholic community of Philadelphia."

The 25 members of St. Michael’s studied the United States Catechism of the Catholic Church for Adults, working closely with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The parishioners are among more than 1,400 people in 20 communities across the United States who have asked to join the Ordinariate. Nearly 40 former Anglican priests also are studying to be ordained Catholic priests.

St. Michael’s traces its roots to the Episcopal Church of St. James the Less, founded in East Falls in 1846. For the past five years, the parish has been part of the Anglican Church of America. The community will be moving its Sunday services to Holy Cross Parish at 9 a.m. after Easter. Weekday services are at the St. Michael's Rectory in Mount Airy.

For more information on the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, one of only two ordinariates in the world, visit www.usordinariate.org. St. Michael’s is online at http://anglicanphiladelphia.org.

Contacts:

David Ousley, St. Michael Parish, 215-247-1092 and dao@anglicanphiladelphia.org
Susan Gibbs, U.S. Ordinariate, 202-525-9554 and media@usordinariate.org

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Thursday, April 5th -- BREAKING NEWS UPDATE --

Due to difficulties with American Airlines, 60 of whose ships have been rendered unable to fly due to the storms, Msgr. Steenson will not be able to join the Congregation of St. Michael’s Philadelphia for Maundy Thursday. With no back up priest, the Maundy Thursday liturgy scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday is cancelled. Members of the parish are encouraged to attend the 8 p.m. liturgy at the Church of the Holy Cross in Mt. Airy.

-- STILL MORE UPDATES --

From Fr. Ousley to the people of St. Michael’s Philadelphia. For public distribution.


Dear friends --

First, Monsignor Steenson wished me to convey his sincere apologies for not being with us tonight. He is sorry to miss us, and to disappoint us, and sends his blessing.

Second, he has arranged to be with us on the Sunday after Ascension, May 20th. This is his first open Sunday. This will give us a more leisurely visit than we would have had tonight, so there is some advantage to it. Please mark your calendars.
Fr O.

Please join us at the Church of the Holy Cross, 144 E. Mt. Airy Ave., Philadelphia Pa. on Sunday May 20th at 9 a.m., to welcome our Ordinary.

Holy Week 2012 Pastoral Letter

Throughout the season of Lent, in the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church reads a series of texts that follow Moses and the Chosen People in their journey from captivity to the Promised Land. It was certainly an eventful and epic journey, filled with great blessings and abject failures. The Church has found in these accounts a pattern for the Lenten journey of every soul in search of its true home.


One of the most dramatic of these events happened in Numbers 13-14, when the people arrived at the threshold of the Promised Land, and then because of fear and a lack of faith they murmured and rebelled, even to the point of plotting to stone of their leader. It would be better to have remained in Egypt as slaves than to venture forth into an uncertain future. And so they turned away from the Promise, choosing instead to wander in the wilderness for the next 40 years.


This is a very striking metaphor for every person's journey of faith. At some point on this journey, we must leave the well-trodden paths to venture forth in faith, trusting in the Lord to guard our steps.


The journey to full communion, for both individuals and groups of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, seems not to be unlike this. In these first three months, I have heard stories of faith and courage that humble and inspire; but there have also been disappointing stories of those who have come to the doorstep but then for one reason or another do not step through the portal. These stories always bring sadness and sometimes scandal, when they involve an unwillingness to embrace wholeheartedly Catholic teaching and discipline. This is, according to Lumen Gentium 14, to those who know "that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ," a matter of salvation.


On Palm Sunday I had the great privilege of visiting one of the happy stories of the Ordinariate, the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Orlando, which has been superbly shepherded over the years by Bishop Louis Campese. Here are people who have been well catechized, with the right disposition, who have already built good relationships with the local Catholic Church, well poised to grow, and they are an excellent model for what an Ordinariate congregation can be.


In this infinite mercy, God watched over the reluctant pilgrims as they wandered through the wilderness for the next forty years. But it was a severe mercy, a difficult penance, and many were not ultimately able to see the Promised Land before they died. I pray that if you are on this journey, if you are persuaded that the Catholic Church is the will of Christ and the keys have been given to St. Peter and his successors, nothing will deter you from this holy goal, which is the principal mission of the Ordinariate.


And may our Lord bless you in this Holy Week, direct your steps, and give you peace.


-- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson

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

American Ordinary Visits the Cathedral of the Incarnation

by Christian Clay Columba Campbell

I have just returned from the Procession and Mass of Palm Sunday at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Orlando, Florida, my home parish. In addition to the pageantry of this Sunday beginning Holy Week, there was a large class of First Communicants, and perhaps just as special, Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, was among us.

Having met together with Bishop John Noonan of the Orlando Diocese, Bishop Louis Campese of the Anglican Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family, and other clergy yesterday evening, Msgr. Steenson assisted at Mass in Choir. He also gave a touching homily for the great benefit of those children celebrating their First Communions.

At the following reception (or as Fr. Barnes would put it, "bun-fight") in the Royal Hall, Monsignor had the opportunity to meet many of the congregation and First Communion guests. He remarked several times that he was simply "blown away" by the vitality and youth of the congregation; he had not expected to find such...

Read the rest of Mr. Campbell's post at The Anglo-Catholic blog.

Queen Elizabeth announces appointment of Catholic as next Archbishop of Canterbury

In a daring move that has completely surprised news watchers and experts, Buckingham Palace revealed today the Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in consultation with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has appointed as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, the Catholic bishop of Foligno, Italy, Gualtiero Sigismondi.
















Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II


The Foligno diocese, in the Umbria region of Italy, is home to the restored Benedictine abbey of Norcia, where St. Benedict, founder of the world-wide Benedictine order of monks had his abbey.
In the released statement, Her Majesty writes, "In a dark time almost 1400 years ago, the sons of St. Benedict came to this island and helped restore the light of Christ that had been nearly extinguished after invasions and wars. It is my hope that His Grace, Bishop Sigismondi, with his intimate experience of Benedictine life and his dedication to Christian tradition will similarly renew the light of Christ in our land."

His Grace, Bishop Gualtiero Sigismondi

The incumbent Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace Rowan Williams, who announced his retirement at the end of this year so that he may take up an academic appointment at Cambridge University, is said to be delighted with the choice. "As is well known, I have always felt that the Anglo-Catholic view is the purest strain of churchmanship in the Church of England, and this bodes well for the unity of the whole Christian Church. I have full confidence in Her Majesty's selection, and look forward to greeting Bishop Sigismondi when he visits during the special June bank holiday when we will celebrate Her Majesty's diamond jubilee.













His Grace, Archbishop Rowan Williams


Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican Press Secretary, released a statement that said that His Holiness was pleased that this appointment would go forward, adding that this would serve to draw the two churches closer, accelerating the process begun since the 2009 publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus.

His Holiness, Benedict XVI with
press secretary Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J.