Ordinariate community of St. Gregory the Great celebrates its Feast of Title - September 3, 2015

Mass to commemorate the English Martyrs

Choral Evensong to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of the US Ordinariate

The congregation of St. Gregory the Great in Stoneham, Mass. will be celebrating the 3rd anniversary of the founding of the US Ordinariate on January 28th, with Boston Archbishop Sean Patrick Cardinal O'Malley as officiant.

SOLEMN HIGH REQUIEM MASS IN STONEHAM ON VETERANS DAY REMEMBERS WORLD WAR ONE DEAD AND ALL TOUCHED BY WAR

STONEHAM, MA — 2014 marks the hundredth anniversary of the start of the conflict originally called the Great War or the War to End All Wars; from 1919 until 1954 “Veterans Day” was “Armistice Day” because World War One ended on November 11, 1918. To commemorate both these events a Solemn High Requiem Mass with a Special Intention for all touched by war, especially the dead of the Great War, 1914 – 1918, will be celebrated by Saint Gregory the Great Ordinariate Catholic Church Tuesday, November 11^th at 7:30 PM at Saint Patrick’s Church, 9 Pomeworth Street, Stoneham. All are invited to attend; a reception will follow.

Traditional black vestments will be worn by the Priest, Deacon, and Subdeacon; the solemn Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) will be chanted (no longer required at funeral Masses, it is now more familiar from its use in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and many, many horror films); and a selection of the hymns chosen for the interments of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey (in 1920) and the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery (in 1921) will be sung to organ accompaniment. The vestments, ceremonial, and many of the prayers will be familiar to older Catholics or those who attend the Traditional Latin Mass; however the prayers won’t be in Latin but Elizabethan English, for this Mass will be in the Ordinariate Use, a unique liturgy approved by the Vatican in 2013.

The Ordinariate is a new element of the Catholic Church set up by Pope Benedict in 2009 as a response to requests from groups of Anglicans and Episcopalians around the world who (like Stoneham’s parishioners at Saint Gregory the Great) wanted to undo Henry VIII's break with Rome while retaining elements of their 500-year heritage. Many distinctive features of the Requiem Mass on November 11th in the Ordinariate Use will be the result of this unique, centuries-long blending of Catholic and Anglican traditions. Saint Gregory the Great has been warmly received by Stoneham’s Pastor Mario Orrigo and the people of Saint Patrick’s parish, where the young community has made its home since July.

As he prays for all those touched by war Saint Gregory’s Pastor, Jürgen Liias, will be praying for his own parents’ souls as well, for their lives were shattered by World War Two. Born in Germany after the war he came to the United States with his mother and father — a German and an Estonian — as Displaced Persons in 1952; they were given a home at an Episcopal Rectory in Charlestown. During almost three decades of his 40-year career as an Episcopal parish priest in the Boston area he was drawn towards Catholicism; the creation of the Ordinariate convinced him the moment to become a Catholic had arrived. He entered the Church as a layman and was Ordained a Catholic Priest of the Ordinariate in 2012.

Saint Gregory the Great offers a weekly Mass in the Ordinariate Use incorporating the Consecration and Offertory Prayers of the Traditional Latin Mass and some of the most beloved prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, all in reverent and beautiful Elizabethan English. Much of the Mass is sung, including traditional hymns with organ; lasts about an hour and a quarter; and is celebrated with Priest and People facing East. Coffee and light refreshments follow. Ordinariate Use Catholic Mass. Every Sunday, 9:30 AM; Saint Patrick’s lower church, 9 Pomeworth Street, Stoneham. For further information, visit www.saintgregoryordinariate.org or write office@saintgregoryordinariate.org.

St. Gregory the Great in Stoneham, Mass. celebrates its Feast of Title - September 3rd

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.

Anglican priest, flock cross a welcoming bridge

The Rev. Jurgen Liias leads a Catholic parish
that is an alternative for former Anglicans.

August 26, 2013
by Lisa Wangsness
BEVERLY — Before Mass on a recent Sunday, the Rev. Jurgen Liias stood in a cramped sacristy of a Catholic church with an acolyte and cantor and began a call-and-response prayer of preparation.

Incense smoldered. The men thumped their chests in a gesture of contrition.

The elaborate ritual would seem unusual to most Catholic priests, who pray silently before Mass as they don their vestments, or quietly focus on the sacred work ahead. But Liias, who is 65, is different. He entered the church through a new doorway that lets members of the Anglican Communion return to the mother church in Rome while retaining their congregational communities — and, if they wish, much of their ornate ritual, including old Catholic traditions that Rome changed or left behind.

Pope John Paul II extended to Anglicans, including married priests, the opportunity to become Catholic in 1980. During the next 30 years, 100 or so Anglican priests entered the Catholic Church and were incorporated into local dioceses.

But some in the worldwide Anglican Communion — particularly the Episcopal Church, the religious body’s US province — wanted to make it easier for whole congregations to come in, and to be part of a group of like-minded churches.

At their request, Pope Benedict XVI established special “ordinariates” — basically superdioceses — especially for Anglican priests and congregations. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, which spans the United States and Canada, was created last year. It includes more than 30 congregations, including Liias’s St. Gregory the Great, which held its first Mass in April...

Read the rest in The Boston Globe.

Hat tip to Kevin McDermott

A step toward unity

Former Episcopal minister ordained as a Catholic priest

By Alan Burke

 

BEVERLY — Nothing like it has ever happened at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church before.
On Saturday morning, more than 400 people gathered to see Jurgen Liias join the Catholic priesthood. Included among them were his two children, his grandchildren and his wife, Gloria.

Mike Springer/Courtesy photo Cardinal Sean O'Malley,
archbishop of Boston, prepares to lay his hands on the
head of the Rev. Jurgen Liias during an ordination ceremony
Saturday at St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in

Beverly. Liias is a former Episcopal clergyman with a wife

and two grown children

The ceremony was not in defiance of the Vatican policy of celibate priests — rather, Cardinal Sean O’Malley officiated, instituting a policy set during the tenure of Pope Benedict. In 2012, he established the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, welcoming to the Catholic fold Anglican clergy dissatisfied with their own church.
This followed an earlier welcome to their unhappy parishioners from Pope John Paul II.
Liias literally grew up in the Episcopal Church and served as a minister for 40 years, including 14 at Christ Church in Hamilton. He now finds he cannot reconcile with new policies like welcoming homosexual clergy and countenancing abortion.
He describes these policies as an attempt to “compromise and sell everything out in an effort to be liked. ... The Catholic Church is closer to the things that are right and true.”
By becoming a Catholic father, he brings a dramatic new dynamic to that church — a priest with a wife and family.
Liias won’t say this speaks to things to come, but, “It at least shows the church it’s not impossible to be a married priest.”
In an interview prior to Saturday’s ceremony, Liias acknowledged that the priesthood has previously taken on widowers with children in a program of late vocations.
He is only the second Episcopal priest with a wife ordained in the Boston Archdiocese..

Read the rest at The Salem News

Hat tip to Deborah Gyapong at Foolishness to the World, where she has loads of great photos.

St Gregory the Great Church launches new web site

One of the newest U.S. Ordinariate communities, St. Gregory the Great in Beverly, Massachusetts, launched a new web site today. The Rev. Jurgen Liias, who will be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, April 20th by Boston's Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley, leads the community.

The new web site is: http://www.saintgregoryordinariate.org/

Diaconal Ordination of Jurgen Liias

Fr. Jonathan Gaspar, Co-Director of Worship and Spiritual Life,
Archdiocese of Boston, in Center, serving as MC, with Bishop
Deeley as he recites the ordination prayer.

from an email from the Ordinariate Community of St. Gregory the Great

About 50 individuals were able to join Deacon Liias for this important event in his and our life; they included members of our community, former parishioners of Jürgens and Fr. Brian Barry of Christ the Redeemer Anglican, pilgrims who had been to the Holy Land with Jürgen, and members of Saint Mary's and Margaret's parishes. For those of you who were unable to be physically present, here are some mementos of the day. The photographs were taken by our brother Steve Hawley — thank you, Steve! for providing these permanent reminders of a beautiful day; also attached are copies of the program and the hymns chosen by Jürgen for the liturgy.
An interesting — perhaps blessed — surprise was discovering that the presiding Bishop, who is Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Boston and therefore "second in command" to the Cardinal, had spent years in Rome working at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; indeed, he had participated in producing the canonical aspects of the erection of the Ordinariates! During his excellent homily he commented on the beauty of seeing the Grace of Pope Benedict's vision working out in the individual, personal, aspect of Jürgen's ordination. The Holy Spirit comtinues to watch over our small flock and send so many Blessings!
Bishop Deeley was exceptionally kind to arrange his schedule such that he could be with us to perform this ordination in time for Deacon Liias to participate in the liturgies of Holy Week. For those in the area, be aware that Deacon Liias will be delivering the homily at the 9:30 Easter Morning Mass at St. Margaret's church (672 Hale St., Beverly Farms).

Upcoming Diaconal and Priestly Ordination for Massachusetts Ordinariate community

Reception of Jürgen Liias into Full Communion

Fr. David Barnes, pastor of St. Mary's and administrator of St. Margaret parishes in Beverly, Massachusetts, posted this week about the reception of former Episcopal/Anglican priest Jürgen Liias into full communion.

There's a pretty good chance that I am the most blessed(not bless-ed) priest in the world. I am given the privilege of being part of some extraordinary things.

This evening, at one of my two parishes (St. Margaret in Beverly Farms), I had the privilege of concelebrating Mass on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the context of that Mass--offered by Fr. Scott Hurd, Vicar General of the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States and a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC--my friend and brother in the Faith, Jurgen Liias was received into the Catholic Church and Confirmed. The Mass was attended by Anglicans who have been the beneficiaries of Jurgen's Anglican ministry and by Catholics from all over who packed the church in joyful celebration of Jurgen's reception into the Catholic Church...

Please do read the entire post, an uplifting and encouraging message.

Hat tip to Fr. Stephen Smuts for reposting this.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend this Mass on Mary-Day with several other members of the Anglican Use congregation of St. Athanasius in Brookline, and recorded the Mass. You are welcome to view the video on YouTube. This was an Ordinary Form Mass, as it was the Holy Day Mass for the parish, but the music was thoroughly Anglican.