‘Keep the Flame of the Christian Faith Burning’: Ordinariate Catholics Acquire Old Methodist Church

by Joanna Bogle, Register Correspondent 

Sunday, Mar 01, 2015

Welcome to the west of England. The railway line from Exeter St. David’s in Devon runs along the Exe Estuary — dozens of little sailing boats scurrying about on the water, with a green sweep of hills on the opposite bank — and then, somewhere around Dawlish Warren, it’s suddenly alongside the open sea, the waves occasionally  splashing against the side of the train.

Father David Lashbrooke is a priest in the nearby town of Torquay, and he is making history. He is a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (overseeing the flock of Anglicans who have come into full communion with the Catholic Church, thanks to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI). He and his flock — with the goodwill of the local Methodists — have taken over a local Methodist church and are turning it into the home of their flourishing Catholic community and a center for mission outreach.

“Keep the flame of the Christian faith burning in this place,” said the Methodist minister, as he handed a lighted candle to Father Lashbrooke at the Methodists’ last service in the church.

And the flame is indeed burning brightly. The former Chelston Methodist Church is about to be renamed as the Church of Our Lady of Walsingham and St. Cuthbert Mayne (a local man and one of the 40 English martyrs who died for their Catholic faith between 1535 and 1679), and it is already home to a good-sized congregation at a sung Mass each Sunday...

Read the rest at the web site of the National Catholic Register.

Hat tip to Shane Schaetzel via Facebook.

A Living and Developing Patrimony: A Homily on Acts 10:17-33.

"At every pivotal moment in the Church’s history, Peter is there, the person of the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, who carries the mission forward, keeping the Church ever ancient and ever new, as he’s doing now, in our own day."

From the 2011 Anglican Use Conference at St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington, Texas, Fr. Christopher Phillips preached this homily, which was published in Volume 3, Number 9 (Lent 2012) issue of Anglican Embers. Preaching on the reception of Cornelius and his household into the Church, Fr. Phillips' homily is perhaps something to read and meditate on in a time when many in the Church are perturbed about current events in Rome and reports about Pope Francis. 

http://www.anglicanuse.org/AE_3_09_Phillips-Developing-Patrimony.pdf

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.

US Ordinariate announces details on February 2-3 Symposium

SYMPOSIUM: THE MISSION OF THE ORDINARIATE
A symposium to commemorate the first anniversary of the
Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter
February 2-3, 2013

Registration of $25.00 required per each attendee for February 2nd events. To register online, visit Eventbrite.

Archbishop Gerhard Müller
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

HOTEL INFORMATION: Rooms have been reserved for the Ordinariate at the following hotels:

Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites
7625 Katy Freeway (I-10)
Houston, Texas 77024
713-688-2800
$89.00 single or double occupancy
Block code for online reservations: OSP.

Crowne Plaza Houston Galleria Area
7611 Katy Freeway (I-10)
Houston, TX 77024
713-680-2222
$99.00 single occupancy
$109.00 double occupancy
Block will be released on January 18, 2013
Block code for online reservations: CSP

PARKING: On Saturday, shuttle service will be available from the hotels and from special satellite parking next to Our Lady of Walsingham Church, 7809 Shadyvilla Lane, Houston, Texas 77055.

Please note that parking will not be available at the seminary.

AGENDA:

Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013
St. Mary’s Seminary
9845 Memorial Drive, Houston, TX 77024

8:30 a.m. Check-in, Nold Hall Auditorium.

9:30 a.m. Welcome and Introductions.

“The Ecclesiology of Anglicanorum coetibus”
Archbishop Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.

10:45 a.m. Break.

11:00 a.m. Greetings from Daniel Cardinal DiNardo
Archbishop of Galveston-Houston

“The Ordinariate’s Mission: Evangelization”
Donald Cardinal Wuerl, Ecclesiastical Delegate for
Anglicanorum coetibus in the United States.

12:00 p.m. Casual Lunch. Box lunches included in the registration fee.

1:30 p.m. “The Ordinariate’s Mission: Liturgy”
Msgr. Steven Lopes,
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Secretary to
the Anglicanae Traditiones Commission.

2:30 p.m. Break

2:45 p.m. Responses:

Bishop Kevin Vann, Bishop of the Diocese of Orange and
Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Pastoral Provision

Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, Ordinary
The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Archbishop Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.

Sunday, Feb. 3, 2012 (Open to everyone. Registration not required.)

9:00 a.m. Concelebrated Mass at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart
1111 St. Joseph Parkway at San Jacinto, Houston, Texas 77002

4:30 p.m. Solemn Evensong and Procession to the Shrine, Our Lady of Walsingham.
7809 Shadyvilla Lane, Houston, Texas 77055

Msgr. Steenson publishes update on the Personal Ordinariate in North America

From the US Ordinariate web site:

An Update from the Ordinary
The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is now nine months old. Much has happened in that time, and we give God the glory for all of it, the challenges as well as the successes. One of the most significant moments came in mid-September when the Cardinal Archbishop of Galveston-Houston transferred to the Ordinariate the title to our principal church, Our Lady of Walsingham. In a similar way, the Diocese of Fort Worth is in the process of transferring St. Mary the Virgin, Arlington, to the Ordinariate. We have seen some twenty-two priests ordained and incardinated in the Ordinariate, with additional ordinations to come soon. Also, we will launch a new formation program for the second group of prospective candidates in Advent...

Who and What We Are: A Primer for Catholics
The Ordinariate is unique in the Roman Catholic Church; however, it comprises many elements similar to other Catholic structures, recognizable to all Catholics. Consequently, these familiar elements can help to define and explain the Ordinariate, our purpose, and our vision for the future.

In some ways, the Ordinariate is similar to a religious order. In the same way that the Franciscans and the Dominicans have distinct charisms or missions within the Church, we have a distinct, two-fold charism or mission granted to us by the Holy Father. This charism must be taken into account in all decisions as we discern our way forward. We are (1) to minister to the pastoral and spiritual needs of all former Anglicans coming to the Catholic Church and (2) to maintain “the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared” (AC 3). The decisions we make to plot a course for the Ordinariate must be always with an eye toward both caring for the people specifically entrusted to our care and bringing the fullness of the Anglican patrimony to the Catholic Church. This is our commission, the commission the Holy Father gave us in Anglicanorum coetibus.

We sometimes receive questions about the relationship between the Ordinariate and certain traditionalist liturgical groups in the Catholic Church. In answer to these questions, I think the comparison between the Franciscans and the Dominicans is apt. Saints Francis and Dominic once met to see whether they might combine their efforts and form one religious order. Although they left their meeting with great respect for each other and for their individual missions, they realized that it was important for the Church that they keep their efforts distinct. We in the Ordinariate must recognize that our commission to care for former Anglicans and to introduce our distinctive patrimony to the Church is a full-time, life-long calling, similar to but separate from the recovery of the Extraordinary Form within Catholic life. While our goals might be similar, and while we might support each other’s charism, the charisms are not identical. To merge the two might divert the Ordinariate from its primary tasks. We must seek to be faithful to our own distinct charism and patrimony.

We are blessed to be a part of the Catholic Church and all of its liturgical riches. Sometimes it seems that coming into the Catholic Church is like dining at a smorgasbord – there are so many beautiful choices on the table that we are tempted to sample them all! I understand this desire, and I have encouraged my clergy to become involved in their local dioceses so that they are able to sample the riches that belong to the Church. They are welcome to assist at other local parishes, and to celebrate both the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms of the Latin liturgies in the traditions of those diocesan parishes for their parishioners. In this spirit, we even have had one priest of the Ordinariate supply in a local Eastern Catholic parish. I want our priests to share in the activities of the presbyterate of their local dioceses...

Moving Forward
...The first principle of the Ordinariate is communion – to be in communion with St. Peter and his successors, to be in communion with those bishops in communion with the Bishop of Rome, to be in communion with the Catholic people, to seek communion with those separated from the Church – “that they may be one.” Some of us have come to the Ordinariate from situations full of conflict, much of it painful, some even scandalous. As a consequence, we have behaviors to be unlearned, obedience to be given, peace to be discovered. We do not want to replicate this disorder in our new ecclesial home...

Read the whole update here.

UK Ordinariate to hold day conference on mission and evangelisation

Inspired by the Year of Faith, which opened this week, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is hosting a one day conference on mission and evangelisation for members and supports of Pope Benedict’s vision for the reunion of Anglicans with the See of Peter.

The conference, which will take place at the church of St Patrick, Soho Square - itself described as ‘a beacon of hope’ for the New Evangelisation - will have keynote presentations from experienced ‘practitioners’, and the opportunity for discussion, questions, and answers.

Fr Allan Hawkins, Parish Priest of St Mary the Virgin in Arlington, Texas, is a former Anglican clergyman who was received into the Catholic Church and ordained under the Pastoral Provision of Blessed John Paul II. Since the advent of the Pastoral Provision, Fr Hawkins has grown and developed a Catholic parish community within the Anglican liturgical and spiritual tradition. Earlier this year it was announced that the parish will transfer to the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.

Fr Paul Richardson is a priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster. He was formerly Assistant Bishop of Newcastle in the Church of England, previously working in Norway, and as a missionary in Nambaiyfa, Papua New Guinea. He was Principal of Newton Theological College, Popondetta, Dean of Port Moresby, and subsequently Bishop of Aipo Rongo, Papua New Guinea, and later Bishop of Wangaratta in Australia.

A spokesman for the Ordinariate said, “This is an exciting opportunity for us and our supporters to begin to think in a strategic way about the development of our mission. We are integrated into the Catholic Church by virtue of our communion, but the Year of Faith presents us with an opportunity to think about the ways in which we can contribute - as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham - to the work of the New Evangelisation, claiming back these lands for Mary’s Dowry’.

The conference takes place on Friday 9 November 2012 from 11.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. All are welcome to attend. No charge is made, but a donation of £10 is requested, plus a further donation to help cover the cost of lunch, which will be provided. To register your interest, please email media@ordinariate.org.uk.

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For those of you, my readers, who are not up to crossing the pond, the Anglican Use Society's Annual Conference is November 8-10 in Kansas City. Register for the AUS conference here.

You should support this

I would like to second this appeal from Vincent Uher's Tonus Peregrinus. I lived for a year in Colombia, on the coast in Barranquilla, not in the mountains where Fr. Walters works. But both on the coast and in the mountains, there is great poverty and need, made all the worse by many years of war, both civil and guerilla since the 1940s, with a short respite for 20 years in the 70s and 80s. I lived with a gracious doctor and his family, who were thoroughly Catholic. The many people I got to know through church, many of them poor, were also deeply attached to the Lord Jesus and his Blessed Mother. Like poor people throughout the world today and in history, they knew they could rely only on the Lord, just as this morning's psalm at Mattins reads: "It is better to trust in the Lord, * than to put any confidence in man."

Casa Walsingham founded by Fr. Peter Walters (a former Anglican now Catholic priest serving in Colombia) is something that all of the Ordinariates and Anglican Use parishes should support.

Fr. Peter Walters

Casa Walsingham is supported by the registered charity Let the Children Live or in SpanishFundación ¡Vivan Los Niños!  known asFunvini for short.
There is a great risk that the Anglican diaspora in the Catholic Church will be excessively inward (even navel) gazing as structures are developed and challenged.  Looking out beyond the national borders to the mission field beyond is one salutary way of seeing to it that we all stay focused on the Mission of the Church.  Think St. Paul and the Collection for Jerusalem, dear reader.  Should not the Ordinariates around the world have at least one foreign mission in common -- a mission outside of their own continents and nations?
We all can see the need to support a good work drawing its spiritual inspiration from Our Lady's Shrine at Walsingham in England.  Casa Walsinghamis that good work.
Remember to pray for Father Peter Walters and the children!  Please donate to support this vital work.  The charity is registered in the UK, and in the USA in the past we have sent donations to Father Peter via Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church (Anglican Use) in Houston, Texas to the attention of Margaret Pichon.
Please share these thoughts with other Ordinariate Catholics, Anglican Use Catholics, and the Anglican diaspora within and outwith the Catholic Church.

The Glory of These Days

Newly priested Fr. Timothy Perkins writes in July's Portal Magazine:

Letter from America
The Glory of These Days
by the Revd Timothy Perkins

News concerning the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter here in the United States has been coming at a rapid pace of late. Indeed, reflecting on the six-month history of this new Ordinariate, the developments have been breathtaking.
Within this short time, an ordinary has been installed; the first offering of clergy formation was not only begun, but completed; first deacons were ordained, a first priest was incardinated, and a pastor for the principal church was named; and before another month will have passed, some thirty men will be priests. “My heart is indicting of a good matter...”

Not Slow as Some Count Slowness

Swept along by all these things, I have tried to find moments of recollection, not wanting to become so involved in these matters that I miss the experience of wonder over the marvellous works of God being accomplished in our time. So doing, I have called to remembrance that the months leading up to these quickly passing days often felt excruciatingly slow.
The release of Anglicanorum coetibus in November of 2009 was followed by a year of uncertain efforts to convince others to embrace the Spirit-inspired offering contained therein. After my resignation from ministry in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth the following October, a community of people came together and continued formation in the faith.
At that time, we entered what felt like a very long period of waiting, a time of walking “by faith, not by sight” as we prayed with longing for the work of an Ordinariate in this country to commence. A little over a year later, that holy desire was realised, and the hurried pace began.

Taken Up by a Whirlwind

Just over two weeks ago, I and five close friends and colleagues were ordained deacons by Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth for the Ordinariate. On the evening of the Liturgy it felt as if we had arrived at our destination. Beginning the next morning, life has been in the fast lane.
The days have passed in a glorious swirl of ministerial activity; and I may have caught a glimpse of the experience of Elijah when the LORD rushed him up to heaven! Opportunities to serve at Masses have combined with extra occasions of preaching and necessary preparation, not only for the upcoming ordination to priesthood on June 30, but also for the liturgical life of my community starting the very next day, to put me into a time-bending swirl. It is an exhilarating experience of rejoicing in the Lord.

Rush of Mighty Wind

Perhaps one of the additional graces that will be conferred along with priesthood will be a calming, a relaxing of this frenetic stirring, but I suspect not. The sound of the coming Holy Spirit at Pentecost was powerful and enkindled flame in those chosen to minister and lead.
My expectation is that all of the newly ordained will rush into their sacred ministries, carried on their way on the wings of a holy Wind. I pray that I and they will be driven along the paths of righteousness, sweeping up all whom we serve, lead, and encounter in our ministries into the glory of the Catholic faith.

New Evangelisation & Church Planting

From the blog of Vincent Uher comes this reflection on the November conference of the Anglican Use Society.

The Anglican Use Society, which predates the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, will be having its 2012 Conference around the theme of the New Evangelisation of Blessed Pope John Paul II.

Wonderful news! But remember a New Evangelisation Conference does not a missionary make. But with the proper catechetical instruction and reference points in the New Evangelisation of Blessed Pope John Paul II you will have the most fertile intellectual ground from which to develop your local mission strategies. I hope the Ordinariate would develop a common mission strategy. A consideration may be that perhaps because you are scattered all across North America in relatively small groups the really important task is to develop your local mission strategy in concert with the Church's invitation to the New Evangelisation rather than a directive from the Ordinariate itself.

Papers will be given by most excellent speakers at the Conference relating to the New Evangelisation and the Anglican experience, and some issues will be explored in a presentation by Fr. Scott Hurd, the Vicar General of the Ordinariate, and Mr. Marlon de la Torre of the Pastoral Provision Office in Fort Worth, Texas that I think will be very key: "Pastoral Considerations and Future Directions in the Pastoral Provision and in the Ordinariate". One would hope that a common mission strategy could be developed for both the Pastoral Provision parishes and clergy and the Ordinariate... but there is a great danger if it is simply a strategy delivered from on high, top down. The great chance you have is to collaborate as clergy and laity in the whole process because your numbers are so small that you could all gather in one Great Conference ... even by satellite uplink technology.

I note in particular that there will be a presentation on financing start-ups and new congregations by C. Denis Green. I sincerely hope many more such informational presentations will be made targeting the particular issues of planting new churches. This will be a very different thing for the Ordinariate than what is normally done in the dioceses of the USA. Because the Ordinariate comes from an Anglican wellspring, I would hope they would look to the whole Boot Camp for Church Planters experiences that are out there in order to tailor one for the Ordinariate's own needs and one for the needs of the Pastoral Provision parishes.

Without the fresh ideas coming from this very successful movement a priest starting a new congregation will be tempted to simply do what he knows from his own experience and what he tries to apply from what he has studied or heard. It can be so much easier than trying to reinvent the wheel. It's been done. So if you are starting up a new Ordinariate congregation, try not to rely on the fact that you are coming from existing congregations with their structures and customs and merely replicate those. Take advantage of the expertise that largely comes from the committed Evanglical part of the Protestant Churches and make it your Catholic own.

Starting a new parish can be the most difficult thing in a priest's life. It can also be the most rewarding. By making use of the Church Planting models, needless stress upon one's wife or children can be avoided. And needless stress and troubles can be avoided for you too by simply learning some of the strategies for growth in the contemporary post-Christian culture as well as strategies for avoiding the pitfalls of parish formation and life.

The Rev. Tom Herrick of Titus Church Planting is one of the best in Church Planting in North America, and as he is an Anglican in North America you will likely find a sympathetic soul prepared to challenge the hell out of you to bring in new souls for the Lord of the harvest. Some of you may well know him from courses he has taught at various venues including Nashotah House. I would hope you would seek out someone like him as you new priests and deacons plant your new communities of Catholics of the Anglican Patrimony.

More established congregations from a TAC background might also consider the model of a "restart" that is found in Church Planting strategies since you are in fact restarting your communities within a new context and now have all of the fulness and beauty of the Catholic Church and your Anglican heritage to offer.

Admittedly, many, many souls will be drawn to your new churches because of the profound reverence and beauty of your liturgies that are so different from the normative Latin rite but are not as big a leap as the Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy. You will be that place just right to worship God and watch the family grow.

I offer these thoughts as a person who has no authority beyond the authority of the Lay State as enunciated in Christifideles laici of Blessed Pope John Paul II ... which in short means I am called to the front lines of the battle for souls sharing in Christ's threefold office as prophet, priest and king. I am not connected to the Ordinariate in anyway except for that I pray for its clergy, religious, and people daily.

Do visit Mr. Uher's blog Tonus Peregrinus where he shares the fruits of his reflections.

MORE CŒTIBUS

An argument for staying with Rowan and putting up with the Womenbishops which deserves respectful examination, is the "Incarnational" consideration. Here in England, the life of the Church of England is deeply embedded in the life of the Nation. So the Church can appear as an enfleshed sign of the Presence of Christ. This means that a parish priest has the opportunity to be involved in the secular life of his district in a way that RC and Protestant clergy are not. I remember my (second) curacy days in an inner-London slum parish 1970-1973, and our involvement with organs of the Council, with social and community-work groups, with Tenants' groups, with other pressure groups including the Communist Party (which in the 1970s was active in good works and in building social cohesion and pride). I share the view that people without ecclesial links regarded these relationships as natural because they saw the C of E, however confusedly, as relating to the whole community as no other 'Faith Group' did...

Read the rest at Fr. Hunwicke's blog Liturgical Notes.