Stations of the Cross from Our Lady of the Atonement Parish and School

St. Mary Parish in Arlington, Texas to Become Part of New Ordinariate

Parish started as an Episcopal Parish; Became Catholic in 1994

St. Mary the Virgin Catholic Parish in Arlington, Texas, currently part of the Diocese of Fort Worth, will become part of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter within the next few months, the pastor announced at Masses today.

St. Mary's, which has 400 members, was founded as an Episcopal church, but became part of the Catholic diocese in 1994 under the "Pastoral Provision" which granted limited approval for Episcopal parishes to become Catholic and married Episcopal clergy to be ordained as Catholic priests. St. Mary's was one of a handful of parishes to enter the Catholic Church under this option.

On January 1, 2012, in response to repeated requests from Anglican clergy and groups seeking to become Catholic, Pope Benedict XVI broadened the opportunity for them to do so by creating the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The ordinariate is equivalent to a diocese, though national in scope. Its communities, while fully Catholic, retain elements of their Anglican heritage and traditions, particularly in the liturgy.

Since January, nearly 20 former Anglican parishes or communities have joined the ordinariate, and 22 former Anglican or Episcopal priests across the United States and Canada been ordained Catholic priests. Six of these priests were ordained by Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann in June.

The parish's transition to the ordinariate has the full support of Bishop Vann, who has been instrumental in the formation of the ordinariate and who oversees the pastoral provision for the Catholic Church in the United States.

Reverend Allan Hawkins, the long-time pastor of St. Mary, shared with parishioners a letter from the head of the ordinariate, Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, which said in part, "I am very pleased that, thanks to the steady and wise leadership of Bishop Vann and Fr. Hawkins, you have come to the threshold of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. We rejoice that you will soon become part of the Ordinariate, the culmination of the journey commenced in 1994 when your parish was received into the Catholic Church under the Anglican Use."

Fr. Hawkins has led the parish for 32 years; the transition will occur upon his retirement. St. Mary the Virgin was established in 1961 as St. Bartholomew's Episcopal mission church, and became a full parish in 1969. In 1986, under the direction of Fr. Hawkins, the parish was renamed St. Mary the Virgin. In 1994, it became the first Episcopal parish in the United States to transfer corporately into the Catholic Church, and to retain its property in the transition. That same year, Fr. Hawkins was ordained a Catholic priest.

The Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is based in Houston, Texas. Its principal church is Our Lady of Walsingham, a former pastoral provision parish in Houston. Ordinariate communities are located across the United States and Canada, including Florida, where 140 parishioners at the former Anglican Cathedral of the Incarnation in Orlando, Florida, were received into the Catholic Church today as part of the ordinariate.

Online:
U.S. Ordinariate: www.usordinariate.org and facebook.com/CSPOrdinariate
St. Mary the Virgin Parish: www.stmarythevirgin.org
Diocese of Fort Worth: www.fwdioc.org

An Episcopal priest's first Catholic Mass

One of the Fort Worth Six was ordained with his father


By Mary Ann Mueller
Special Correspondent

HOUSTON, TX: He's tall, he's slender, he's young and now he is a Catholic priest.

In my 40-plus years as a religion writer, I have covered a wide variety of religious events: the ordination of deacons and priests - Episcopal and Catholic; the consecration of a Catholic bishop; the installation of Episcopal rectors; the enthronement of an Anglican archbishop and an Ordinariate's founding Ordinary; the veilings of Catholic nuns; the creation of an Episcopal diocese; the elevation of a Catholic diocese to an archdiocese; the craziness of several Episcopal General Conventions - even as another gets underway; and one United Methodist General Conference. However, I have never been to a priest's first Mass ... until Sunday.

On Saturday, June 30, the Rev. Charles Hough IV, formerly rector St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Gainesville, Texas, was ordained a Roman Catholic priest along with five other former Episcopal priests, all of whom are a part of the ACNA Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, including his own father, Charles the Third, who was at one time the Canon to the Ordinary.

The calendar page turns. On Sunday, July 1, wearing green and gold brocade vestments, Fr. Hough was officially installed as the first Ordinariate rector of Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church in Houston, even before he stepped up to the altar to offer his first Mass as a Catholic priest. His first Mass as an Episcopal priest was celebrated when he was ordained in September 2007. Since then, he has served at two Texas Episcopal churches, one in Arlington and the other in Gainesville.

The entrance procession included several acolytes - torch bearers, a crucifer, a thurifer - two deacons and two priests, all in matching vestments, as well as the Ordinary of the Ordinariate wearing his golden-colored mitre. The orders of clergy processed in to the lusty singing of Hosanna to the Living Lord.

As the final note sounded, Our Lady of Walsingham's deacon, the Rev. Mr. James Barnett, stepped forward, faced the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, and said, "Reverend Father in God, I present to you Fr. Charles Hough, who you as Ordinary have appointed to serve as the rector of this Principal Church of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, Our Lady of Walsingham, and here this day by your to be installed and admitted to the cure of souls in this parish."

Monsignor Steenson replied, "Dearly beloved in the Lord - In the Name of God and in the presence of this congregation, as the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, I hereby institute our well-beloved in Christ, Fr. Charles Hough as rector of this Principal Church, and with all the parishioners of Our Lady of Walsingham, I welcome him to this sacred ministry ..."

The congregation exploded in applause.

When the applause died down and following a prayer the Monsignor asked the new rector if he would "steadfastly serve this parish, duly ministering God's Word and Sacraments, for the benefit of the faithful ..."

The new priest's first words as rector were, "I will, God being my helper."

Monsignor Steenson turned to the congregation and inquired of the parishioners if they would support Fr. Hough in his new ministry as a Catholic priest and their new rector.

"We will, with God's help," came the solid reply...

Read the rest of Mary Ann's story at Virtue Online.

Ordination Homily...

 for Fathers Charles Hough III, Charles Hough IV,
Christopher Stainbrook, Joshua Whitfield, Mark Cannaday,
and Timothy Perkins

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church
Keller, Texas
June 30, 2012

Dear Charles, Charles, Christopher, Mark, Joshua, and Timothy,

          We gather today from near and far to celebrate your ordination as Roman Catholic Priests, and we all do this with great joy from wherever we have come. As the Jewish people, when they would approach the sacred space of Jerusalem and the Temple would joyfully pray the “Psalms of Ascent”, we also joyfully join our voices in a grand chorus of praise to God “Praising God to the Holiest in the Heights” as we approach this sacred space and sacred time. And, as you will shortly say “I do...I do...and I do, with the help of God” there is a chorus of voices that surround you this day that have led you here. They are: The Word of God that you have chosen for this day - this Feast day [The First Martyrs of the Church of Rome], the voices of your Anglo-Catholic formation, family and friends who have helped you to hear this call, and I might add, from the “Communion of Saints,” the voices of those from the past but still from Eternity, sing to us this great day! And St. Augustine would say “Let us now sing, but keep going!”

          Let us turn first to the Book of Lamentations, the first reading for this day. At first glance one may wonder why this would be used on a day of priestly ordination, given its history and origin, dating from the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem. Yet, it is the reading for the Mass of the day, and you have chosen it. It also echoes, it seems, a pilgrimage of Faith that each of you all made, from times of an uncertain destination (the “where, when, and how” of it all) to a destination and journey far beyond in which all at once the light of God illuminated the path and opened the door; the light of Christ which St. Paul speaks about in the second reading for this day!

          Toward the end of the Book of Lamentations for today, we find the words “pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to Him.” As we all lift up our hands to the Lord this day, in thanksgiving and praise, let us imagine this praise being joined by two voices from Eternity, from the Communion of the Saints, in a manner of the antiphonal chanting of the Psalms with one voice answering the other: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Blessed John Henry Newman! These witnesses of the Faith share the Anglo-Catholic heritage which your Ordination as priests, along with your communities, bring now into much sharper focus for the whole Body of Christ! This will be clearly evident in a few minutes when we pray the prayer of Basil Cardinal Hume, in gratitude for your history and formation as Anglo-Catholics!

          I have had the chance over the years to visit St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street in New York, where St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was received into the Church. One day, upon approaching St. Peter’s, she said: “A day of days for me, Amabilia. I have been—where? To the Church of St. Peter with the cross on the top instead of a weather-cock (that is mischievous)—but I mean I have been to what is called here among so many churches the Catholic Church. When I turned to the corner of the street it is in, ‘Here, my God, I go,’ said I ‘my heart all to you.’ Entering it, how the heart died away, as it were, in silence before the little tabernacle and the great Crucifixion over it. ‘Ah, my God, let me rest,’ said I—and down the head on the bosom and the knees on the bench.” [From Mrs. Seton, by Fr. Joseph I Dirvin, CM, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. 1975]

          From this personal experience, a personal echo of Lamentations, another voice now answers in return from eternity, that of Blessed John Henry Newman. His own experience of Lamentations, when he was still at St. Mary’s in Oxford in May of 1843 speaks to us: “At present I fear, as far as I can analyze my own convictions, I consider the Roman Catholic Communion to be the Church of the Apostles, and that what grace is among us (which, through God’s mercy, is not little) is extraordinary, and from the overflowing of His dispensation…My office or charge at St. Mary’s is not a mere state, but a continual energy. People assume and assert certain things of me in consequence. With what sort of sincerity can I obey the Bishop? How am I to act in the frequent cases, in which one way or another the Church of Rome comes into consideration?” AND FINALLY, “By retaining St. Mary’s, I am an offense and a stumbling block.”

          Dear brothers, your lives, your prayer, and your discernment over these past years, not only find a resonance in the sacred history in the Book of Lamentations, but also in the words and lives of these two great figures enrolled among the Saints and Blesseds, whose history reflects in many ways your own. You, like they, having “Poured out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord,” and have been led by the providential care of the Lord to this great day of rejoicing!

          There is also, however, turning to the Gospel for this day, another echo for your lives. Like the centurion, who asked for his daughter to be healed, you will hear the Lord’s words not only for the centurion, but for yourselves, now and into your future ministry: “It shall be done to you because you have trusted.” And because you have trusted, the next words you speak will be your “I DOs” to the Lord in your Ordination as Roman Catholic Priests.

          You are being called to priestly ministry in the Catholic Church in which your role as a witness is very much needed. The first Martyrs of the Church of Rome, whose feast day we celebrate today, stand with you to call you forward in this mission: a task of being a credible witness to the essential nature of ecclesial communion in Christ, and a witness to the words of the same Christ who says in another place “You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.” Indeed, you are being called to the priesthood in an era in which the freedom to proclaim and live the truth is being threatened. Your voices and ministry are essential to the freedom of the Church in the proclamation of this mission.

          There is one more voice, one more place that sings to us this day: Canterbury! St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) said “That I may seek you desiring you, that I may desire you seeking you, that I may find you loving you, and that loving you I may find you again (cf. Proslogion, 1).”

          That would be another voice, then, that joins our chorus of praise today for you and for the whole Church, who together with the great St. Augustine says one more time “Sing then, but keep going.”

AMEN.

From Bishop Vann's blog Shepherd of Forth Worth.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

6 former Episcopal clergymen are ordained in Catholic Church

BY JIM JONES
Special to the Star-Telegram

KELLER -- Under a huge dome with images of winged angels, six former Fort Worth-area Episcopal clergymen -- including a father and son -- lay facedown at a marble altar Saturday and were ordained as priests in the Roman Catholic Church.

In what officials called a historic moment, Fort Worth Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann and other white-robed priests in the diocese laid hands on the priests at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller to welcome them.

It was the first ordination class under Pope Benedict XVI's new Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, created Jan. 1 to allow Episcopal priests to be ordained as Catholic clergy and for Episcopal congregations to join the Roman Catholic Church.

The priests' wives carried in vestments that the priests later donned, assisted by other clergy. Then, standing before Vann, the priests each said, "I will" in answer to his questions about whether they will faithfully carry out their responsibilities.

More than 1,000 in the church stood and applauded.

The ordinariate is headed by a former Fort Worth Episcopal priest, Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, who earlier converted to Catholicism.

"This is very moving for me today personally," Steenson said. "These men were all part of my generation, and we all served in Fort Worth."

The pope created the ordinariate to help Episcopal churches and clergy who want to become Catholic but keep part of their Anglican roots.

It's an enlargement of a system begun by Pope John Paul II in 1981 that first allowed married Episcopal priests to become Catholic clergy...

Read the full article at The Star Telegram.

Hat tip to Daniel Page on Facebook.

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (Matt 9:37-38)

The newly ordained priests of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in Texas

Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, who of thy divine
providence hast appointed various orders in thy Church:
Give thy grace, we humbly beseech thee, to all who are
now called to any office and ministry for thy people; and
so fill them with the truth of thy doctrine and clothe them
with holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before
thee, to the glory of thy great Name and for the benefit of
thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth
and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one
God, now and for ever. Amen.

from the Book of Divine Worship

Rare father and son priest ordination set for this Saturday

Six former Episcopal priests from the Fort Worth area, including a father and son, will become part of history when they are ordained Catholic priests together on June 30.

The six are part of the first ordination class for the new Catholic Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Based in Houston, the ordinariate is equivalent to a diocese, but national in scope. It was created earlier this year by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglican groups and clergy in the United States seeking to become Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage.

Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann will ordain the men as Catholic priests on Saturday, June 30, 9 a.m. at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2016 Willis Lane, Keller, TX 76248. Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, head of the 0rdinariate, will participate.

And regarding the father and son:

Among those being ordained are Charles Hough, III, and his son, Charles Hough, IV. They will be among a handful of father-son Catholic priests in U.S. history. A special exception has been given for the former Anglican priests who are married to be ordained Catholic priests for the Ordinariate.

Charles Hough, III

Charles Hough, III, 57, of Granbury, was an Episcopal priest for 31 years, including 18 years as Canon to the Ordinary of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth before he stepped down in September 2011 to become Catholic. A graduate of the University of Texas and Nashotah House Seminary in Wisconsin, he was rector of two parishes in the Fort Worth area from 1982 to 1993. He currently leads St. John Vianney Catholic Ordinariate Community, which meets at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church in Granbury, and is online at stjohnvianneycleburne.org. Married for 39 years, he and his wife, Marilyn, have two children and two grandchildren. Their son, Charles IV, also is being ordained.

Charles Hough, IV

Charles Hough, IV, 30, of Keller, was ordained an Episcopal priest in 2007 and was rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church until entering the Catholic Church in June 2011. He is a graduate of Texas A&M and received a Master of Divinity from Nashotah House Seminary. He served on the adult religious education staff at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller, Texas and, starting July 1, will be pastor of Our Lady of Walsingham Ordinariate Parish in Houston, Texas. Married for eight years, he and his wife Lindsay have two young sons.

from Deacon Greg Kandra's blog The Deacon's Bench. 

Solemnity of Pentecost and St. Timothy's Church

May 30, 2012

by Bishop Kevin W. Vann, JCD, DD

60 members of St. Timothy Church were received into the Ordinariate of
the Chair of St. Peter at St. Mary the Assumption Church on May 27.
St. Timothy was a former Episcopalian Church which announced its
desire to enter the US Ordinariate on January 1.
Photo by Donna Ryckaert

Today was a truly blessed and historic day, as on this great feast of Pentecost, about 60 members of St. Timothy Church were received into the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter at St. Mary the Assumption Church in Fort Worth. The members of St. Timothy Church through the leadership of their Pastor, Rev. Christopher Stainbrook, officially announced their desire to enter the US Ordinariate on January 1, 2012, on the same day that the Holy See announced the erection of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in the United States with Msgr. Jeffery Steenson named as the Ordinary. Since that time, the members of St. Timothy had been involved in several weeks of formation and catechesis in preparation for the reception into the Church. Today about 60 of their members, along with their pastor were received into the Church by Fr. David Bristow, pastor of St. Mary the Assumption.

I was able to address the congregation at the beginning of Mass to welcome them and affirm their decision to come into the Ordinariate in what is truly a historic occasion and give them my blessing before I headed over to the Cathedral for Adult Confirmation of about 65 adult Catholics from across the Diocese. After his homily, Fr. Bristow received and confirmed about 60 of their members, beginning with their pastor Christopher Stainbrook who then proudly stood and sponsored each member as they came forward for Confirmation. After Confirmation, Fr. Bristow then presided over a brief Rite of Welcome for about 15 members of St. Timothy’s who were still in preparation for full reception and Confirmation, and who will be received into the Church on a later date. Christopher Stainbrook then addressed his congregation and thanked them for their perseverance in this journey of faith and stated that in his 22 years of ministry this was the most emotional moment he has ever experienced...

Read the full story on the blog of The Shepherd of Fort Worth.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

For additional information visit the web site of St. Timothy's.

Anglican Clergymen Become Catholic Priests: Taking the Final Steps to Ordination

Anglican Ordinariate’s new chief priest oversees course of studies, teleconferencing of married men.
by CHARLOTTE HAYS 02/15/2012

CLEBURNE, Texas — Charles Hough already had quite a career, including 18 years in the prestigious post of canon to the ordinary in the Episcopal Church’s Fort Worth Diocese. Now he wants to become a Catholic priest.
Hough hopes to lead a group of former Episcopalians in Cleburne, Texas, who have asked to belong to the new Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, created by Rome for former Episcopalians. Every Saturday, from 9 to 4, he participates in a newly developed program of training for former Episcopal clergy.
He and approximately 60 other former Episcopal priests around the United States, many of whom are married, are studying for the priesthood using a teleconferencing system to hear lectures and discuss their intense course of readings. While some men join the teleconference alone, Hough gathers with several other men at a Catholic church.
A similar group meets in Baltimore for the weekly teleconference. Hough has special ties to one of the other Texas participants — Charles Hough IV, his son, another former Episcopal clergyman who hopes to become a Catholic priest.


Read the whole story at The National Catholic Register.

Historic Mass of Institution for newly created Catholic Ordinariate on Feb. 12

CONTACT:
Susan Gibbs, 202-525-9554 or media@usordinariate.org

Cardinals Donald Wuerl and Daniel DiNardo and ten other bishops from across the nation will join Rev. Jeffrey N. Steenson for an historic Mass of Institution for the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter (www.usordinariate.org):

Sunday, Feb. 12
3 p.m.
Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart
1111 St. Joseph Parkway, Houston, TX

The ordinariate, similar to a Catholic diocese, but national in scope, was established by the Vatican on Jan. 1, 2012 to serve former Anglican groups and clergy who become Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican traditions and heritage.

During the Mass Fr. Steenson, a professor and former Episcopal bishop, will be installed as the first Ordinary and given the title of Monsignor. Cardinal Wuerl, delegate for the implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus, the document authorizing ordinariates, will read the Vatican’s official letter of appointment and present Msgr. Steenson with symbols of his office: a crozier (pastoral staff representing his role as a spiritual shepherd) and miter (tall hat worn during liturgies representing his authority).

Msgr. Steenson will be greeted by representatives of the ordinariate, including young people, candidates for the priesthood and pastors of existing Anglican-use parishes (under a previous provision, a small number of Anglican parishes became Catholic as part of regular Catholic dioceses).

As ordinary, he will have responsibility for establishing the new organization, including parishes, community and clergy. Since he is married, he will not be a bishop, but will be a full member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He joined the Catholic Church in 2007 and was ordained a Catholic priest in 2009. He and his wife, Debra, have three adult children. He also is on the faculty of St. Thomas University in Houston.

To date, over 100 former Anglican priests have applied to become Catholic priests through the ordinariate; some 50 are beginning studies in a formation program, with some ordinations possible in June. Another 1,400 individuals from 22 communities also are seeking to enter the ordinariate. Since September, two former Anglican parish communities in Maryland and a group in Fort Worth, Texas have been received into the Catholic Church.

The Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is based in Houston, Texas. Its main church is Our Lady of Walsingham. Only one other ordinariate exists, in England.

Background on ordinariates

The ordinariates are the result of requests from Anglican groups to become Catholic in a “corporate” manner (as groups). In November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus (Anglicanorum chay-tee-bus), which authorized the ordinariates. In September 2010, the Vatican appointed Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, as its delegate for its implementation in the United States. He, Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth and Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester were assisted by Reverend Scott Hurd, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington (and a former Anglican priest). Fr. Hurd is serving a three-year term as vicar general of the ordinariate.

Friday Evenings in Lent 2012 at St. Mary the Virgin

Retired Fort Worth Bishop Clarence Pope dead

JANUARY 8, 2012
BY GEORGE CONGER

The second [Epsicopal] Bishop of Fort Worth, the Rt. Rev. Clarence C. Pope, Jr., has died.

On 8 Jan 2012, the Diocese of Fort Worth announced that Bishop Pope (81) had “died in his sleep overnight” at a hospital in Baton Rouge where he was being treated for pneumonia.

“His wife, Dr. Martha Pope, and members of their family were with him over the past week. Please keep all the family in your prayers,” the diocese said.

Elected the second Bishop of Fort Worth in 1984, Bishop Pope was the first president of the Episcopal Synod of America, and a long-time advocate for corporate reunification with the Roman Catholic Church. Upon his retirement in 1994, Bishop Pope announced that he and his wife were joining the Roman Catholic Church. Citing the Church of England’s 1992 Act of Synod permitting the ordination of women, Bishop Pope said then that the “pilgrimage I had longed to take corporately would now have to be taken alone.”...

Read the rest at Anglican Ink.

Requiescat in pace.

Anglicanorum "Unfolds Before Us": In Fort Worth, a US First

Two years since Anglicanorum coetibus, they say the day is coming soon -- the release of the CDF decree establishing a Stateside jurisdiction for groups of Anglicans entering full communion with Rome, bringing with them distinctive elements of their lifelong patrimony of faith.

Yet even without the formal starting-gun, the groundbreaking B16 venture has already begun taking root on these shores, reaching a new level of its ramp-up last weekend.

At a Sunday Mass in Fort Worth, some 30 former Episcopalians became the first US group to enter the Catholic fold in preparation for the American Ordinariate's launch. Fourteen months since beginning their catechesis, the group's Professions of Faith, Confirmations and First Eucharists in St Patrick's Cathedral took place four years after four priests of North Texas' Episcopal diocese met privately with Bishop Kevin Vann to investigate the possibility of swimming the Tiber...

Read the rest at Rocco Palmo's Whispers in the Loggia.

Hat tip to Fr. Phillips writing at The Anglo-Catholic blog.

Ft Worth, Texas Ordinariate Group to be received

Dear friends in Christ,

On Sunday, September 25, at 2 in the afternoon, the first of our group of people (The Community of St. Peter the Rock) who will be members of the Anglican Ordinariate within the Catholic Church will be received and Confirmed by Bishop Kevin Vann at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Fort Worth. I know not all of you can be with us for this joyous occasion. Of your charity, I ask that you remember us in your prayers at Mass on that day and that you give thanks with us to God for this wonderful blessing.

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you…”

Fr. Timothy Perkins
The Community of St. Peter the Rock
A Fort Worth-area Ordinariate Fellowship
817/583-3675

----


We are entering as a group of the faithful within the Diocese of Fort Worth. We will receive sacramental ministrations in local parishes of the diocese but will continue to gather as a community as we await the establishment of an American Ordinariate. Presently we have three regional fellowships that gather together for worship and catechesis each Sunday in the Chapel of the Catholic Center of the diocese. On Wednesday evenings, each fellowship meets locally. One group has use of an Oratory that was prepared for them by a local Catholic family within their office building, another uses a local parish Church or a Campus Ministry Chapel, and another meets in homes.

Bishop Vann has been entirely supportive of the formation of our community, and those who are being received at this time received instruction from a team of catechists provided by the diocese, which began in July of 2010 and was completed this past Lent . In August, we began a second offering of RCIA, again with the assistance of those with whom we have previously networked and under the direction of the Director of Catechesis of the Diocese of Fort Worth.

I hope this comment is helpful. Like all of you, we wait with prayerful longing for the Ordinariate to be established. Please rejoice with us in this next important step on the journey.

From The Anglo-Catholic blog.