I have just been to one of the most exciting, historic, sad and nostalgic and happy day of my life for many years.
This morning I witnessed Fr Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary in waiting, receive nearly fifty people into full communion with the Catholic Church. The priests and people of Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore are now Catholics!
Mount Calvary has a long and venerable tradition within the Episcopal Church. It was the first church to be built according to Anglo Catholic principles in the 1800s and it's first pastor, Fr. Curtis, travelled to England and was received into the Catholic faith by Cardinal Newman himself.
Today their journey is complete, and a new journey begins. My prayer for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter is that both the Anglican Churches will stop being so stressy about the whole thing. Let them bid a fond farewell to the Anglo Catholics. Let them hand over some of the many churches they don't really need.
Then let the Anglican tradition live in communion with the See of Peter. Let them be united, not absorbed, and let them live in peace.
I'm excited by the Ordinariate and wish Fr Catania and his people and the new Ordinary and all others every blessing and success.
Another great day.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! A few Ave's prayed for them...
ReplyDeleteIts truly a moment of grace when Christian unity is restored.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we are seeing the beginning of the NEW New Oxford Movement.
It was indeed a great Joy to be there for such an occasion. Enjoyed meeting you, Father--and hearing you sermon at Evensong. It is a profound lesson for all of us that the great Newman himself lived in a stable at Littlemore and was received into the Church by a humble Italian priest. Will you be posting the text?
ReplyDeleteI'm curious -- why now? Not as in "this year", but why not a little earlier, at Christmas, or a little later, at Easter, when most converts are received?
ReplyDelete"...both the Anglican Churches will stop being so stressy about the whole thing."
ReplyDeleteI thought this was gracious:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-01-21/news/bs-ed-episcopalian-20120122_1_episcopal-diocese-ordinariate-episcopalians
I prayed for them on Sunday morning and have been waiting to hear how it went. Very happy for these new Catholics who are also bringing a lot of good with them. It is beautiful that not only are the people able to enter full Communion together with their priest, they are able also to continue in their own church building, there must have been some good charity on both sides with the Episcopalians for that to be possible.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that Fr. Steenson is not "Ordinary in waiting" but is already Ordinary. The decree erecting the Ordinariate states "the Personal Ordinary, who, once named by the Roman Pontiff possesses all the faculties, and is held to all the obligations, specified in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus and the Complementary Norms".
ReplyDeleteI know Fr. Steenson, in his remarks on Sunday, did not lay claim. That may well be his modesty and gentlemanly bearing. But his installation in February is not the same as a consecration of a new bishop; he doesn't need to have the ceremony to have the authority. I think his situation is more akin to that of a pastor who is assigned to a new parish. While there may be a formal installation ceremony a few months after he begins his ministry, his ministry starts from the date he is assigned to assume authority by his bishop. At least, so it seems to me.
@Howard - I am a member of Mt Calvary, so to answer your question as to why not earlier, the reason is that we could not be received into the Catholic Church until we had a settlement with the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. We did not reach a settlement until mid-December 2011. Why not wait until Easter, when most converts are received? I don't have a good answer other than why wait another second? Most of us had been ready to be received since April 2011, so we were quite eager and ready to do it as soon as we had the settlement.
ReplyDeleteWow what courage!
ReplyDelete