Showing posts with label American Ordinariate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Ordinariate. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Cardinals install Catholic convert to Ordinary of American Ordinariate

 chron.com


by PURVA PATEL
  • Cardinal Donald Wuerl, left, installs the Rev. Jeffrey Steenson as the first Ordinary, or head, of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. Photo: Melissa Phillip / © 2011 Houston Chronicle
    Cardinal Donald Wuerl, left, installs the Rev. Jeffrey Steenson as the first Ordinary, or head, of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. Photo: Melissa Phillip / © 2011 Houston Chronicle
    Cardinal Donald Wuerl, left, installs the Rev. Jeffrey Steenson as...
Posted by Deacon Gerry at 8:54 PM 0 comments
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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Bringing ex-Anglicans into the Catholic fold in America

By Kate Shellnutt


Rev. Jeffrey Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop who was named the Ordinariate Chair of Saint Peter by Pope Benedict XVI, addresses the media during a press conference at Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Houston. This is the second ordinariate in the world for former Anglican groups, which will be held at Our Lady of Walshingham parish. The fist was established to serve England and Wales. To date, more than 100 Anglican priests have applied to be ordained Catholic priests for the ordinariate. Fr. Steenson, who is married with three children, became Catholic in December 2007. ( Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle ) Photo: Johnny Hanson / © 2012 Houston Chronicle

The Rev. Jeffrey Steenson's colleagues joke that during the past several years, he's gone from a church heretic to a hierarch.

Even though he has been a Catholic priest for only about three years, Steenson was Pope Benedict's pick to lead a brand-new structure for Catholic converts from Anglican churches, a position he officially takes on this weekend in Houston.

Catholic bishops and leaders from across the country will fill downtown's Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart at 3 p.m. Sunday for his installation as the head of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

The ordinariate consists of Catholic parishes that maintain some traditional Anglican prayers and music in services. Like most of the members of these communities, called Anglican Use parishes, Steenson used to be an Episcopalian, an Episcopal bishop, in fact.

He converted to Catholicism in 2007, after spending most of his career studying the church fathers, striving for ecumenicalism and, ultimately, feeling God put on his conscience that the Catholic Church was the "one, true, holy and apostolic" body.

A married father of three and amateur pilot, Steenson joined the church under provisions initially made for former Anglicans in the early '80s by Pope John Paul II. About that time, the first Anglican Use parishes formed in the U.S., including Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio and Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston, now the headquarters for Steenson's ordinariate.

The announcement came as a surprise to Steenson and members of the local parish, which years ago "had been meeting in borrowed chapels and rented warehouses. We wouldn't have imagined it would have come to this and that Houston would be the headquarters for this nationwide (ordinariate)," said Clint Brand, a parishioner at Our Lady of Walsingham and professor at the University of St. Thomas. "It's a recognition of what converts have carried with them into the Catholic Church. We can now reclaim the tradition that taught us to be Catholic."

Catholics hope their Episcopal neighbors see the initiative positively, as an unprecedented way of honoring the Anglican tradition and its core liturgy, in the Book of Common Prayer, by officially making a place for it in the Catholic Church.

"We aren't about trying to break up congregations or sheep-stealing. We respect the integrity of these communities," Steenson said. "We're not about competing for souls … . There is a desire to work together to build up church unity."

Joseph Britton, dean of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, said even from an Anglican perspective, this can be seen as a positive move that opens further opportunities for dialog.

"Though the first instinct may have been to think this was a poach on Anglicans by the Roman Catholic Church, one recognizes there is a more subtle ecumenical effect," said Britton, an expert in Anglican studies.

About 1,500 former Episcopalians have expressed interest in joining, and 42 Episcopal priests could be ordained by the Catholic Church as early as this summer.

Those figures aren't large enough to concern Episcopal leaders. The Rt. Rev. Andy Doyle noted that the Episcopal Diocese of Texas alone adds 200 members annually from Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.

"I have no anxiety, and I hope that the ordinariate will be a place where some who feel spiritually homeless may find a dwelling place; and a place where others may come to a better understanding of their own Anglican heritage," he said in a statement. "I have chosen to follow God in Christ Jesus through the particular and unique church community of the Episcopal Church. I am unabashedly Episcopalian and I love my church."
Posted by Deacon Gerry at 2:21 PM 0 comments
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Friday, December 23, 2011

Pope to name Former Episcopal Bishop, Jeffrey Steenson, as Bishop when the American Anglican Ordinariate is erected on New Years Day

Virtue On Line


Word seeped out from the Vatican late last week that Steenson -- who left The Episcopal Church in 2007 over TEC's polity - has been tapped for the new post as the Ordinariate gets its first foothold in the United States.

The former Episcopal House of Bishops' member has been deeply concerned with the continued fracturing of Anglicanism. The Episcopal Church's insistence on autonomy has further distanced itself from other Anglican provinces and resultedin a shredding of the fabric of Anglicanism.

This reporter came into possession of a private communiqué late Wednesday revealing that Steenson is being tapped for the Ordinariate's top post. A second confidential source has confirmed the communiqué.

When asked if the former Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande has received the nod to be the first Ordinary the source replied: "Yes, Jeffrey Steenson will be the new Ordinary."

On Tuesday, a third source, The Bovina Bloviator Blog theorized that Steenson would get the miter.

"It is being noised Jeffrey Steenson, the former Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande in the Episcopal Church, who was received into the Catholic Church in 2007 and is now a priest, will be named Ordinary of the American Anglican Ordinariate on January 1, 2012," the Bovina Bloviator posted under an Ordinariate Buzz header.

Steenson's Anglo-Catholic pedigree comes from being an Episcopal priest for 24 years including stints as the curate and rector at two Pennsylvania parishes -- All Saints' Church in Wynnewood, and Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, before going on to St. Andrew's in Fort Worth, Texas. From there he was elected, in 2004, to be bishop coadjutor for the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande under Bishop Terence Kelshaw. The former Rio Grande bishop has the distinction of being the 1000th Episcopal Church bishop consecrated with his "lappets" stretching all the way back to the first Bishop of Connecticut, Samuel Seabury who was consecrated in 1784. Steenson's consecrators included then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, his predecessor Bishop Terence Kelshaw, Anglo-Catholic Bishop Clarence Pope, indigenous Bishop Mark McDonald, and ecumenical Bishop Anthony Burton from the Anglican Church of Canada. Steenson became the eighth diocesan bishop in 2005. He was an Episcopal bishop for two short years before swimming the Tiber.

The Anglo-Catholic Bishop of the Rio Grande shed the purple in December 2007 and was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. This was done in Rome, Italy, at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major during a private ceremony officiated by Bernard Cardinal Law, the former Catholic Cardinal of Boston and then archpriest at a Roman basilica.

The former Episcopal bishop embraced the Pastoral Provision that allows for former Anglican clergy to become Roman Catholics and eventually recoup their priesthood. The Pastoral Provision is the precursor to the unfolding Anglican Ordinariate and will operate along side of it for those converting priests who do not wish to become a part of the Ordinariate yet want to become Roman Catholic.

One year after becoming a Roman Catholic, Cardinal Law ordained Steenson as a Catholic deacon. Fourteen months late, he was priested by Archbishop Michael Sheehan in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, located within the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which overlaps the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande.

Since becoming Catholic, Steenson has kept a high profile in his new Catholic circle. He has been active at various levels and has been seen at several Anglican Use events including attending Anglican Use Conferences where he has been the keynote speaker or the preacher at the solemn high Mass. In addition, he has been actively working hand-in-glove with American Catholic bishops as they hammered out the details of how the Anglicanorum Coetibus would be implemented in the United States.

In November, Steenson was introduced to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops by Donald Cardinal Wuerl. The Cardinal was then tasked with the implementation of the Anglicanorum Coetibus in the United States. Steenson was on hand when the Cardinal announced the January 1 date for the formal erection of the American Ordinariate.

The soon-to-be-named Ordinariate leader was educated at Harvard Divinity School and holds a doctoral degree from Oxford.

Steenson is now in Houston, Texas, where has been on the faculty of St. Thomas University and St. Mary's Seminary. He has also been instrumental in helping to set up the theological training that his brother bishops and priests will undergo in order to become fully formed Catholic clerics. He has worked at helping to develop the specific elements needed in the formation and retraining program. The former Episcopal bishop has worked closely with both Cardinal Wuerl and Daniel Cardinal DiNardo to get the unique seminary preparation program setup and running in time for the establishment of the Ordinariate on New Year's Day.

Once the Ordinariate is established, Steenson will be in charge of a non-geographic-type diocese, which encompasses the entire United States from Alaska to Florida and New York to Hawaii.

Since Steenson is married with grown children, according to Anglicanorum Coetibus norms, he can never be elevated to the rank of bishop. However, he will receive the honor due a bishop and will be in the temporal and limited sacramental charge of an as-of-yet-to-be-named Ordinariate; although, he will be prevented from celebrating episcopal sacraments such as ordination.

Once the Ordinariate is established, the initial membership is expected to eclipse the Rio Grande's numbers. Waiting in the wings are at least 67 priests, as well as a bishop or two, and several established Anglican Use parishes that may or may not be incorporated in the new Ordinariate as it unfolds including the thriving Texas parishes: Our Lady of the Atonement, San Antonio; Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston; and St. Mary the Virgin, Fort Worth. Other established Anglican Use congregations include: St. Thérèse Little Flower in Kansas City, Mo; St. Thomas More, Scranton, Penn; and St. Anselem's, Corpus Christi, Texas.

Recently, several Episcopal parishes converted to the Roman Catholic Church in anticipation of the Ordinariate. They include: St. Timothy's, Fort Worth, Texas; St. Luke's in Bladensburg, Md. All Saints Sisters of the Poor in Catonsville, Md. began their move to the Catholic Church before the ordinariate structure was announced. Last month they were named a priory of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

There are also several Traditional Anglican Communion (Anglican Church in America) congregations scattered around the country poised and ready to convert en masse to Roman Catholicism and be brought into the Ordinariate.
Posted by Deacon Gerry at 10:19 PM 0 comments
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