Anglicans on the Move

One of the first American parishes to respond to Pope’s offer will mark a special feast day this October.

(photo: Posztos/Shutterstock)

BLADENSBURG, Md. — “As we began to think about certain matters, our hearts began to melt, and we moved towards Rome,” said Father Mark Lewis, rector of a church that was formerly St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Bladensburg, Md.

St. Luke’s has made headlines as the first Episcopal church in the Washington, D.C., area and the second in the state of Maryland to avail itself of Pope Benedict XVI’s offer to Anglicans. That offer was outlined in Anglicanorum Coetibus, an apostolic constitution that makes it possible for groups of Anglican congregations to enter the Catholic Church

For the St. Luke community, that will happen on Oct. 9, when Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington will receive them into the Catholic Church.”

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last fall put Cardinal Wuerl in charge of coordinating the entry of Episcopal parishes into the Church.

The Archdiocese of Washington will provide pastoral oversight for St. Luke’s until the new ordinariate for formerly Episcopal churches is established. The cardinal has said that the ordinariate could be set up before the end of 2011. The United Kingdom already has one, Our Lady of Walsingham.

St. Luke’s is a small, picturesque church, built in the 1950s, that features needlepoint kneelers and beautiful silver on the altar. It is a diverse parish that includes people from the nearby area, West Africa and the West Indies. Unlike many parishes that opt to leave the Episcopal Church to join Anglican offshoots, the people of St. Luke’s will be able to continue worshipping in their beloved church. 

The Right Rev. John Bryson Chane, Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., has agreed to allow St. Luke’s to lease the property with an option to buy. Father Lewis called it “a generous arrangement.” Bishop Chane said that the “transition was achieved in a spirit of pastoral sensitivity and mutual respect.”

Father Scott Hurd, a bearded former Episcopal priest, who serves as executive director of the Washington Archdiocese’s Office of the Permanent Diaconate, is shepherding St. Luke’s through the transition.

“I’ve made this journey,” said Father Hurd, “and so I understand why this community is doing this.”

The St. Thomas of Canterbury Anglican Use Society of Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia is another group in the metropolitan area that is seeking to come into the Church as a group. The society regularly holds Evensong services at St. Anselm’s (Benedictine) Abbey in Washington and at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale, Va. It is composed both of former Episcopalians who are Catholic and Episcopalians who are preparing for full communion with the Church.


‘Deep Discernment’

A 52-year-old former Marine and lifelong Episcopalian until recently, Father Lewis, who is married, said that a period of “deep discernment” led St. Luke’s to seek entry into the Catholic Church. The discernment was not triggered by recent developments in the Episcopal Church, he said. “It began because of the Holy Father’s Anglicanorum Coetibus, which opened a door that had been closed,” he said.

“We put so much value in Scripture,” said Father Lewis, “but in our discernment we came to understand that there has to be apostolic authority in the sense of ‘the buck stops here.’ Who interprets Scripture? It can’t be different interpretations in different dioceses. This led us to Rome.”

He added, “We asked ourselves: ‘Is the Lord calling us to fight for this little corner of Anglicanism or be in the fullness of the faith?’”

He also said that he “didn’t convince my parishioners to do this —the Holy Spirit led us.”

Father Hurd interjected that good leadership from Father Lewis was also an important factor in helping the parish decide to take such an important step. The vestry (a lay body similar to a parish council) voted in May to become Catholic. The vast majority of parishioners are moving forward at this time.


Red-Letter Day

Father Lewis, who is teaching catechetical classes twice a week at St. Luke’s, came from what is called the “high Church” wing of the Episcopal Church. He studied theology at Mount St. Mary’s University, the Catholic seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., and at Nashotah House in Wisconsin, a famous Episcopal seminary that is part of what Episcopalians refer to half-jokingly as “the biretta belt,” a string of ritualistic churches in the Midwest. He was ordained in 2001.

Now, he will study for the Catholic priesthood at St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston. He will participate in a special rigorous but fast-track course of study designed for former Episcopal priests. He could be ordained within a year. Father Hurd will serve as chaplain in the interim.

As a Catholic priest, Father Lewis said he plans to continue his practice of celebrating the Mass ad orientam. St. Luke’s will use the Book of Divine Worship, a liturgical text that preserves much of the language beloved by Anglicans in a form accepted by Rome.

Meanwhile, St. Luke’s website features a prayer with distinctly Anglican wording and completely Catholic sentiment. It reads, in part: “Bring us to be of one heart and mind within the fold of thy holy Catholic Church, through Jesus Christ thy Son and Our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth one God, world without end. Amen.”

As St. Luke’s engages in a “Eucharistic fast” — the time between cessation of Anglican sacramental life and confirmation as Catholics — the parish awaits Oct. 9, when it will be in full communion with Rome. The date was chosen with care: It is the feast of Blessed John Henry Newman, the 19th-century theologian who is perhaps the most famous of all Anglican converts to Catholicism.

Said one excited man, who explained that he has belonged to St. Luke’s for several decades, “I can’t wait to go.”

Register correspondent Charlotte Hays writes from Washington.

 

 


Anglicans in Hollywood

Saint Mary of the Angels Anglican Church in Los Angeles, established in 1918 to minister to the “fledgling Hollywood motion-picture community,” boasts a remarkable collection of parish memorabilia — including a chalice donated by silent film star Mary Pickford known as the “Pickford Chalice.” 

Like St. Luke’s in Bladensburg, Md., St. Mary’s also wants to become a part of the Catholic Church. Unlike St. Luke’s, however, St. Mary’s is not a parish of the Episcopal Church in the United States. In 1977, as the Episcopal Church “erupted in a series of doctrinal controversies” — as St. Mary’s website puts it — St. Mary’s simply left the Episcopal Church. 

“That year there were serious disputes in the Episcopal Church, and one was over the question of women taking the role of the priest in the liturgy,” said the Rev. Christopher Kelley, SSC, rector of St. Mary’s. 

The SSC stands for Societas Sanctae Cruci, an Anglican order for clergy founded in London in 1855 as part of what is known as the Oxford Movement. Blessed John Henry Newman was the leading luminary of the Oxford Movement before he became a Catholic in 1845.

Father Kelley, who is married and has two children, a daughter, 22, and son, 16, said that his biblical study has “clarified the issue of apostolic order and the primacy of Peter. If this is what the Holy Spirit wants us to do, this is what we must do.”

St. Mary of the Angels belongs to what is known in Anglican circles as the “continuing church movement.” The parish is affiliated with the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), an international group that is not recognized by the archbishop of Canterbury, the titular head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In the U.S., it is known as the Anglican Church in America (ACA).

ACA has wrestled with the question of full communion with Rome for years. At present, it appears that some ACA parishes will seek to become part of the Church, while others will remain Anglican. 

When St. Mary’s held its vote in May, the congregation sang the hymn Lift High the Cross before allowing parishioners to express their opinions on the issue. Before casting ballots, they congregation sang Veni Creator Spiritus.

Father Kelley was delighted with the outcome. “I had prayed and said, ‘Lord, I don’t want a knife-edge vote,’” he said. “I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord, let it be over 80%.’ It came out at 81%. So I said, ‘Lord, I can’t ask for anything clearer than that.’”

— Charlotte Hays