The Ordinariate-bound group here in the Washington area, the St. Thomas of Canterbury Anglican Use Society (STCS), began on June 12, 2010 with a meeting in a local library attended by a grand total of five people. The purpose was simply to gauge interest in forming a local "Group of Anglicans" to accept the Holy Father's offer to Anglicans set forth in
Anglicanorum coetibus. Attendance doubled to ten for the second meeting, and since then by God's grace we have seen steady growth. We are now looking forward to initiating regular services in Northern Virginia with Evensong and Benediction on June 26th--the Feast of Corpus Christi--at
Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale, VA (
map). This is in addition to monthly Evening Prayer services we have been holding at
St. Anselm's Abbey in Washington, DC since September 2010. More information is available on
the website of the STCS.
On Saturday, June 11, 2011--the Vigil of Pentecost--we will celebrate the first anniversary of what turned out to be our founding meeting with a Mass according to the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite at 4:00 p.m. at
St. Anselm's Abbey. The celebrant for this Mass will be Fr. Eric Bergman, Chaplain of the
St. Thomas More Society, the Anglican Use congregation in Scranton, PA. He also served as celebrant for the Society's first official Mass on March 19, 2011, which drew a standing-room-only crowd of 80. Fr. Bergman will speak at a reception after the Mass on the practical aspects of forming an Anglican Use parish, a process with which he has personal experience.
Anyone who lives in the Washington area or plans to be here on either of those dates, please join us.
No comments:
Post a Comment