Mid-Atlantic Gathering of Ordinariate-bound Anglicans & Catholics

Ordinariate-bound Anglicans, Catholics (and those who are merely curious) are invited to attend several events during and leading up to this year's March for Life (Jan. 23 and 24).  Fr. Christopher Phillips has posted something about it on the Anglo-Catholic blog.

At 4:00pm on Sunday, Jan. 23, Fr. Eric Bergman, a Pastoral Provision priest and pastor of the St. Thomas More Society in Scranton, PA, will celebrate an Anglican Use Mass at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in downtown Baltimore.  Nearby Mt. Calvary Church has very generously offered their parish hall for a reception afterward.  Mt. Calvary is the Episcopal Church whose congregation voted overwhelmingly last October to leave ECUSA and become Catholic.  See my post about it here.  This will be an opportunity to meet other like-minded Catholics & Anglicans and to find out more about what is happening around the mid-Atlantic region related to the eventual formation of an Ordinariate in the US.

On Monday, Jan. 24, there will be an opportunity to march together at the March for Life on the National Mall under a banner which proclaims, “Thank you, Holy Father, for Anglicanorum Coetibus!”  We will meet at 1:00 pm at the corner of 7th St. and Independence Avenue, SW (just west of the Air and Space Museum).  Click here for a map.

Advent Lessons & Carols

Catholic Faith                                                                    Anglican Patrimony

The Anglican Use Society

of

Washington, DC and Northern Virginia

invites you to a

Service of Advent Lessons and Carols

on Saturday, December 18, 2010

at four o’clock

St. Anselm’s Abbey

4501 South Dakota Avenue, NE

Washington, DC  20017-2753

and afterwards for

Coffee Hour

For More Information:

Contact: James W. Farr, Jr.                                                  

E-mail: codeblueiii@yahoo.com

Click here for a Mapquest map of St. Anselm's Abbey.
For more on St. Anselm's: http://www.stanselms.org/

The Anglican Use Society of Washington, DC and Northern Virginia invites you to join with them in building an Anglican Use Catholic parish for the Washington, DC area. Regular services of Evening Prayer according to the Book of Divine Worship are held on the third Saturday of each month at 4:45 p.m. at St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington.

Fr. Catania to Appear on "The World Over"

Mt. Calvary Church, Baltimore

From a story posted yesterday on The Anglo-Catholic:

The Rev. Jason Catania of Mount Calvary, Baltimore, which recently voted to withdraw from the Episcopal Church and apply to become a parish of the Anglican Use, will be interviewed this week by Raymond Arroyo for the EWTN program, "The World Over."

For those in the U.S., the program will air at 8:00 p.m. Eastern with encore runs Friday at 1:00 a.m., Sunday 4:00 p.m., and Monday at both 10:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.

Those in other countries can check the listings on The World Over website.

I posted a blog entry on Oct. 25 about Fr. Catania and Mt. Calvary, whose congregation voted overwhelmingly at a congregational meeting on Oct. 24 to leave the Episcopal Church and seek reception into the Catholic Church.

Read the entire article on The Anglo-Catholic.>>>

Breaking News from England

It looks as if the prayers of Blessed John Henry, Cardinal Newman (and many others) are continuing to bear fruit.

Five Church of England Bishops have formally tendered their resignation from the CofE and announced their intention to join the English Ordinariate once it is formed.  The Bishops--three active, two retired--are among the most prominent of the so-called "Flying Bishops," who serve traditionalist Anglican congregations and are affiliated with the organization, Forward in Faith (FIF).  One of the five, John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham & Chairman of FIF International, has already announced his intention to take up the Holy Father's offer, formalized almost exactly one year ago in the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus.

While this does not come as a complete surprise to most of us who keep track of such developments, it is a great joy to those of us who have been praying hard for our Catholic-minded brothers still on the other side of the Tiber.  Let us continue to pray that more of our separated brethren will come to be reconciled with Holy Mother Church.

For more on this story, see:

• Damien Thompson's story in today's Telegraph online
• Catholic Herald article (also linked above)
• Today's stories on the Anglo-Catholic blog (with links to more stories)

A Baltimore Parish Declares for the Ordinariate

Wonderful news from Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church in Baltimore, which comes as a great encouragement to our Anglican Use group in the nearby Washington, D.C. area.  The parish voted overwhelmingly yesterday to separate itself from the Episcopal Church and to seek reconciliation with the Catholic Church as an Anglican Use parish.  According to a report from one of the parishioners, posted yesterday on Stand Firm:

Mount Calvary voted on two resolutions today at a special meeting following 10:00 Mass:

1) That Mt. Calvary Church separate itself from The Episcopal Church, and

2) That Mt. Calvary Church seek admission to the Roman Catholic Church as an Anglican Use parish.

Both resolutions passed by majorities of almost 85%.

The ballots were counted by two disinterested outsiders: Dr. Daniel Page (a friend of many parishioners who lives nearby) and Sister Mary Joan of the All Saints' Sisters of the Poor.

The ballots were counted in the presence of the Rev. Scott Slater, Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Maryland. 


Please keep Fr. Jason Catania and the members of Mt. Calvary in your prayers, especially during the coming transition.

More on this at the Anglo-Catholic blog: http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2010/10/heading-home/

Anglican Use Evening Prayer in Washington, DC

Anyone interested in attending regular gatherings of Catholics, Anglicans, and those somewhere in-between in the Washington, DC area, will welcome the following announcement:

The Anglican Use Community of Washington, DC is pleased to announce the beginning of regularly scheduled services. Beginning October 16th, Evening Prayer according to the Book of Divine Worship will be held on the third Saturday of each month at 4:45 p.m., St. Anselm's Abbey, 4501 South Dakota Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20017. Coffee hour will follow the service.

Please join us!

If you would like more information, feel free to post a comment or send me an email at the address on my profile.

Click here for a Mapquest map of St. Anselm's Abbey.
For more on St. Anselm's: http://www.stanselms.org/

One of my favorite prayers

This is from a Mass booklet for the TLM published by Ignatius Press a couple of years back.  It is one of the "Prayers of Thanksgiving after Mass."  The source is the 16th-century Benedictional of John Longdale, about which I have discovered nothing more as yet.  It helps me to remember to "keep alive [my] spirit of charity in every situation."  Enjoy.

May our Lord, the Father of all mercies, sustain us by his own strength and keep alive our spirit of charity in every situation.  May he give us the desire of that most valuable gift: a wide-hearted sympathy and a broad-shouldered endurance.  Then shall we have experience of that wisdom which is part of the liberty of the children of God.