Having served with distinction as our special correspondent for the recent Anglican Use Conference, Mr. Ralph Johnston of Our Lady of the Atonement Parish in San Antonio, TX, has accepted our invitation to join the staff as an occasional contributor to The Anglo-Catholic. We are delighted to have him on the team.
Mr. Johnston has been a member of OLA since 2004. Formerly a museum director, he now serves as headmaster of The Atonement Academy, the PK-12 parish school of Our Lady of the Atonement, and, to date, the only school in the Pastoral Provision and future Ordinariate community. Like many other cradle Catholics worshiping in Pastoral Provision congregations, he has developed an attachment to the Anglican forms of devotion. He has attended Anglican Use Conferences in prior years and is a member of the Anglican Use Society.
In Rome with an Atonement pilgrimage group when Anglicanorum Coetibus was published, he was the first individual to file a petition with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to establish an Ordinariate for the United States under the Apostolic Constitution. He was a contributor at the Anglicanorum Coetibus Information Day in San Antonio on December 12 of last year, and he has followed recent events closely. Mr. Johnston holds an MPPM from Yale University and a Certificate in Catholic School Leadership from the University of Dallas.
Please join me in welcoming Mr. Johnston to The Anglo-Catholic!
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Welcome, Mr Johnston! It is good to have you on board.
I share with you a connection to the University of Dallas: I was privileged to be chaplain (plus a lot more) to their Thomas More in England program, and have many happy memories.
I suppose I could welcome Mr. Johnston in this space, or just shout from my office across the hall from his. Either way, welcome!
Welcome, Mr. Johnston!
~Brother Rex Anthony, ssf
Little Portion Hermitage
Diocese of Portland, ME
Your good work has already been proven, sir. Please consider yourself a very welcome addition.
"Doc"+
Father Holiday, you have been very generous in your encouragement for me; thanks! At the risk of sounding like one of those misguided folks who cling to their guns and bibles, we will have to compare notes on both one of these days.
Father Finnegan, there are many connections between our parish and school and the University of Dallas. And my son Cooper, a 2010 Atonement graudate, is off to UD this fall, where he will join at least eight other Atonement alumni who are currently undergraduate students there. If your travels bring you to the UD campus, do let me know so that we can have you detour to San Antonio, or arrange an appropriate reception in Irving, or both!
Christian and Brother Rex, thank you for your welcome also. I look forward to being more actively involved on The Anglo-Catholic, if only on those rare occasions when I have an original insight to offer!
Father Phillips I see often, and am often thereby enlightened. Here in our parish and school we have a lively intellectual and faith life, and not just for the students. Although I am a cradle Catholic, my time as an Atonement parishioner has certainly led me to appreciate the Anglican Patrimony that our Holy Father rightly praises and promotes. If this parish of the Pastoral Provision is any way predictive of the intellectual and faith life in the future personal Ordinariates, then our brothers and sisters who are now discerning their reconciliation have much to look forward to.
Ralph