Author Archives: Deborah Gyapong

About Deborah Gyapong

Deborah Gyapong is a member of the Sodality of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (www.annunciationofthebvm.org) in Ottawa, a former parish of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (Traditional Anglican Communion) whose members were received individually and corporately into the Roman Catholic Church on April 15, 2012 by Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast at St. Patrick’s Basilica. Under the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, the community will celebrate an approved Anglican Use liturgy and hopes to soon join with other sodalities across Canada to form the Canadian Deanery of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter under Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary. As we wait for our priest(s) to be ordained as Catholic priests, God willing, Archbishop Prendergast will provide priests to celebrate our Sunday Eucharist according to the Anglican Use. Deborah is a journalist who covers religion and politics in Canada’s national capital, writing primarily for Roman Catholic newspapers since 2004. Her novel The Defilers, published in 2006, was not a best seller, alas. She spent 17 years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in news and current affairs, including 12 years as a television producer.

Archbishop Falk Will Not Be Joining Ordinariate

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From Fr. Chori Seraiah's blog (h/t Fr. Smuts):

I have been fairly silent lately. Yes, I have been busy, but there is more to it than that. It has been difficult for me to hold my tongue, but it was necessary. New events have occurred and I am able to answer the questions that many have been asking. My former parish St. Aidan's here in Des Moines has made its final decision and chosen not to join the Ordinariate after all. They will remain Anglican and Bp. Louis Falk is remaining with them (any questions about the parish itself should be directed to them and not to me). It has been a very difficult time for them, as they had come to realize that the Ordinariate was not what they wanted (at the same time that I was in the process for ordination–not an easy task for any parish). I am happy to say that there is no strife between the parish and I (or my family either). Each of us realized that we were not on the same path, and yet there is peace between us. I ask everyone to pray for them at this time.

I, on the other hand, am happily serving as a substitute hospital chaplain (a very rewarding ministry!) for the next few months, and in the meantime I am seeking to begin an Ordinariate community here in Des Moines. Anyone interested in being a part of this, please let me know by contacting me at my email address listed to the left side of this page. I am especially seeking any Anglicans/Episcopalians who are interested in what the Ordinariate has to offer; Lutherans may also find something of interest in this venture.

It is sad news to see Archbishop Louis Falk is not joining the Ordinariate and that St. Aidan's has decided not to join either.  I have never met him, but I know he was a staunch advocate of Christian unity when he was Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC).  He was one of the three Anglican Church in America (ACA) bishops who welcomed Anglicanorum coetibus.

Fr. Anthony Chadwick, my former blogging partner at the now defunct The English Catholic,  posted some rather trenchant observations about the price the Traditional Anglican Communion paid for its bid for unity.

He writes:

We in the TAC got well and truly burned. The captain at the helm looked at only one thing – his compass bearing, and to hell with the rocks, fog and other ships. The ship was wrecked. Rome said to us “Yes, but as dismantled spare parts“. They would filter, screen and sift us, have every single priest send in his application and have his vocation re-evaluated from zero all over again. The rest – all that doesn’t matter just as long as they don’t tell anyone that they are institutionally dead. And by the way, forget it if you’ve already read the book, seen the film and been there! Some shipwrecked sailors are now picking through the bits of broken mast, pieces of companionways, barrels of preserved food and shreds of torn sails – looking at what they can salvage, and then rebuild. Those courageous men and women have my esteem and prayers, and they do not have to listen to the voices of those who have become Roman Catholics “Come in, the water’s warm“. “Just be patient and wait. Rome thinks in centuries“. Forget it. Either go over or stay and rebuild, or go somewhere else.

It’s in the nature of things: the small entity approaches the big entity because it is unable to compete. Big entity considers only one thing – what is useful to it and how it can get bigger and richer. There is no idea of helping the small entity in some way.

The whole exercise has left behind such pain and bitterness.  The TAC did ask for some form of corporate reunion but the only corporate reunion that ended up on offer was parish by parish, reconstituted after individuals had converted.  I do not blame Archbishop Hepworth for his overly expansive interpretation of Anglicanorum coetibus.  As fine a mind as Fr. Aidan Nichols' told me he didn't see why the document could not cover the corporate reunion of a diocese or even a province.

For many the unfolding of the Ordinariates' character might seem too much like absorption, too much like a loss of identity for those hoping for corporate reunion of some kind.

Thankfully for us we have not experienced our coming into the Catholic Church as a loss of identity at all.  Our celebrations of the Eucharist on Sundays and everything else we do is not much different from what we did before we became Catholic.  We have guest priests now, but they love our patrimony and are doing their best to help us maintain it as we wait for our own clergy to be ordained as Catholic priests.

But this was not an easy journey.  For some it has proved impossible, at least for now.

Let's keep our comments respectful and measured, seeing as I trust most of us do hope for the Ordinariates to be successful and that eventually those who are unsure now might find them truly places where Anglican identity and patrimony are flourishing within the Catholic Church.

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Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit?

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A while back, I read a post, (I wish I could remember where) in which the blogger said she preferred "Holy Ghost" to "Holy Spirit" because the former referred to a Person, while the latter could be some kind of amorphous, pantheistic force, such as "May the Force be With You!"   She recognized that some might have problems with the word "ghost" because of popular connotations of haunted houses and Casper the Friendly Ghost and so on.

Do you have any thoughts on why you might prefer one or the other?   I find I personally like the use in a liturgical setting, but I am unlikely to speak about the third Person in the Trinity as the Holy Ghost, but maybe I should rethink that.

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News from Edmonton

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Just got word that the Edmonton group will be received on Sunday, July 29th, this weekend.

Here is the email that was forwarded me from former Anglican Catholic Church of Canada priest David Skelton.

 'I am truly delighted to be able to tell you that we now have a firm date for our reception. This is July 29th at 10. 00 a.m. at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Edmonton. We will be received by our new Auxiliary Bishop, Geoffrey Bittman. Archbishop Smith was very sorry not to be able to officiate himself, but like us, he was anxious to proceed as quickly as possible. Please keep our little ‘Group of Seven’ in your prayers."

Finally!  I hope someone will take lots of photographs and send us a report!

I stayed with then Fr. David Skelton and his lovely wife Mary when I spoke at a writers' conference in Edmonton back in 2005 or thereabouts.  They have a lovely chapel in their home where we prayed Mattins and Evensong together while I was there.

There are others who are already Catholic who will be part of this Ordinariate-bound group.

Please keep them in your prayers!

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The King James Bible

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Peter Karl T. Perkins wrote in the comments section the following:

The King James Bible is the single most important text in the English language. It has had more influence than any other. Its felicitous expressions are unmatched. They are what has made English what it is, with all its beauties and faults. It not only reflects that culture and patrimony; it has formed it. I find it hard to imagine parallels to this removal. An abolition of this sort effectively divorces the liturgy of the ordinariates from the very font of the culture and patrimony they claim to conserve. Words fail on this occasion, and it is precisely the failure of words that is the subject here.

-snip-

When ordinary people from every walk of life attend the Mass or Office they are not there to reflect on precise meanings from ancient texts. Their attendance connects them to an entire ethos and worldview. In a flash, it's gone.

I agree with PKTP in this, but it is not a deal-breaker for me as far as the Ordinariate is concerned.  I still hope, however, that reason will prevail and this most precious foundation of English-speaking civilization will be preserved in the Ordinariates, even if, as someone else suggested, it is preserved as a kind of Extraordinary Form, that might include the English Missal and so on.

For how many, I wonder, if the fact that it is not so far allowed in our Ordinariate readings a deal-breaker?  For those who have not joined the Catholic Church, what does this signal to you?  Absorption?  For those who are already Catholic, is this one of the reasons you have decided not to join?

If you could advise Msgr. Burnham and the international liturgy committee what would you tell them?  If most of the folks in the Ordinariate want the King James Bible, let's let them know.  If most don't really care, well, then we'll know.

 

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Some Insight into Parish Renewal from Fr. Bob Bedard

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Fr. Bob Bedard is the late founder of the Companions of the Cross.  I had the privilege of interviewing him several times over the years and afterwards floating on the blessings conveyed by his words, which seemed full of life.  Over on the Catholic Charismatic Centre website, there is a reflection by Fr. Bob, who died last October, on parish renewal.

Here's an excerpt:

Although I was very distracted, not my usual calm self, there was one thing I had learned to do — get quiet every day for an extended time and pray. I consulted the Lord. I begged him for the wisdom to know what to do. I had to suppress my very natural tendency to try to get something going. Anything! In fact, I did try a couple of things that didn’t work very well. I might have known and saved myself the trouble.

There are lots of good things we can do for God, thousands of things. The problem is that they will be our ideas, run on our energy and resources, won’t work very well, and we’ll exhaust ourselves in the process. How many highly motivated people have burned out trying to make good things happen for God?

What we need, I am convinced, is not a whole bunch of good ideas, but God’s idea. He has a plan. If we can find out what it is and do it, it will work, work for him and for his kingdom.

MaryatStMarys2 Some Insight into Parish Renewal from Fr. Bob Bedard

Statue of Mary at St. Mary's Parish

So … I persevered in prayer, seeking the Lord’s particular word for the parish. Over time, I thought he might have been getting through to me. Having discerned correctly, I felt, the word about returning home after the summer and so on, I was developing a bit more confidence about my capacity to hear God speak. What I thought I was hearing this time, and it became clearer through a period of days and even weeks, was something like this: "I don’t want you to doanything, except the very obvious things that a pastor must do. I want to take over here myself. I don’t want any of your programs or ideas. I have a plan of my own. But, what I want from you is your permission. I want you to give me permission to do what I want to do. And, not only that, I want you to tell the people that you are giving me this permission, and that I want their permission, too. If I get enough permissions, I’ll move. When I do, you’ll see it. You can then point it out, and get everybody to support it."

Again, I was obedient to what I thought the Lord might be telling me to do. I gave him the permission he seemed to be asking for. In fact, I still give it to him – every day. Awkward though I felt about it, I did tell the people about it, Sunday after Sunday, and I did suggest to them that they might consider giving God the green light themselves.

Their reaction was, as I might have expected, interesting. It was easy to see they had never heard the gospel call put quite that way. Of course, neither had I. I have heard it many times since from many different people, but, up to that point, early 1985, I had never heard it before. The people, I could tell, were struggling with it. I could see some of them mouthing the word ’permission’ to themselves. The occasional one would turn to the person next, a spouse or whatever, and obviously ask: "What did he say?" The answer would come back just as obviously: "He said God wants your permission." Consternation all ’round.

monstrance Some Insight into Parish Renewal from Fr. Bob Bedard

Monstrance

I felt that the Lord was giving me different ways to say the same thing as, week in and week out, I tried the best I could to get the point across. I talked practically nothing else. "Let God be God," I would tell them. "He’s good at it. God is very good at being God. Let’s let him do what he wants here." More shuffling in the pews. "Let’s consult the Lord," I would say. "God has plans for our lives, both as individuals and as a body. If we consult him, maybe he’ll tell us what they are." Furrowed brows. "Are we satisfied with the condition of the Church, with the condition of this parish?" I would rant on and on. "Are we satisfied with what’s happened to our families, to the kids?" (Lots of tough things had happened of course: youngsters on drugs, gone from home, certainly gone from the Church, premarital arrangements, broken marriages, etc.) More were starting to listen. "Do we think God is satisfied? Do we think he has power to turn it around?" Some seemed to be getting interested. "Are we willing to let him change the things that we ourselves cannot change?" I could see some almost saying to themselves: "Is it really possible, I wonder?" "If we’re willing to let God go to work," I would continue to belt it out, "then let’s tell him so." "God is fed up being a spectator in our lives," I would belabour the point. "He wants to be a participant."

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What a blessing for us in Ottawa to have his priests ministering to us Anglican Use Catholics.  And how much they enjoy our liturgy!  How can these ideas apply to us if we hope to become centres of evangelization within the Catholic Church?

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Some New Insight from the Revised Standard Version!

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Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of my favourite saint, Mary Magdalene, after receiving the appropriate permission from Roman authorities to have our Red Letter Day on the Sunday instead of having the normal Sunday readings.

I could have danced in the aisles for joy at how wonderful the whole Eucharistic Celebration was yesterday — from the hymns, two of which were specifically about Mary Magdalene with beautiful tunes, the chanted readings, and the Spirit-filled sermon by Fr. Francis Donnelly, who can extemporaneously expound on readings with such wisdom and confidence.  Then more great fellowship in the parish hall below, with sandwiches, muffins, fruit, cheese, German meatloaf and other goodies, even a special gluten free table for us gluten sensitive types.  Even the clean-up was fun, with many hands making the work go fast and providing opportunities for more socializing.

And the translation of the RSV of what I had always known from the King James Version as "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father…"  was  (sorry if this is not exact, but I don't have an RSV at home, but now I'm going to get one!) "Do not hold me."

I looked it up in my Jerusalem Bible (which helps for those times when I can't make sense of the KJV) and it translates this as "Do not cling to me…"

So of course, he embraced her outside the tomb, but she would not let go.

Fr. Francis Donnelly, CC, explained this to mean that once Jesus ascended to the Father he would be with her — and all of us — always.

And how present He was with us yesterday.

Fr. Francis has been assigned to serve at the Companions of the Cross' Catholic Charismatic Centre in Houston at the end of the summer.  Our loss.  Houston's gain.  What a blessing he has been for us in Ottawa.  I hope he will look in on the Ordinariate folks down there and bring lots of encouragement and joy with him!

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Australian Ordinary Speaks on Anglican Patrimony

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Fr. Harry Entwistle, the new Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia gave a talk at a recent Melbourne information day that is now posted on the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham site.  (H/t Fr. Smuts)

Here's an excerpt of Fr. Entwistle's talk on Anglican patrimony that I thought was interesting.  There's a lot more that is significant in the talk, so go on over and read the whole thing.

The Holy Father wants us to bring the treasures of our Anglican heritage with us, and offer them as a gift to the Church. I think we need to rediscover what those gifts really are. We talk of singing proper hymns, of preaching, of good music and pastoral care, but I have come to believe that these are consequences of something deeper. What we must rediscover and bring, is our English Spiritual Tradition, which claims continuity with the desert fathers and mothers, with the Celtic Church, St Augustine of Canterbury, SS Benedict, Anselm, Bernard, Aelred, the English mystics of the 14th century such as the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Margery Kempe, Henry Rolle, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich and later, the Reformers, the Caroline Divines of the 17th century and the Tractarians, in particular Blessed John Henry Newman.

The English School of Spirituality is a middle way, a via media. Not so much as a half way position between Catholicism and Protestantism, but as holding in balance theological and spiritual study, or head knowledge, and how we express that knowledge in our worship and live the Christian life in the world. It is a balance between piety and living the gospel in the world, not a little of each, but giving both equal weight. Being only a head knowledge Christian or a charismatic feeling Christian concerned only with justice matters is not the way of English Spirituality.

In our tradition, there is equality in the Church. Clergy may like to be on a pedestal, and some laity put them there, but the Church militant here on earth is made up of equal partners who each have their own ministry. This is why the
daily prayers of the Church are that of the whole. Laity is expected to recite or hear matins and evensong. The daily office is not only for the clergy. This is something we should revive but remember Mgr Burnham’s new book may be a
place to start but is not an authorised text.

The Ordinariate is not an Anglican Preservation Society, living in some imagined golden age. It is a non-geographical diocese within the Western Catholic Church, committed to proclaim the gospel and be evangelistic. We will have our liturgy that reflects our English tradition, but it is not an end in itself. It reflects what we believe and pray, and its language will be of our tradition.

I particularly like what he says about equality.  There is a way of respecting the roles of clergy and lay people without having them bleed into each other — having lay people take over specifically clerical functions.  Doing the daily offices is a boon to my spiritual life and growth and it would be great to see this continue to be encouraged.

I also like what he says about liturgy not being an end in itself and that the Ordinariates are not meant to reflect some "Golden Age" or become historical preservation societies.  Yet, I hold that view in tension with a certain sympathy for those who would like to see the King James Version of the Bible and the Prayer Book have more influence on the ongoing liturgical discussions.  I would like to see the Authorized Verson authorized!

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How Do You Say Philistine?

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Do you say it with a long "i" like "eye" for the "tine."  Or do you say "Philis-TEEN."

I have always said Philisteen, but then, I could be wrong, like I was about "err."

ButI have certainly learned the right way to say "Amen!" which is the secret password to joining the Ordinariate.  (I'll give it away:  it is  Ah'-men,  not Aye-men', 'k?")

And it is "seth" for "saith" not "sayeth," that I know, too.

I am still enjoying listening to  actor Max McLean reading aloud the King James Bible, though I see he also has done the ESV and the NIV, too.

Though I don't always listen to the audio, when I do, I find it helps me pay better attention to the text than if I read it outloud myself or read it silently.  It's also a way of playing with my new BlackBerry or PlayBook.  Not an "i" person, sorry.

Here's more information about the actor Max McLean at The Listener's Bible:

Max McLean is President of Fellowship for the Performing Arts, narrator for the Listener’s Bible audio line, and speaker on the daily radio program Listen to the Bible which airs on over 670 radio affiliates worldwide.

But he is best known for his theatrical presentations of The Screwtape Letters, Mark's Gospel, and Genesis. Each of these has received critical acclaim in a wide array of publications including the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

His theatrical productions have appeared in several off-Broadway theaters in New York; at the Edinburgh Fringe Theater Festival in Scotland; Pegasus Theater in Chicago; the Dallas Theater Center; the Stratford Festival Theater, as well as dozens of colleges and performing arts venues across the country, including Duke, Brown and Smith. See Reviews and Comments.

As the narrator of the Listener’s Bible (available in KJV, NIV and ESV translations) McLean is committed to recapturing the early oral tradition of telling the Bible story with clarity and power. He brings a unique blend of dramatic expression and theological understanding that make listening to the Bible a joyous, rewarding experience. His recordings of the Bible have been nominated for Best Inspirational Audio by the Audio Publisher's Association on two separate occasions.

Max McLean was born in Panama City, Panama, and came to America via New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty at the age of four. The first thing he had to do was master the English language. Due to his father's military career, 'home' included many places across the continental United States, the Far East, and Europe.

Max is married to Sharon and they have two daughters, Rachel and Julia. Max & Sharon are active members of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in New York City.

I found out more about him and he is not English after all.

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I Wish I Had Known It Would Be Like This!

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"I wish I had known it would be like this!"  That's what I wrote last April to someone who also made this similarly arduous journey into the Catholic Church as part of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.  I wish I had known how it was going to be when we were actually received into the Catholic Church because this might have spared me such disappointment and anguish over the previous year.  As most of you know from my complaints and dismay expressed publicly from time to time, I sure felt as if Cardinal Kasper's words regarding the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) — "the train has already left the station" — applied to us, that we were the chopped liver of Ordinariate applicants, treated like second class citizens, that really only those from the Canterbury Communion need apply and so on.

Yes, I hoped for a much more corporate approach to our reception than the parish by parish model that in effect disintegrated the ecclesial bonds we had enjoyed in the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada and forced us to walk away from considerable assets for a poor group like ourselves in terms of wills and trusts.  I still think that Rome could have handled this aspect better and maybe we would not have lost so many people.

But it is what it is.  And while we are so much smaller, a remnant of the 700 Canadian communicants there were when we first reported our numbers to the Catholic Church, but  those who remain are more united, more bonded.  As my grandfather always used to say, "Everything always works out for the best."  Who knows?  Maybe some of the people we lost will come back eventually.  I hope so.

So what I am I trying to say here?

I really want to avoid anything that is going to look preachy in smugly telling people to be patient and not fret.  I used to get annoyed from time to time back in the day at pep talk posts that seemed to be saying my attitude was the problem when all I saw was alarming and hurtful and it felt like I was being admonished to close my eyes to injustice.

Okay.

Things did not work out the way I expected them to and adjusting my expectations and accepting the disappointment was difficult.  Experiencing the disintegration of the Traditional Anglican Communion was awful.  Watching Archbishop John Hepworth's trials, I found agonizing.

I reached a point where I was really wondering if I could become Catholic.  All I could see were the Church's flaws. I wanted to flee to a simpler, more direct personal relationship with Jesus Christ like I'd experienced as an evangelical.

But once our bishops and clergy decided to join the Catholic Church with no conditions, without a nulla osta in sight, things suddenly changed for us.  The welcome and generosity we have experienced has been amazing.  The sense of constant spiritual attack also lifted.  It's been a honeymoon of grace since last January when the request was made to come in in April.

The generosity comes not only from our local bishops but also from the Ordinariate.

We in Canada have had a good experience of our Ordinary Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson and have found him accessible and attentive to our concerns.

I wonder, though, whether in the United States there is a disappointment concerning the Anglican Use parishes, particularly Our Lady of the Atonement (OLA), and their apparent lack of a role in the new Ordinariate.

I don't think I'm the only one who envisioned the Anglican Use parishes being the spine of the U.S. Ordinariate, providing it with an initial stability and income that no other country would have.  So, I can understand there might be some dismay that OLA, the first and most successful Anglican Use parish, is not part of it, even if we do not know all the reasons behind its withdrawal.

This morning, I saw a comment on another blog that indicated some Traditional Anglican Communion parishes in the United States feel like they and their clergy are being left on the platform as the Ordinariate train rolls by.

One thing that wise correspondent told me in response to my "I wish I had known that it would be like this" was something to the effect that maybe, in some mysterious way, the suffering and anguish contributed to the good result we are experiencing now.

"It changed you, no?"

Well, it did force me to pray.  Suffering is like that.  But it was risky because I was so tempted to bitterness, which is not my usual besetting sin.  It was like getting hit with a craving for gambling, which I am so not interested in!

Given how bleak things looked even a year ago for us, I wonder what things will look like two years from now for those in the United States who are feeling left out or who have concerns now about how things are taking shape.  Maybe Our Lady of the Atonement, will be safely and happily part of the Ordinariate and those communities that feel left behind at the station will have been gathered in.  We can pray for that result.

I ask, too, that if you comment about disappointments or concerns, that you take a measured tone.  There is much going on in the Ordinariate that is behind the scenes but progress is being made.  Maybe not on our timetable or unfolding as we expected, but it will, we can all hope and pray, work out for the best.

Meanwhile, we can expect that there will be lots of turbulence and spiritual warfare attacking any moves towards greater Christian unity.  It used to help me when I recognized that some of what I was feeling was spiritual attack.  The other thing that helped was to know that everything that was happening was still under God's watchful eye and Providence.  Jesus was allowing this to happen and was I going to kick against Him?

So, I hope those who are outside and wondering why things are not going faster or more smoothly will know that I am with you in your suffering.  This kind of travailing is compared to labor pains for a reason.  But there are many reasons for hope and thanksgiving, too.

I hope someday you too will be saying like I am now, "I wish I had known it would be like this!"

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Archbishop J. Michael Miller Receives Anglican Catholics in Vancouver

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Hurrah for Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller for receiving a group of former members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) led by (Fr) Michael Shier on July 12 and hurrah! for the B.C. Catholic Newspaper for covering the story!  Here's an excerpt.  Follow the link to read the whole thing. There's a picture, too!

Group of 11 with 'Anglican distinctiveness' enter Catholic Church at Holy Rosary
By Alistair Burns
The B.C. Catholic
VANCOUVER

Eleven former members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada came into the Roman Catholic Church June 30 during a Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral. Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, said the Mass, with Father Bruce McAllister, Father Glenn Dion, and Father William Ashley concelebrating.

"This has been a long, sometimes trying journey, but one filled with hope," the archbishop said in his homily. "We are celebrating, as these nine adult members are confirmed and two children come into full communion, a joyous, historic occasion."

Archbishop Miller explained the unification process had been set in motion in 2007, when the bishops of the Anglican communion formally expressed their desire "to enter into full unity with the Holy See, without losing their Anglican distinctiveness."

Two years later Pope Benedict XVI signed an apostolic constitution, a formal document which enabled groups of Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.

"Physical union with the Church does not mean absorption into a monolith; the union is better compared with an orchestral ensemble: the result is symphonic," the archbishop enthused.

After the Mass, the new Catholics congregated on the cathedral steps with the archbishop and his concelebrants.

"We were drawn in by the Pope's declaration; that's what really motivated us," said the Rev. Michael Shier, an Anglican clergyman on his way to ordination as a Catholic priest. "He understood our predicament."

The Rev. Shier also thanked the archbishop for kindly spending a few hours in a question-and-answer session with the converts at Westminster Abbey.

"This group enriches the Church by their presence, and it takes considerable humility for them to do this. It's not what they have chosen; Christ has chosen them," pointed out Father Ashley.

And I got word from someone from Edmonton that the group there, led by (Fr.) David Skelton has been on a Eucharistic fast for several months and they will be received Tuesday, July 24, next week!

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