I have been remiss. I published here the story of an ordination to the diaconate, but not the crowning glory of this deacon's ordination to the Holy Catholic priesthood. Better late than never!
This news release popped into my mailbox this morning. To which I say, Alleluia!
Also this weekend, I believe our Vancouver and Edmonton Anglican Catholic Church of Canada groups will be received into the Catholic Church with their clergy.
Former Anglican Priests Make Catholic History in Canada
Two Calgary men become first ordained for Catholic Ordinariate in Canada
Former Anglican priests Lee Kenyon of Calgary and John Wright of Chestermere will make history when they are ordained Catholic priests by Bishop Frederick Henry of Calgary:
Saturday, June 30, 2012, 11 a.m.
St. Mary’s Cathedral
219 – 18th Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta
The men are members of the first ordination class for the new Catholic Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Equivalent to a diocese, but national in scope, the U.S.-based ordinariate was created earlier this year by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglican groups and clergy seeking to become Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage.
These will be the first men to be ordained priests for the Ordinariate in Canada. Three ordinariates exist in the world, in the United States, United Kingdom and, as of June 15, Australia. The U.S. ordinariate is led by a former Episcopal bishop, Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson of Houston, Texas.
In speaking about the ordinations across North America, Msgr. Steenson said, “These ordinations mark a significant moment in the history of Catholic unity. Our expedited formation program, approved by the Holy See, has been a wonderful testimony to the deep respect that the Catholic Church has for the former Anglican ministries of these men.”
Kenyon’s parish community, Church of St. John the Evangelist, was the second oldest Anglican parish in Calgary, until being received into the Catholic Church in December 2011. The parish community remained at its property through a lease/purchase agreement with the Anglican Diocese of Calgary.
Kenyon noted, “We are full of hope and joy that we will be able to enjoy this fullness of communion without losing that which has been so precious and nourishing to us as Anglicans.”
Profiles of the New Priests
Lee Kenyon, 34, born and raised in England, was ordained an Anglican priest in 2006 after completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Lancaster, graduate studies at the University of Leeds, and seminary studies at The College of the Resurrection, Mirfield. He was assistant curate in the Diocese of Blackburn from 2005-2009, before becoming priest-in-charge of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Calgary. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have three young children.
John Wright, 58, was ordained an Anglican priest in 1988. He received his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame University in Nelson, British Columbia and a diploma in agricultural management from the British Columbia Institute of Technology. He attended seminary at Emmanuel and St. Chad’s in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Recently he has been working toward a doctorate in religious studies. Wright served parishes in Southern Alberta and in Calgary. He also was a member of the Naval Reserve for almost 41 years and a chaplain for 21 of those years. He was trained in the Canadian Forces Chaplaincy, taking numerous courses and serving on a number of bases. He was received into the Catholic Church in December 2011. He and his wife, Ruth, have been married for 26 years and have three children.
Special permission has been given for these former Anglican priests, who are married, to be ordained Catholic priests.
Online:
· Ordinariate (includes Q&A abou the ordinariate): usordinariate.org and facebook.com/CSPOrdinariate
· St. John the Evangelist Ordinariate Community: calgaryordinariate.com
Amongst the many ordinations taking place, I want to mention this one, since Chori Jonathin Seraiah is one of the Contributors to this blog. He is shown here with his family, and with Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa. We keep in our prayers Deacon Seraiah and all those ordained at this time.
Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, who of thy divine providence hast appointed various orders in thy Church: Give thy grace, we humbly beseech thee, to all who are called to any office and ministry for thy people; and so fill them with the truth of thy doctrine and clothe them with holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before thee, to the glory of thy great Name and for the benefit of thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
In recent days, at least one errant Anglican cleric has written to members of the faithful that, having received a letter of notification of the receipt of a decision nulla osta from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that he "has been accepted for ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood."
This is absolutely false.
The decision of nulla osta simply means that, based on the dossier submitted to the CDF, there appears to be no canonical impediment to ordination in the Catholic Church. The letters presently emanating from an office in the Archdiocese of Washington make it perfectly clear that this finding simply allows the individual concerned to continue in the "evaluation process."
Further, let it be known that it is the policy of The Anglo-Catholic to refrain from publishing the names of Anglican ministers who have, or have not, received a letter of notification of nulla osta — or those few who have received a letter stating that their application has been denied.
For the moment, these decisions should remain confidential between the CDF, the Archdiocese of Washington, and the Anglican priest and community involved. Unless and until it be discovered that there is any impropriety or a decision made which seems to grievously impact the mission or integrity of the future Ordinariate, this will remain the policy of the blog.
This is from the Catholic Herald, and it's posted here because so many of us know and admire John Hunwicke. We do not know the reason for this deferral, and this is not the place to speculate about it, nor is it a place to post angry or insulting comments. Any such posts will be deleted.
Please keep all this in your prayers. It's a mystery to us because we don't know the details (nor should we), but God knows exactly what He's doing, and if you'll excuse the only bit of speculation allowed… I think Mr. Hunwicke will be Fr. Hunwicke once again.
* * *
Leading ex-Anglo-Catholic shuts down blog
A prominent ex-Anglo-Catholic has shut down his blog in wake of news that his ordination as a priest in Britain’s ordinariate has been “deferred”.
John Hunwicke, former Anglican priest at St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, and former Senior Research Fellow at Pusey House, said there had been a “misunderstanding” about the content of his blog.
He added: “I shall promptly delete any comments on it (or emails sent to me) which are in any way whatsoever critical of the Catholic Church, or any of its officers, or of the ordinariate.”
His blog “Fr Hunwicke’s Liturgical Notes” was read by many in the blogosphere and has received extensive support and prayers.
A distinguished intellectual, Fr Hunwicke opened his last blog post with the words: “I had better share with my friends the distressing news that my ordination within the Catholic Church has been ‘deferred’.
“Despite everything, I remain convinced that the ordinariate is the only means of achieving the great vision of the Catholic Revival.”
Blogger Fr Ray Blake and Fr Ivan Aquilina, ordained as a priest in the ordinariate on Saturday, said they were dismayed at the news.
Fr Ray Blake said: “I, too, am distressed to read this. I have never understood anything you have written to be unkind or ever contrary to the Faith … Your blog has been very important to me in my own spiritual and theological growth.”
Tomorrow, Saturday 4 June 2011, the Archbishop of Southwark will — at the request of the Ordinary — ordain seven men to the priesthood in the Catholic Church, for service in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The Solemn Mass of ordination will take place in Southwark Cathedral at 3.00pm and will mark the start of this summer's ordinations to the priesthood for the Ordinariate.
On Monday 6 June, the Bishop of Clifton and the Archbishop of Birmingham will ordain deacons, and the Archbishop of Westminster will ordain more priests in Westminster Cathedral on Friday 10 June at 5.30pm. All are very welcome to each of these. Please pray for those preparing for ordination.
A full schedule for the ordinations is published on the website www.ordinariate.org.uk in the Calendar section. The list of prospective candidates is listed in the News section of the website.
Bishop Crispian
Although parts of it are a trifle embarrassing for me, what Bishop Crispian said at my Ordination on Saturday March 5th was so important that I have asked his permission to reproduce it. He has kindly agreed, so here is the text just as he delivered it. His picture was taken on Sunday when he was making a pastoral visit to Lymington Parish.
"One of the many moving aspects of your ordination to the diaconate, Edwin, a couple of weeks ago, was the demonstrably humble approach to the Sacrament of Orders. After all, you had worked as a deacon, a priest and a bishop in the Church of England for many years, and yet, here you were, as it were, starting all over again at the bottom of the ministerial ladder. I have no doubt that this was hard for you, but at the same time, there is a real sense of continuity and, indeed, fulfilment, in your journey towards ordination to the priesthood today.
This is an occasion which is deeply joyful and significant for you, for your brother priests and friends in the Ordinariate, as well as for us in the diocese and indeed for the whole Catholic Church. That sense of joy is beautifully picked up in that lovely reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians when he writes:
Always be joyful, then, in the Lord. I repeat, be joyful…the Lord is near…tell him all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition…be guarded in your hearts and thoughts by the peace of God which is beyond our understanding… (Phil 4: 4-7)
I believe that today is a real homecoming for you. Throughout your priestly life, you have sought and searched for authority in your ministry – the authority of Christ of which today’s Gospel speaks. I believe that your search is now over and today you submit yourself willingly and joyfully to the authority of Christ within the Christ-given authority of the Catholic Church.
But this is no moment for triumphalism, except for proclaiming the triumph of God’s grace of vocation which you have embraced. In accepting ordination, in accepting the gifts that come with that acceptance from God’s people to be offered to Him, you will now know in a new way what you are doing as a priest. You will imitate the mysteries that you celebrate and increasingly you will continue to model your life on the mystery of the Lord’s cross.
But just as your diaconal ordination was marked by humility, so the same is true today. Quoting from the first reading – from the Prophet Isaiah – you say that “I am a man of unclean lips” and yet, cleansed anew by the Spirit of God, you are inspired to say, “Here I am, Lord; send me.” You are truly sent today into the priesthood of Christ and to minister in his Church.
I said it before at your diaconal ordination and I say it again now, there is something radically new in what we do together here today. You are being ordained here today as a priest in full communion with the Catholic Church. You are ordained to serve the whole Church and not just the Ordinariate. From today you will be working with your Ordinary and with the bishops. From today, you will celebrate the mysteries of Christ with a new fullness. You will preach the Gospel of Christ form the heart of the communion of the Church. You will renew and fulfil that consecration to Christ which has always marked your life until now. But that consecration is being brought to its fullness today in the communion of the Church.
I know that I speak for all here today when I say that I wish you all possible blessings, Edwin. On behalf of all, I pledge you our prayers. We all join you in your rejoicing and it is simply wonderful to be able to welcome you home after your long journey of faith.
Church House Inn, Holne
Devon is exceptionally beautiful in the early Spring; so we were glad to use the Ordination of David Silk as the occasion for a short break. The village of Holne is set above the River Dart as it flows off Dartmoor towards the sea. The Church House Inn is reputed to date from the mid-fourteenth century. It provided a very pleasant two-night stay, with good food and roaring log fires. Devon is especially rich in these ancient pubs in the shadow of churches; if you have read Eamon Duffy's "Voices of Morebath" (and if you have not, you should) you will easily imagine the carousings of our Mediaeval forebears during Festivals of Mother Church. A former Vicar of Holne was Charles Kingsley, author of "The Water Babies". The present Team Vicar (they await the appointment of a Rector) is contending with six or more parishes across the south of Dartmoor. Good that her church was open yesterday.
St Mary the Virgin, Holne, interior
The Ordination of former Anglican Bishop David Silk took place in the Abbey Church of Buckfast, just a few miles from Holne. It is a great surprise. You emerge from the wooded hillside to be faced with a great Monastic complex of buildings which look as though they must have been there for many centuries. In fact, they are relatively new, though standing on ancient foundations. The first Abbey was built in Saxon times, in the reign of Canute. In the twelfth century a great Cistercian Abbey replaced that original church. All was swept away during the wholesale destruction of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. At the end of the 19th Century a handful of French Benedictines came to Buckfast, and began to plan a new foundation. By 1937 the Monks themselves had built the Monastic Church, on the Cistercian plan but with the addition of a bell-tower — a frippery which Cistercians had usually denied themselves; though they gave in to temptation at Fountains Abbey.
A view from the Stalls
It proved a lovely setting for David Silk's Ordination, and people came from great distances to join local clergy in the celebrations. Traditionally, the South West has always been a stronghold for Anglo-Catholicism. It suffered terribly in the purge of the 1990's, when the bishop of Truro, proclaiming himself a catholic, not only ordained women to the priesthood himself but encouraged his suffragan to do the same. There was a greater loss of Anglican Clergy in that diocese than any other, proportionate to its numbers; and the bishop seemed not to care. It was good to see Cornishmen in the congregation at Buckfast. The Catholic Diocese of Plymouth covers territory which has three Anglican diocesans (Truro, Exeter and Salisbury) and half a dozen Suffragans.
Bid, Father, a Blessing
Devon, Exeter Diocese in Anglican terms, appeared to suffer less; and its present bishop no longer ordains women to the priesthood (though his suffragans do). Perhaps because of this clergy in the diocese seem peculiarly reluctant to consider the offer of the Ordinariate, and some well-known Anglo-Catholic clergy were notable for their absence at David's Ordination. They are possibly suffering from the peculiar delusion which leads some clergy into thinking their bishop is immortal. Within five years, though, they will discover that immortal or not, the enforced retirement age will hit Bishop Langrish as it does every other Church of England cleric.
There was a very merry lunch-party after the Ordination.
David Silk among friends
On the way home, for old time's sake, we called in at Exeter. I thought I would be able to get something from Wippell's; but their former shop in the close has been taken over by a cheap multiple store. They have moved into the outskirts of the City, and time was too short to find them.
Exeter Cathedral South Tower
The Cathedral though, looks much the same as it ever did — from the outside. I was not prepared to pay to enter. A lad came away from the porch saying to his friend "Not much good looking for sanctuary here; it would cost you a fiver". O tempora, O mores!
[From experience I have learned that our transatlantic friends sometimes miss allusions which are plain to us in England. The title of this piece is taken from a children's book by Enid Blyton. Some wag has applied it to the first five C of E Bishops to join the Ordinariate.]
Sevenoaks, St. John the Baptist has our first eyewitness account of the diaconal ordinations:
Where were you when JFK was shot? Where were you when the white smoke came from the Sistine Chapel that elected Pope Benedict? Where were you when the Ordinariate began?
Tonight, quietly and calmly – but with the beauty and splendour of the Mass – the face of English Christianity changed. Tonight the first three men were ordained for the Ordinariate in these isles and another step towards the fulfilment of Christ's prayer – that all may be one – was made.
John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton are brave men of great integrity who, only a few days ago, left their old lives behind to follow Christ's call and to take up the great challenge laid out by the Holy Father in Anglicanorum coetibus. These three, now in the full communion of the Catholic Church, gave up all they had been given and this evening submitted humbly to 'the quiet rectification', in Aidan Nichols' words, of their orders.
It was moving beyond words to be present at this momentous occasion.
With all the packing, loading, driving, ice storms, celebrating Christmas with the family (in a hotel room), colds, new responsibilities, more colds, finding a new home, unloading, and unpacking, me and my family have barely had time to sit back and take a breather. We have been affectionately welcomed by our new parish, and have found some of the Catholic community here in Des Moines to have open arms also. These are truly joyful days that we live in.
I have been spending a good deal of time pondering what Catholicism means for the average Christian. Having met a number of people who do not really know the difference between Anglican and Catholic if their lives depended on it. I did get a dead-pan stare last week when I told someone that I was seeking ordination in the Catholic Church. The listener glanced back and forth through the cluster of children surrounding my wife and I, and I finally let her off the hook and explained things to her. Yet, most do not know what the differences really are. If they do not have a particular aversion to Catholicism, then they often see it as "just another denomination" and do not perceive the gravity of what we are doing.
When it is a pagan who has this point of view, I let them go and do not try to "get all theological" with them (unless they are genuinely seeking an explanation). When it is a Christian, however, I will usually try to enlighten them to the fact that we are not just switching clubs. Some of my relatives appear to view the change on the level of switching to a different grocery store ("I'm glad you found where you are happy"). Yet for those of us involved in this change the differences are much more deeply rooted. Subjects like, conditional ordination, liturgical nuance, laity governing structure, and hymnody will come to the mind of many who are concerned. Yet, these are not necessarily the subjects that most need to be convinced of.
For the sincere child of God who is trusting his priest to take him to the throne of God, the core of what he cares about is that he has communion. He wants to know that when he approaches his spiritual father at the rail, that he is actually receiving the body and blood of the Divine Savior of the World. He wants to know that he can eat and drink with confidence, not doubting the validity of the consecration. If we as clergy cannot convince our people that when they enter the Ordinariate they will receive the genuine sacrament at the altar then nothing else is worth our time. It is not a matter of squabbling over whether there was an illegitimate Pope in the thirteenth century, or whether a certain council failed to dot an "i" and cross a couple of "t's". These things are for the ivory tower debates (which are important, but only in their own place). Our people need to know that it is indeed the body and blood that they are receiving and that they are forgiven. Is there any price too great for this? Not in my book.
As news continues to trickle in, we are all getting more and more excited. We see the future rushing up to welcome us, and the past fading into the distance. I shall not debate what the Lord thinks of our Sacramental life in the ACA right now (so please do not even consider commenting on the subject). I know that the CDF encouraged us to continue ministering to our people. I also know that God is gracious and merciful and forgiving towards a thousand generations of those who love Him. It is not rebellion that allows me to serve (currently) as a priest outside of the Catholic Church, but it is a passionate love for Christ and His Church that makes me want to serve as a priest inside of the Catholic Church. The one thing above all else that pushes me to become a Catholic priest is a desire to serve His people and to be able to tell each of them individually, with perfect confidence, that what I am giving them is "the body of Christ which was given for thee" and that it can "preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life."