Episcopal church in Bladensburg to convert to Roman Catholic parish

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An Episcopal church in Bladensburg has decided to become the first in the Washington area — and one of the first in the country — to convert to a Roman Catholic parish, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington announced Monday.

St. Luke’s, a small, tightknit congregation founded in 1895, had been thinking about becoming Roman Catholic since 2009. Last year, in the wake of a remarkable bid by the Vatican to reach out to disaffected Anglicans, it made an overture to the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

The church has more than 100 members and a tradition dating back to the turbulent Anglican separation from the Roman Catholic church during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. The U.S. Episcopal Church is the American wing of Anglicanism.

washingtonpost.com/local/episcopal-church-in-bladensburg-to-convert-to-roman-catholic-parish/2011/06/06/AGLsiIKH_story.html
 
Praise God, that the Bishop of this Episcopal Diocese “sees the light”, and allows this congregation to not only continue to worship in their church building, but gives them to opportunity to legally own it.

Frankly, unless the Diocese built it and maintained it, they should just give the building and its grounds to the parish. But that won’t happen.

It sounds like this Bishop is close himself to “coming over”, to accept this decision by this congregation, so easily and with so much grace and class.
 
All right, let’s play the ‘Hallelujah’ Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah” (with full orchestra and choir)! Before or after that, we should have a pretty soprano with a nice voice sing Schubert’s “Avia Maria.”
 
From the catholic perspective, it’s an extremely warm and generous offer to allow this parish to simply retain ownership of its facilities without the rancor associated with some other Anglican separation fights.

But I wonder how catholics (especially here!) would respond if a catholic parish attempted to convert en masse to, say, ELCA Lutheran… Horror and outrage, I’d wager. And a bulletproof phalanx of diocesan lawyers. And rightly so, to an extent since it is the overall church that owns the facilities, not just the current parishioners.
 
manualman said:
But I wonder how catholics (especially here!) would respond if a catholic parish attempted to convert en masse to, say, ELCA Lutheran… Horror and outrage, I’d wager. And a bulletproof phalanx of diocesan lawyers. And rightly so, to an extent since it is the overall church that owns the facilities, not just the current parishioners.
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Indeed. It infuriates me when anyone leaves the Catholic Church, especially when they become evangelical Protestants! I sometimes even think that I would rather them become atheists than join a Protestant church. I guess that it is part of the psychology of “loving more those you gain and hating more those lose than those whom, respectively, you always or never had.”
 
manualman said:
From the catholic perspective, it’s an extremely warm and generous offer to allow this parish to simply retain ownership of its facilities without the rancor associated with some other Anglican separation fights.

But I wonder how catholics (especially here!) would respond if a catholic parish attempted to convert en masse to, say, ELCA Lutheran… Horror and outrage, I’d wager. And a bulletproof phalanx of diocesan lawyers. And rightly so, to an extent since it is the overall church that owns the facilities, not just the current parishioners.
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It happens. Some of the ethnic parishes scheduled for closing have separated themselves from the Church. The occasional errant priest leaves the Church and a few parishioners follow him.

Of course there is historical precedence in the Protestant rebellion.
 
The_Old_Medic said:
Praise God, that the Bishop of this Episcopal Diocese “sees the light”, and allows this congregation to not only continue to worship in their church building, but gives them to opportunity to legally own it.

Frankly, unless the Diocese built it and maintained it, they should just give the building and its grounds to the parish. But that won’t happen.
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Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, so I’m just speculating.

They might be having the same problems we’re having in some cities: too many parishes, too little people. It might make more sense if there’s another Episcopal parish in the neighbourhood to let one go. No more need for maintenance or anything like that, especially since it seems to be 100 year old.
 
Wonderful news! I am hopeful that so many people take advantage of the Holy Father’s offer to Anglicans that in a generation the church has to have a formal Anglican-Rite that is co-equal with the Latin and Eastern Rites. I think it was a fantastic move for the Pope to encourage Anglicans to keep their liturgy and traditions.

There is a group of Anglicans in North America who split off of the Episcopal church due to disagreements over gay priests and ordination of women that would be a natural fit to take advantage of this situation if they were inclined to do so. I pray that they do! How wonderful would it be to have a massive influx of our Anglican brothers and sisters back into the Holy Mother Church? 👍
 
The_Old_Medic said:
Praise God, that the Bishop of this Episcopal Diocese “sees the light”, and allows this congregation to not only continue to worship in their church building, but gives them to opportunity to legally own it.

Frankly, unless the Diocese built it and maintained it, they should just give the building and its grounds to the parish. But that won’t happen.

It sounds like this Bishop is close himself to “coming over”, to accept this decision by this congregation, so easily and with so much grace and class.
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For what it is worth…I go to Anglican Use parish that will most likely get swept into the new Ordinariate. We had a priest come and talk to us about all the changes and someone asked this very question about the property. He said that some groups are having good feed back from the anglican churches on buying the property and transfer it to the new catholic congeratation. It seems they are more at ease of transfer it to catholics then when it is just going to another splinter group with in the anglican family.

Whats going on in England is exicting too. I would suggest that anyone who is interest join the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham newsletter ordinariate.org.uk/
 
_Abyssinia said:
An Episcopal church in Bladensburg has decided to become the first in the Washington area — and one of the first in the country — to convert to a Roman Catholic parish, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington announced Monday.

St. Luke’s, a small, tightknit congregation founded in 1895, had been thinking about becoming Roman Catholic since 2009. Last year, in the wake of a remarkable bid by the Vatican to reach out to disaffected Anglicans, it made an overture to the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

The church has more than 100 members and a tradition dating back to the turbulent Anglican separation from the Roman Catholic church during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. The U.S. Episcopal Church is the American wing of Anglicanism.

washingtonpost.com/local/episcopal-church-in-bladensburg-to-convert-to-roman-catholic-parish/2011/06/06/AGLsiIKH_story.html
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A newspaper article about this said married Episcopal priests will become Catholic priests. I know that that is normal in Catholic churches in eastern countries, so in that sense not a new thing. But Anglican churches normally allow priests to marry after being ordained. Will that also be allowed in this ordinariate? Will married Episcopalian bishops be allowed to become Catholics bishops?
 
I believe that there is a prohibition against married priests becoming bishops.
 
Yarb said:
A newspaper article about this said married Episcopal priests will become Catholic priests. I know that that is normal in Catholic churches in eastern countries, so in that sense not a new thing. But Anglican churches normally allow priests to marry after being ordained. Will that also be allowed in this ordinariate? Will married Episcopalian bishops be allowed to become Catholics bishops?
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Well once they convert they won’t be under angilcan rules but catholic rules. So if your not married before your ordained then your out of luck.

I believe even in the eastern churches the married priest can’t be bishops.
 
Not ALL married Anglican/Episcopal Priests will become Catholic priests. this is NOT automatic, they must undergo a retraining program, and be approved for ordination as Catholic Priests.

Married Anglican/Episcopal Bishops MAY become Catholic Priests, but they will not be ordained as Bishops.

The Anglican ordinations are NOT considered as valid by the Catholic Church, so without a brief seminary retraining, and approval by the Catholic Church, no Anglican Priest or Bishop will be ordained as a Catholic Priest, and they would not be able to function in ministry.

Some of them COULD also become married Deacons.
 
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