WASHINGTON, D.C.: Episcopal parish hopes to join Roman Catholic Church
Episcopal News Service. June 6, 2011 [060611-03]
ENS staff
The rector and parishioners of St. Luke's Episcopal Parish, Bladensburg, Maryland, have decided to leave the Diocese of Washington and seek entry into the Roman Catholic Church.
A June 6 diocesan press release said Saint Luke's is the first church in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to take this step through a new structure called an ordinariate, approved by Pope Benedict XVI.
"The transition is being made with the prayerful support of Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Catholic Archbishop of Washington," the release said.
The landing page of St. Luke's website is headlined "We are Ordinariate Bound!"
"We look forward to continuing to worship in the Anglican tradition, while at the same time being in full communion with the Holy See of Peter," the page says.
Wuerl said in the release that "the proposed ordinariate provides a path to unity, one that recognizes our shared beliefs on matters of faith while also recognizing and respecting the liturgical heritage of the Anglican Church."
Wuerl is the United States delegate of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which will handle requests for membership in a yet-to-be-formed "ordinariate" in the United States.
In October 2009, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the formation of "ordinariates" for former Anglican parishes seeking to enter the Catholic Church as a congregation. Anglicanorum coetibus, the papal document authorizing the establishment of ordinariates, is here.
An ordinariate is a geographic region similar to a diocese, though typically is national in scope. Under the proposal, ordinariate parishes are fully Catholic, while retaining aspects of their Anglican heritage and liturgical tradition.
"We've been asked now to prepare dossiers on each of those members of the Anglican clergy who would like to be ordained and be part of this ordinariate, and profiles of the communities," Wuerl said in a May 24 interview with a reporter from EWTN, a Roman Catholic televsion network. "Once that's all in the hands of the Congregation, they've indicated they intend to announce -- down the road -- the formation of an ordinariate."
Until an ordinariate is established for the United States, St. Luke's congregation, which has approximately 100 members, will come under the care of the Archdiocese of Washington, the release said.
"This was a transition achieved in a spirit of pastoral sensitivity and mutual respect," Chane said in the release. "Christians move from one church to another with far greater frequency than in the past, sometimes as individuals, sometimes as groups. I was glad to be able to meet the spiritual needs of the people and priest of St. Luke's in a way that respects the tradition and polity of both of our churches."
Under the terms of a letter of agreement signed last week with the Diocese of Washington, St. Luke congregation will lease its current church and continue to worship there. The agreement includes a purchase option. The community will begin preparations for reception into the Roman Catholic Church later this year while the Rev. Mark Lewis, rector of St. Luke's, hopes to begin the process to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest, the release said.
The first ordinariate was established in England in January 2011.