The Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter

I have just been to one of the most exciting, historic, sad and nostalgic and happy day of my life for many years.



This morning I witnessed Fr Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary in waiting, receive nearly fifty people into full communion with the Catholic Church. The priests and people of Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore are now Catholics!



Mount Calvary has a long and venerable tradition within the Episcopal Church. It was the first church to be built according to Anglo Catholic principles in the 1800s and it's first pastor, Fr. Curtis, travelled to England and was received into the  Catholic faith by Cardinal Newman himself.



Today their journey is complete, and a new journey begins. My prayer for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter is that both the Anglican Churches will stop being so stressy about the whole thing. Let them bid a fond farewell to the Anglo Catholics. Let them hand over some of the many churches they don't really need.



Then let the Anglican tradition live in communion with the See of Peter. Let them be united, not absorbed, and let them live in peace.



I'm excited by the Ordinariate and wish Fr Catania and his people and the new Ordinary and all others every blessing and success.