The Philadelphia Ordinariate Post

A Newsletter of the Church of St Michael the Archangel

www.ordinariatephiladelphia.org 6611 Ardleigh Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19119 215-247-1092

May, 2014 Dear Parishioners and Friends,

Which would you rather have, mercy or virtue? My guess is that most of us would say virtue, if we had to choose. Virtue would mean that we did not need mercy. Mercy, on the other hand, would mean that we had done something wrong and needed the grace of mercy from someone else (God, if not also someone on earth). We do not like to be in need, and that includes the need for mercy. Nor do we like to be in another's debt. This is an- other way of saying that we would rather have no need of being forgiven than actually be forgiven. This means (uncomfortably) that we would rather be the Pharisee in Jesus' parable than the publican.

While this is understandable on a certain level, it is also a prob- lem. The reality is that we can never be in the position where we do not need mercy and forgiveness. While we may withstand some tempta- tions, we will always have sin in our past, and continue to commit small sins if not big ones. This puts us at God's mercy. Since His mercy is in- finitely more abundant than our need for mercy, this is not in principle a problem. What is a problem is our inclination to refuse His mercy, pre- ferring to assert our virtue and thus that we do not really need His mercy. This is where our preference for virtue over mercy gets us into trouble.

It keeps us from trusting God's mercy. We act as though our life as Christians depends on our doing things right all the time, rather than on God's mercy for sinners. When we mess up and then become dejected or else em- bark on a frantic program of amendment of life, we show that we are not trusting God's mercy. It may be that we do not think His mercy is really great enough to cover our need, or it may be that we are just too proud to accept it. In our desire to provide for ourselves, we refuse to let Him provide for us.

St Paul speaks of glorying in infirmities, and this is in part the means of asserting the mercy of God over our desire to attain righteousness for ourselves. When we are willing to embrace our helplessness before God – that we cannot manage our lives on our own, whether moral or spiritual or practical – we open ourselves to the blessings of His mercy. We learn to depend on mercy rather than on ourselves. This in turn frees us from the fear of failure, which always accompanies our efforts which depend upon self rather than grace. When we find ourselves ruled by such fear, it is a sign of our pride (in the form of control) getting the better of us. Glorying in our infirmities is the flip side of glorying in the Cross of Christ, another of St Paul's familiar themes. The Cross is the substance of God's mercy; our in- firmities are both the necessity for the Cross, and the means by which we receive its healing mercy. This means that we should accept, embrace, glory in our infirmities, in order that we may also glory in the mercy of God which comes to us in the Cross of our Savior. This will help us never to un- derestimate the mercy of God, nor set ourselves apart from it.

Blessed John Henry Newman Fellowship

Up to this point, St Michael's has been the only Ordinariate parish between Scranton and Baltimore. That may soon change. The Blessed John Henry Newman Fellowship formed several years ago when the Epis- copal Diocese of Pennsylvania seized control (the Diocese would say “re- claimed”) the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont. Bishop David Moyer and those who did not wish to be part of the Episcopal Church left the property, and reorganized as the Newman Fellowship. Since then they have worshiped in various locations, and are presently in Newtown Square. Their intention from the start has been to enter the communion of the Catholic Church as a group. The fulfill- ment has been delayed by obstacles to Fr Moyer's ordination in the Catholic Church. It now appears that his or- dination will not be possible any time soon, and he has decided to seek the communion of the Catholic Church as a layman, and has informed the Newman Fellowship that he will be stepping down as their pastor. This is certainly difficult for him after so many years as a priest and bishop. It is also bound to be difficult for the congregation, since many of them have been through a lot with him. So do keep them in your prayers. Part of St Michael's mission is to serve as the portal for the Ordinariate in this area, which means that we will want to help the Newman Fellowship through the process, should they determine that this is the course for them. I met with the congregation on May 4th to share our experience, and to help them understand what it means to be in the communion of the Catholic Church in the Ordinariate, and how the process of getting there works. The Fellowship will be deciding over the next few weeks whether they want to proceed in that direction. I hope they will, of course. It would be great to have another Ordinariate congregation nearby. I'll keep you informed.

St Madeleine Sophie

We are now back at Holy Cross for Sunday Mass after spending Maundy Thursday through Easter at St Madeleine Sophie. From my perspective our services there worked very well. Having the church to ourselves made the setting up much easier. The smaller space and live acoustics made the singing better. And the extra folk on Easter (from Holy Cross/St Madeleine Sophie) was a nice extra.

St Madeleine's is currently a worship site of Holy Cross Parish (as is St Therese, whose rectory we now use). A “worship site” is a transitional arrangement, keeping a church open for services for a time, until all the parish activities are consolidated at the parish church: Holy Cross, in this case. When the worship sites are no longer needed, they are sold. Fr Grogan anticip- ates the consolidation will occur some two to three years down the road. Several factors weigh in that decision, including handicapped accessibility at Holy Cross. At The Altar of Repose at St Madeleine Sophie that point, there is the possibility that St Michael's might move into the St Madeleine’s property permanently. For Fr Grogan, this has the advantage that St Madeleine's will remain a Cath- olic Church. We have begun the very preliminary planning to see if we can make this work for both sides.

The property has several significant advantages for us: a beautiful and reasonably small church in good condition (so far as we know at this point), good neighborhood, 5-7 minutes from the expressway, parking, train and bus nearby. Moreover, we know that out current situation at Holy Cross and St Therese is not long-term: we will have to do something else at some point soon. On the other hand, we are not currently large enough to man- age our own property, nor is there enough money in the budget to maintain it. Fortunately, we don't have to de- cide it tomorrow. We have a couple of years to prepare. First and foremost, this means that the congregation needs to grow. That is something for which we all bear responsibility: introducing others to Jesus and His love, and inviting them into His family. If we take care of this, the financial matters will look after themselves.

With regard to evangelization: the Archdiocese has scheduled a workshop on evangelization for Friday night and Saturday, September 26th-27th. I hope that a number of you will want to go, and I will be happy to spon- sor your registration. This should give us some practical help, as well as giving us a sense of what the Archdiocese is doing and how we might fit into their mission. Please put the dates down now.

And, speaking of evangelization – we should not wait for September. Please be thinking of ways we can ef- ficiently reach our “target” audience – Anglicans, former Anglicans, other Protestants seeking catholicity, unbeliev- ers, even lapsed Catholics. We have not found good ways of doing this in the region so far, and all ideas are wel- come (publicity, advertizing, events, personal contact). Let me know what you come up with!

It was wonderful to do Friday night Lenten Stations of the Cross together with Holy Cross Parish (at St Madeleine Sophie) again this year. I also want to note that the St Madeleine's “flower ladies” very generously pitched in to help Beth, Leslie Altena and Janis Wilson with the Altar of Repose and with the Easter altar flowers at St Madeleine's. This was a big help, since they were experienced with these spaces, so our “flower ladies” did not have to start from scratch. They have our thanks – as do Leslie, Janis and Beth. (Beth also did the Easter flowers for St Therese Chapel, and for the St Joseph Altar at Holy Cross for Low Sunday.)

The Solemnity of the Ascension is an Holy Day of Obligation. It falls on Thursday, May 29th this year, and the Masses will be at 10 a.m. at St Therese Chapel, and 7 p.m. at Holy Cross.

Correction

In March, reporting on the honor bestowed in Rome on our former Bishop, Louis Campese, I mentioned that he was the only TAC bishop who actually entered the Ordinariates. I was wrong (senior moment?): while he is the only American bishop, four others have come. Harry Entwistle, a TAC bishop in Australia is now the Aus- tralian Ordinary. Three Canadian bishops also crossed the Tiber: Peter Wilkinson, the Primate of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (now Monsignor Wilkinson), Carl Ried, and our old friend, Robert Mercer. Fr Mercer is living in England in his retirement and so is part of the English Ordinariate; the other two are in ours. In addi- tion, David Moyer, mentioned above, is formerly a bishop in the TAC. My apologies to all concerned. Kudos

Thanks goes this month to: – Tiema Brannan and my mother for doing the monthly mailing last month. – Holy Week servers and lectors for their generous and faithful service: Mark, Bruno and Elio Shiffman, Bruno Dantas, Matt Hummel. – also to Kevin Chun and our volunteer proto-choir for their special efforts in Holy Week. – the “flower ladies” (see above) – St Madeleine's as well as St Michael's. – Fr Grogan, for his generosity in accommodating our needs in Holy Week (as well as the rest of the year!)

Congratulations also goes to George and Bell Anderson, who were received into the communion of the Catholic Church on Palm Sunday. Welcome!

As you can see (below), the dogwood tree in front of St Therese did not quite make it through the winter, alas. You may know the legend that the dogwood was originally tall, straight and strong – and was used to make the Cross upon which our Lord was crucified. The tree was so sad about this, that it has never grown straight and tall since, and the petals of its blooms are pierced and discolored, reflecting our Lord's wounds. Perhaps this was why one was planted in front of St Therese. In spite of being partially uprooted, the tree bloomed this spring, and just at Easter this year. It offered some of its blooms to adorn “our” altar at Holy Cross, along with the Easter lilies. Probably the last time it will be able to do this.

Yours faithfully,

(Fr) David Ousley