Previously on the Anglican Use Mass and Fellowship of St. Alban’s.
John Cornelius, the leader of the recently established St. Alban’s Fellowship of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, was ordained a deacon of the Roman Catholic Church November 17 in Wellsville (Church of the Immaculate Conception) by the Most Rev. Edward M. Grosz, D.D., auxiliary bishop of Buffalo. Deacon Cornelius ministers in Allegany county but also acts as the administrator of the Fellowship of St. Alban’s which worships using the Anglican Use Liturgy at The Church of the Good Shepherd in Henrietta (Saint Marianne Cope Parish).
Deacon Cornelius is a former Episcopalian priest. The Fellowship consists of former Traditional Anglican Church members who have become Roman Catholics but are allowed to continue using –according to the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus— the liturgical ceremonials from their beautifully rich Anglican tradition.
Deacon Cornelius will be ordained a Roman Catholic priest on January 16, 2013, in Wellsville, and will offer his first Mass for the Fellowship the next day at the (from-then-on) weekly Anglican Use Mass at 3 P.M. at The Church of the Good Shepherd on East Henrietta Road (location). Until then, the members of the Fellowship celebrate Evensong, with Deacon Cornelius presiding, every Sunday at 3 P.M. at the Church.
More pictures of the Ordination here.
Fellowship of St. Alban’s website here.
Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter website here
Tags: Anglican Use Mass, Fellowship of Saint Alban, Liturgy, Orthodoxy at Work, Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter
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The Fellowship is in need of 6 “Office” candle holders –the ones used for festival Masses (“High” Masses). If you know of some that are in storage and that might be given to the Fellowship or lent to it, please email Bernie here at Cleansing Fire(see the “Staff” listing on the right).
The Anglican Ordinariate is a creative idea and I hope our Church will be enriched by it. However, that said, we’ll know that the idea is matured when the day comes, many years hence, that the Anglican “rite” will be under the authority of the local diocesan Ordinary. How does the “Anglican Use” liturgy differ from their “Rite 1” – and are they required to celebrate Mass “ad orientam”? And- are they permitted to use our Roman Missal as well?
Dear Bernie,
Thanks so much for publicizing the Fellowship of St. Alban and all of our recent activity.
To our fellows DOR Catholics: Please come and visit us, the newest expression of the Catholic faith in the Rochester area. You are very welcome to pray Evensong with us at 3pm Sunday afternoon. This is a sung service that combines Vespers and Compline. We have a coffee hour following. The altar is placed in its traditional position, and yes, our first mass was ad orientem as will be all future ones, subsequent to Deacon Cornelius’s priestly ordination.
For those unfamiliar with the Anglican Use, you can think of it as traditional Catholicism with an English accent.
If you are over 60 years old -or if you attend the Traditional Latin Mass at St. Stanislaus– you will recognize it as very similar to the so-called Tridentine Mass, but in English. It’s not the same in EVERY DETAIL, but very close). Instead of the Latin language it makes use of an elevated, what to my mind, is a more liturgically appropriate English (“thee” and “thou” English, if I may stereotype it that way). You can see excepts from the first Mass at the Fellowship here: http://cleansingfire.org/2012/10/crossing-the-tiber-in-the-genesee-valley/
The Fellowship is just getting started. It is using another parish’s church building and it has little by way of it’s own liturgical vessels, vestments and art, etc. While it has big plans along those lines it is a small (you might say “tiny”) but dedicated group that could sure use our support. Do try to make it to Evensong some Sunday and to Mass after Deacon Cornelius’ ordination in January. Bookmark its website and check it periodically.
By-the-way, Saint Marianne Cope Parish (Church of the Good Shepherd in Henrietta)has been absolutely wonderful to the Fellowship of St. Alban. Kudos to the parish!
Two thumbs up for the good Deacon!
I suspect (and hope) that the patrimony of the Anglican Use Ordinate will do much to improve the Mass as it is celebrated in English. The fabulous use of English, the formalities, the reverence given and due the Almighty, their hymns in our native tongue all add to our collective worship. It can be said and may be proven that the Anglican Use Liturgy enhanced our understanding of the worship of the One True God in English. B16 was wise indeed to make them an “ordinate” and to safeguard their legitimate liturgical traditions.
The liturgy will indeed be wonderful but will they preach sermons condemning artificial birth control, homosexuality, euthanasia, same sex marriage, in-vitro fertilization and accept all the moral pronouncements of the pope as infallible?
Thanks for the info. Is the Eucharistic Prayer pronounced aloud for all to hear – or is it like the Tridentine “whispering”?
Frankly I hope the sermons will always be on the Old and New Testament readings of the day. I don’t think that the new Catholics-Anglican-Style are required to assent to infallibility in the cases that raymondfrice mentions. I think we need to let this Anglican gift to the Church mature and be appreciated.
I look forward to the day when this liturgy will take place in a regular Catholic parish setting. And will they have Eucharistic Adoration?
Anyway – I hope the Catholic Courier will have a lengthy article on this new community of Catholics.
To answer the last two comments:
@raymondfrice
Yes. Doctrinally, members of the Ordinariate make a profession of faith that we believe all the church teaches. This is explicitly mentioned in the Apostolic Constitution that specifies the Catechism as the doctrinal standard. You will find our members in full conformity to the magisterium of the Catholic Church and Benedict XVI, our pope.
@y2scotty
In the Anglican Use, the Eucharistic prayer of the mass is said in an audible voice. We use the Gregorian canon in traditional English. You can see a video of this for the reception mass here:
http://www.stalbanfellowship.org/video
In the sense that our fellowship is hosted by a Catholic parish, I would say it does take place in a regular parish setting.
Eucharistic adoration? Of course! I expect Benediction of the blessed sacrament will be a regular part of our religious life.
In fact, the Catholic Courier has published a nice article that you can read here:
http://www.catholiccourier.com/news/local-news/new-group-joins-catholic-church/
We are happy to answer any more questions that anyone has after our Sunday Evensong!
They absolutely do. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
except for the comment about “all the moral pronouncements of the pope as infallible”. please see http://cleansingfire.org/2012/07/the-infallibility-of-the-magisterium-the-male-only-priesthood-and-the-intrinsically-evil-nature-of-contraception/
Ray, Yes I agree with the list of issues that should publicly be condemned by the Church, but be careful in generalizing homosexuality….it is the acts that are sinful….not the person’s orientation. There’s probably a lot of Catholic homosexuals out there, that obey the Church’s teachings, and struggle to be celibate. It wouldn’t be good to alienate them.
RaymondFRice – I am confident that preaching that “condemns” artificial birth control, homosexuality, euthanasia, same sex marriage, and in vitro fertilization will only succeed in further emptying the pews. I’m pretty sure that any homilies that “condemn” anything will alienate good and faithful people. On the other hand, homilies that speak frequently of sinfulness and the need for repentence, the need of ALL of us to repent of our sins, whatever they may be, those homilies are much needed. And if would be helpful if the sins you recite were mentioned by name on occasion! Of course, there are a great many other sins (the sins of omission) that need to be highlighted as well.
But the liturgical homily, meant as an explication of the Word of God (principally the Gospel) and how that sheds light on the lives of the faithful, is probably not the place for “condemnations.”
Even outside the Mass setting, I’m not sure how effective “condemnations” are going to be – having learned a fair bit about the Theology of the Body teachings, for example, I note that Pope John Paul didn’t “condemn” anything – he invites, in LOVE, the faithful to a more holy sexuality. Rather than to condemn artificial birth control, he presents an entirely different paradigm of human sexuality than the world feeds us, and INVITES us to do better. Rather than to simply condemn the sinful practice, JP gives the Faithful a vision of a holy sexuality. I think preaching that would be far more effective than “condemnations.”
Annonymouse,
That kind of thinking has directly resulted in pews emptying. How can anyone justify the “Dumbing down” of millions of Catholics. And then exposing them to all the spiritual, medical and social evils of birth control and the other things you mentioned. I am sick of generalized marshmellow homilies that say NADA.
No it is the duty of the ordained to preach about these matters. If the pews empty , so be it. At least you will have a flock that is faithfully practicing their faith.
These issues, if ignored, result in mortal sin and endanger the souls of those precticing these ills. Christ preached about His Body and Blood and people left Him. So why is it different today? The faithful must be educated on these issues because now, all they have is the media, politicians and the like telling them everything is OK.
Annonymouse,
One more thing. There is plenty of information concerning these issues to make a very informative homily. There are so many dangers when practicing these condemned actions that education can be done. The ordained must learn about these ills and simply not say: It’s wrong…ie: 50% of Catholics who routinely use birth control will divorce. 75% of people living todether will either divorce or never marry. Homosexuality: decreased life span, increased depression, drug addiction and suicide. Pornography and the destruction of marriage.
One could offer a college degree speaking on the terrible side effects and consequences of these actions.
We are well off the subject of the post 🙂
Anyway, far more people are educated today(and have been for some time now) and seldom submit to authority even if, in the case of the authority of the Church, they should. It was the Church’s reasoning that changed my mind on all these issues. The problem is you just don’t hear the reasoning behind the Church’s positions from the pulpit, or anywhere in the life of the diocese! I’m not sure why but I suppose it is that those who preach don’t know the reasons, don’t understand the reasons, reject the reasons, are afraid of being challenged (perhaps feeling they don’t have a firm grasp of the reasons) or of being unpopular with their parishioners. God knows there are plenty of resources for knowing and understanding the issues. They don’t have time to study the issues? Or, they are lazy? I just don’t know. We can spend all kinds of time and resources on clustering parishes but nothing is done to teach the Church’s position on these important issues. It just hasn’t been a priority -with anyone. Some orthodox priests will condemn but seldom explain. That just doesn’t work with most Americans today. You have to teach and explain. That’s my opinion.
Of course, we should allow that the issues we are referring to are just not important to our bishops, priests and deacons any more than to most of the laity!
Bernie, good point.
Many parishes have refreshments after certain Sunday masses. Why not preach about birth control, then have NFP teachers and Catholic doctors present after mass to give a presentation and identify people interested in learning more.
The same can be done with homosexuality. Invite a member of Courage.
And abortion: Someone from the American Life league or a Catholic doctor or a director or volunteer from a Crisis Pregnancy Center.
The possibilities are almost infinite but you have to start and take the plunge.
“Invite a member of Courage.”
The presenter will have to travel a distance because the program is not allowed in the Rochester diocese. And there is a question on whether or not they would be allowed to speak here.
In addition, homilies are comments on scripture and sermons are about traditions. When was the last time you heard a sermon???
Richard and Bernie – I am not arguing that these are not important issues nor that we the Faithful should not be hearing more about them. I am merely pointing out that the homily at Mass is probably not the place for them. You probably won’t agree with this from the National Conference (http://old.usccb.org/plm/fiyh.pdf) but I don’t think it mentions “condemnation” as something to be encouraged in liturgical preaching.
I’ve heard a few “condemnation” homilies in my day (not in the recent past) and they don’t tend to go well, in my humble opinion.
I DO think that homilies need to be more urgent in calling people to repentence, and not just for the sins listed, but for all sin. That is coming, if the recent USCCB meeting is any indication, what with Cardinal Dolan’s challenge to the bishops and clergy to frequent confession. But oughtn’t the focus always be on God’s infinite love and mercy rather than “condemnation?”
Amen! I would even take it a step further.
#1 explain what the Church teaches
#2 explain why the Church teaches it
#3 explain how it affects my life and the way I relate to people. How do I share truth to others who are so far removed from an orthodox mindset? How do I share with people who are obstinately living in sin? How do I present Christianity in a positive light to such people who see it as hatred? Is it hopeless? Then there are so many sensitive pastoral questions that priests just punt on. How do I approach with my brother who asked me to be a “godparent” for his daughter’s baptism? How do I approach my friend who asked me to be the best man as he weds a divorced woman? How do I approach my gay boss who just shared with everyone that thanks to Cuomo he is finally married? How do I approach my sister-in-law who left the Church to be Anglican for the purpose of “family unity”? These are the really hard questions… and I’ve never heard zilch about them from the pulpit. I’ve only heard 2 approaches:
1) all those things I mentioned are no big deal and I should just go along with all of it and embrace it. That is true love. Obviously I don’t accept this answer.
or
2) stern condemnations of it all. ok yes, I agree that those things are wrong, but what’s the best way to approach it?
For the average person this is what makes it truly difficult. We’re sent off to war with no armor and no weapons (this analogy is pretty bad, but the armor and weapons here would be referring to the best way to share God’s love)… and so most people just cave and go with #1 … and a few go with #2 and avoid sticky situations at all costs – they are scared to make themselves vulnerable. I’d like propose option #3 – never cave in on truth, but never run away from difficult situations and never give up… love them, truly love them, share the truth with them in pieces, but don’t get frustrated or angry at them no matter how much they spit at you.
Annonumouse,
I am sorry but the gospel of the woman at the well is a lesson in divorce. And from divorce one could speak about the high divorce rate associated with birth control.
These concepts are the preecepts of the Church so I believe they can and must be discussed during the homily. If 95% of all adult Catholics receive ALL their adult education concerning Catholocism from the Sunday homily, then it is even more important to teach them these copncepts at Mass. They will not get it anywhere. You must bring the mountain to Mohammud.
One can condemn but I think it should be done only after explaining why any prectice is a bad one and outlining all the evils (medical, social and spiritual) associated with it. That is only good teaching. Condemnation alone doesn’t cut it.
“Amen! I would even take it a step further.”
LOL LOL LOL You just gave the structure of what a real sermon ought to be!!! Congrats!!
RichardThomas – I’m sorry but if all you can see, after reading John 4:1-30, is that the woman at the wall was divorced, then I can’t help you.
I’m not sure what it’s called when one twists Holy Scripture to fit an agenda, but it’s not authentic Catholic preaching.
Now don’t get me wrong, we as Catholics need to proclaim the sanctity of marriage from the housetops, but not that way.
Annonymouse. Christ told her she had not 1 but 5 husbands. I am not making anything up