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2011 Anglican Use Conference
Arlington, TX
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Welcome to the Anglican Use Society Web Site
Installation of New Ordinary Scheduled for Feb. 12
Reverend Jeffrey N. Steenson will be installed as Ordinary of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter on February 12, 2012, 3 p.m., at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston. Details will be provided closer to the installation.
Anglican Use Conference 2012
Many of you have asked about our conference in 2012. Given the recent news about the establishment of the US ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter and the appointment of Father Jeffrey Steenson as ordinary, that question is important.
We have agreed to hold the conference in Kansas City, Missouri with the help of Father Ernie Davis and the Diocese of Kansas City. The topic will be evangelization. We hoped to do so in early summer but scheduling conflicts made that impractical.
We are now focused on the autumn with November the most likely. We hope to have all the plans completed in March. Meanwhile, please pray for the ordinariate and its important work. Likewise, consider a donation to help the work (http://usordinariate.org/support.html).
Thank You.
Joe Blake, President
What is the Anglican Use Society?
Established at the end of 2003 by a group of interested laity and clergy, The Anglican Use Society is dedicated to:
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Increase knowledge and understanding
of the personal Ordinariates erected under the terms of Anglicanorum coetibus, the Apostolic Constitution issued by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, and support the Ordinaries in their mission of gathering Anglicans into communion with Holy See.
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Increase knowledge and understanding
of the special Pastoral Provision of Pope John Paul
II for the Anglican Usage of the Roman Rite (http://www.pastoralprovision.org).
(Now under the leadership of the Most Rev. Kevin W. Vann,
Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Pastoral Provision
and Bishop of Ft. Worth)
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Support existing Personal Parishes of
the Anglican Use, all Pastoral Provision
congregations, and to encourage the formation for
the Catholic Church of new common identity
congregations of the Anglican Use.
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Encourage and support converts to the
Catholic Church geographically distant from an
Anglican Use congregation.
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Maintain Anglican Use identity
through the daily use of The Book of Divine
Worship for personal prayer and through
fellowship and common prayer with like-minded
Catholics in close proximity to each other .
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Promote the solidarity of Catholics
and catholic
minded Anglicans wherever they may be found. Those
Anglicans who are not yet in full communion with
Mother Church are invited to join the Society as
Associate Members and to work together with this
apostolate to promote the unity of all Catholics
with the Holy See.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 1, 2012
CONTACT: Susan Gibbs, 202-525-9554 and media@usordinariate.org
Pope Benedict names former Episcopal bishop to lead new U.S. ordinariate for former Anglicans
www.usordinariate.org
In response to numerous requests, Pope Benedict XVI has established an ordinariate for Anglican groups and clergy across the United States who wish to become Catholic. This is only the second structure like this in the world. The Pope also has named a Houston professor and former Episcopal bishop, Reverend Jeffrey N. Steenson, to lead the ordinariate.
The Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter will be based in Houston, Texas. The only other ordinariate is Our Lady of Walsingham, established in January 2011 to serve England and Wales.
Similar to a diocese, though national in scope, the ordinariate will include parishes, groups and individuals of the Anglican heritage across the United States. Parishes will be fully Catholic, while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage, particularly in the liturgy.
Over 100 former Anglican priests already have applied to become Catholic priests for the ordinariate, and nearly 1,400 individuals from 22 communities are seeking to enter.
Father Steenson, who will be the Ordinary, became Catholic in 2007 and a Catholic priest in 2009. He is married and the father of three adult children.
Why an ordinariate?
The ordinariates are the result of persistent and repeated requests from Anglican groups to become Catholic in a "corporate" manner (as groups). In November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus (pronounced Anglicanorum chay-tee-bus), which authorized the ordinariates. In September 2010, the Vatican appointed Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, as its delegate for its implementation in the United States. He, Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth and Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester were assisted by Reverend Scott Hurd, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington (and a former Anglican priest). Fr. Hurd will serve a three-year term as vicar general of the ordinariate.
About Father Steenson
Fr. Steenson teaches patristics (the study of the early church fathers) at the University of St. Thomas and St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, TX. He and his wife Debra were received into the Catholic Church in 2007, after 28 years of ministry in the Church of England and the Episcopal Church. Fr. Steenson was ordained for the Catholic priesthood in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 2009, and was instrumental in establishing the formation program for Anglican priests applying for the Catholic priesthood as part of the ordinariate.
He grew up on a family farm in eastern North Dakota and received his theological training at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Ill., Harvard Divinity School and the University of Oxford, from where he received his doctorate in patristic studies in 1983.
Ordained an Anglican priest in 1980, he served Episcopal parishes in suburban Philadelphia, Pa., and Fort Worth, Texas, before becoming canon to the ordinary in the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande (New Mexico and far west Texas). In 2004, he was elected bishop of that diocese. He and his wife, Debra, have three adult children and one grandchild.
Joseph G. Blake
President of the Anglican Use Society
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