Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter

Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter Ordinariatus Personalis Cathedrae Sancti Petri
The coat of arms of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter
Location
Country	United States Canada
Deaneries	Deanery of St John the Baptist
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite (Anglican Use)
Established	January 1, 2012
Cathedral	Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston (principal church)
Patroness	Our Lady of Walsingham
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Ordinary	Jeffrey Neil Steenson
Vicar General	Scott Hurd
Website
www.usordinariate.org

For information on personal ordinariates in general, see Personal ordinariate.

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is "a structure, similar to a diocese, that was created by the Vatican in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy seeking to become Catholic. Once Catholic, the communities retain many aspects of their Anglican heritage, liturgy and traditions".^[1]

Based in Houston, Texas, the ordinariate includes parishes, communities, and individuals throughout the United States and Canada.

The ordinariate was established by a decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dated January 1, 2012 to include people:

• "who, originally having belonged to the Anglican Communion, are now in full communion with the Catholic Church"; or
• "who have received the sacraments of initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate itself"; or
• "who are received into it because they are part of a family belonging to the Ordinariate".^[2]

This mandate was further emended in July 2013, opening membership of the ordinariate even to Catholics by baptism who have not received the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist and who "return to the faith and practice of the Church as a result of the evangelizing mission of the Ordinariate".^[3] Membership is open to former Anglicans and former Methodists, as the latter group also stems from the Anglican patrimony.^[4][5]

Originally, its territory was the same as that of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.^[2] However, it was announced on December 7, 2012, that the Holy See, after consulting the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, had extended its territory to include Canada also.^[6] Accordingly, the head of the Ordinariate is a full member of both episcopal conferences.^[1]

Structure

The second personal ordinariate to be established after the promulgation of Anglicanorum coetibus, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, is, according to the decree of its erection, juridically equivalent to a diocese.^[2] The faithful of the ordinariate are led by an ordinary who is named directly by the pope. The ordinary may be a bishop or priest.^[2]

The ordinary of a personal ordinariate is the equivalent of a diocesan bishop.^[7] The ordinary is a full member by right both of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops^[2][8] and of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.^[1]

History

The first ordinary of the ordinariate is Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, a Catholic priest who was formerly a bishop of the Episcopal Church until his reception into the Catholic Church in 2007.^[9] Monsignor Steenson was installed as ordinary on February 12, 2012.^[10][11][12] As he is married, Steenson will not be a bishop, but holds a similar position and is a full member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops^[10] and of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.^[1]

The principal church is the Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, located in Houston, Texas.^[2] The ordinariate dedicated its chancery building February 1, 2015, behind and adjacent to its principal church in Houston, at which time it also celebrated the publication of the new Divine Worship missal for use in its public worship.^[13][14]

The ordinariate's vicar general is Father R. Scott Hurd, formerly an Anglican priest and now a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Washington. He has been appointed for three years.^[11]

On January 22, 2012, Mount Calvary Church, a former high-church Episcopalian parish in Baltimore, was received into the Ordinariate.

On June 26, 2012, Randy Sly, a former archbishop in the Charismatic Episcopal Church, was ordained by Bishop Paul Loverde in Potomac Falls.^[15]

On September 16, 2012, the Cathedral of the Incarnation, the cathedral of the Diocese of Eastern United States of the Anglican Church in America, was received into the ordinariate along with their bishop, Louis Campese.^[16]

Deanery of St John the Baptist

The Deanery of Saint John the Baptist is the Canadian deanery of the Anglican ordinariate, overseen by Dean Lee Kenyon under the authority of Mgr Jeffrey Steenson, the ordinary. It was established on December 7, 2012, by a decision of the Holy See with the support of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.^[6]

In the preceding April, Monsignor Steenson had expressed his agreement with the idea that all groups of Canadian Anglicans who had taken or would in the future take the step of joining the Catholic Church should be organized as parishes of a deanery of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.^[17]

The deanery was named after a patron saint of Canada, whose feast day was significant in the discovery of Canada by both the English and the French.

Earlier, the Anglican parish of St. John the Evangelist in Calgary joined the Catholic Church in December 2011, along with their priest, Fr. Lee Kenyon. On April 15, 2012, two Anglican Catholic Church of Canada bishops, Peter Wilkinson and Carl Reid, together with members of their congregations, were also received.

On December 8, 2012, the day after the announcement of the extension of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter to Canada, Peter Wilkinson, the former Metropolitan Bishop of Canada of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC), was ordained to the priesthood in the Catholic Church by Bishop Richard Gagnon at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Victoria.^[18] Wilkinson was later named a Prelate of Honor by Pope Benedict XVI.^[19] On January 26, 2013, Carl Reid, a former ACCC bishop, was ordained by Archbishop Terrence Prendergast at the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica in Ottawa.^[20]

More ordinations were held on December 14, 2013, in Ottawa by Archbishop Prendergast. The four priests were ordained in the presence of Mgr. Steenson for service in Toronto, Oshawa and Ottawa.

The Canadian ordinariate deanery has parishes or groups in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Victoria, Oshawa, Cambridge, Edmonton, and elsewhere in Canada.

Liturgical calendar

The proper liturgical calendar of the ordinariate was approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in early 2012. In the main, it is identical with the current Roman Rite liturgical calendar of the dioceses of the United States, but it has retained some elements that form part of the Anglican patrimony.^[21]

In the Proper of Time:

• In place of "Sundays in Ordinary Time", it uses the expressions "Sundays after Epiphany", "Sundays before Lent" (with the names "Septuagesima", "Sexagesima" and "Quinquagesima" in parentheses), and "Sundays after Trinity". However, the readings at Mass are identical with those in general use in the Roman Rite.
• Ember Days are observed on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after the First Sunday of Lent, Pentecost, Holy Cross Day and Saint Lucy's Day.
• Rogation Days are observed on the three days following the Sixth Sunday of Easter.
• In the week between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, elements of the former octave are fostered: while the readings of the Ordinary Time weekday are retained, the Mass propers and use of red as the liturgical color "may sustain the themes of Pentecost".

Regarding the Proper of Saints, the ordinariate observes the proper calendar of the United States, as well as the following saints:

• January 12 - Saint Benedict Biscop, abbot - optional memorial
• February 4 - Saint Gilbert of Sempringham, religious - optional memorial
• February 22 - Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle - solemnity
• March 1 - Saint David, bishop - optional memorial
• May 4 - The English Martyrs, memorial
• May 19 - Saints Dunstan, Ethelwold, and Oswald, bishops - memorial
• June 9 - Saint Columba, abbot - optional memorial
• June 16 - Saint Richard of Chichester, bishop - optional memorial
• June 20 - Saint Alban, protomartyr of England - optional memorial
• June 22 - Saints John Fisher, bishop, and Thomas More, martyrs - memorial
• June 23 - Saint Paulinus of Nola, bishop, or Saints Hilda, Etheldreda, Mildred, and All Holy Nuns - optional memorial
• July 9 - Our Lady of the Atonement - optional memorial
• August 30 - Saints Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line, and Margaret Ward, martyrs - optional memorial
• August 31 - Saint Aidan, bishop, and the Saints of Lindisfarne, optional memorial
• September 4 - Saint Cuthbert, bishop - optional memorial
• September 19 - Saint Theodore of Canterbury, bishop, or Saint Adrian, abbot - optional memorial
• September 24 - Our Lady of Walsingham, patroness of the Ordinariate - feast
• October 9 - Blessed John Henry Newman, priest - optional memorial
• October 12 - Saint Wilfrid, optional memorial
• October 13 - Saint Edward the Confessor - optional memorial
• November 20 - Saint Edmund, martyr - optional memorial

Parishes

Thirty-five separate parishes in sixteen states and four provinces fall under the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate:

Canada

• Alberta (1)
• British Columbia (1)
• Ontario (3)
• Quebec (1)

United States of America

• Arizona (1)
• California (2)
• Florida (4)
• Georgia (1)
• Indiana (1)
• Maryland (4)
• Massachusetts (1)
• Minnesota (1)
• Missouri (1)
• Nebraska (1)
• New York (1)
• North Carolina (1)
• Pennsylvania (2)
• South Carolina (2)
• Texas (5)
• Virginia (1)

See also

• List of the Catholic bishops of the United States#Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter
• List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States#Personal Ordinariate
• List of Roman Catholic dioceses in North America#Episcopal Conference of the United States of America
• Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross
• Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.

• Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter website
• Text of the Anglicanorum coetibus apostolic constitution
• "Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved January 1, 2012. 

• Documents about Personal Ordinariates
• St John the Evangelist, Calgary
• St Luke, Bladensburg, MD, and Washington, DC