Anglican parish moves closer to Catholicism

May 31, 2012
by Michael Caruso

Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in East Mt. Airy hosted a truly groundbreaking event on Sunday, May 20.

The event, accompanied by a Mass, marked the formal introduction of the Anglican Catholic parish of St. Michael the Archangel, which worships at Holy Cross, into the Roman Catholic communion. St. Michael’s is the first Anglican parish in Greater Philadelphia to be received into the U.S. Ordinariate and one of the first nationwide.

The Mass was celebrated by Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a non-geographical structure established by Pope Benedict to provide Anglicans with distinctive liturgical elements of their church while moving them to full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

The Church of St. Michael the Archangel began as the Episcopal Church of St. James the Less in East Falls, which was founded in 1846.

The congregation of St. James the Less left its historic property in East Falls in 2006 and has not had its own church since then. The congregation had disaffiliated itself from the Episcopal Church in 1999 and had become a member of the Anglican Church in America.

The local Episcopal diocese sued for the property in 2001 and subsequently won the case.

The Rev. David Ousley, its rector since 1983, is one of 60 Anglican priests preparing to be ordained as Catholic priests, starting in June of this year. He was ordained a Catholic transitional deacon at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput on Saturday, May 12. The parish and all its members had already been accepted into the Catholic Church on April 2. the rest