Fr Dwight Longenecker Joins the Collective

At Patheos:

… I want to welcome all my regular readers to my new home. I hope before too long to be zipping around WordPress with no problems, and I want to use this new chapter in the life of Standing on My Head to expand the blog and interact with various other projects I’ve got going…

His previous blog was here.

 This blog is moving. I’m joining the happy band of pilgrims over at Patheos. The new url is: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/

If you come here you’ll have a page to re-direct you to my new home.

This should be a good move for everyone. I’m streamlining my blog and website, so this move along with the upgrade to WordPress helps me make that happen.

Patheos also continues to grow and move forward, so coming to visit me there is a way to open up into a kind of Catholic magazine with the best Catholic bloggers, opinion and news.

For some time I have also been looking for a way to expand my reach with the blog and Patheos provides that boost.

I’ll see you over there, and hope the transition isn’t too difficult for anyone.

Thanks for your patience!

Fr Longenecker is one of my favourite bloggers. So I would definitely recommend putting a bookmark here.

 

The English Catholic Blog Shows Signs of Life

With a little rumble:

PHILADELPHIA: TAC Bishop Moyer Serves Subpoena on Friends and Enemies

Please, someone, tell me this isn’t true! Back to hiatus, and As the Sun in its Orb

Sadly, it seems to be so… Subpoenaing the Ordinary? Good job the Roman Church never gave this man the required votum!

 

Deacon Robert Mercer: Former Anglican Bishop Ordained a Deacon

The Catholic Herald catches up with the news - posted here (on this blog) earlier:

A former Anglican bishop has been ordained a deacon for the ordinariate.

Robert Mercer, who was received into the Catholic Church in January, was ordained by Auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster at Allen Hall seminary in London. He will be ordained a priest on Monday.

Mr Mercer, 77, was Bishop of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, in the Anglican Province of Central Africa. He was bishop for 11 years before leaving the Anglican Communion to join the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, part of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion. He served as metropolitan bishop from 1988 to 2005, when he retired to England.

He is one of three former Anglican clergy to be ordained priests for the ordinariate. More than 200 former Anglicans are also expecting to be received into the Catholic Church in Holy Week.

Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, presented Robert Mercer for ordination. Other members of the Ordinariate, together with staff and seminarians from Allen Hall, were present for the celebration.

During his homily, Bishop Hopes said: “Robert, your life has been one of profound commitment and witness. Your formation and ministry within the Anglican tradition have provided you with a solid spiritual bedrock on which your life has been built … You have been a bold witness to Christ and to the truths of Catholic Christianity – often at great cost to yourself”.

“Coming into communion with the Catholic Church through the ordinariate, you bring with you some of the spiritual riches that are to be found in the Anglican church. You take on a new mission in your ministry of bridge building – that of building bridges between the Catholic Church and the ecclesial communities of the Anglican tradition”.

Mgr Newton, speaking after the ordination, said: “It is a great joy to be here today to celebrate Robert’s ordination. We hope and pray that it will be an encouragement to members of the Traditional Anglican Communion – an assurance of the respect and warmth of welcome, which the Ordinariate offers to them and to all Anglicans who are faithful to the vision of Christian Unity”.

Mr Mercer will be ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on March 26 in Portsmouth Cathedral.

 

Bishop David Moyer Plans to Subpoena Msgr Jeffrey Steenson

An ever sensational (try to read through that) Dr David Virtue reports: TAC Bishop Moyer Serves Subpoena on Friends and Enemies.

The deposed former priest of the Episcopal Anglo-Catholic parish of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, PA, David L. Moyer has given notice that he will serve a subpoena on former friends and enemies including one to “Jerry Steenson”, the new Ordinary of the Ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church for documents relating to a lawsuit brought by his former attorney, John H. Lewis Jr., for fraud and defamation.

The proposed subpoenas, which contain seven pages of instructions, definitions and document requests, bear no obvious relationship to the question of whether Moyer defamed Lewis or filed a frivolous lawsuit against him several years ago. For example, it boggles the mind to think that “Jerry Steenson” might have documents,” an individual who resided and worked outside Pennsylvania for most of the last ten years, to see if they bear on whether Lewis was defamed by Moyer or whether Moyer filed a frivolous lawsuit against him.

Indeed, and ironically, in a suit where Moyer has been accused of defaming someone, the reference to “Jerry” (his name is Jeffrey) seems to be designed to denigrate and insult the former Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande who crossed the Tiber several years ago – a move that Moyer himself has sought, but did not obtain the required votum needed for him to join the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter because of serious impediments.

Moyer’s plan to subpoena “Jerry Steenson” seems designed to harass and punish him as the messenger who delivered to Moyer news that Moyer would not receive the required votum from Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Now Moyer cannot proceed with training he needs for the Catholic priesthood. Perhaps Moyer’s next subpoena will be delivered to Rome itself…

In fact, the subpoena planned for me seeks each and every document I might have relating to Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson.

Some questions come to mind. Why is Moyer trying to uncover information about Steenson? Is he so aggrieved at being rejected by Steenson for the Ordinariate that he intends to launch an investigation into Steenson – an investigation that plainly has no relationship to Lewis’ lawsuit?

At another level, is the planned subpoena to me nothing more then an effort to chill VOL’s news -gathering efforts in connection with a topic of tremendous interest to our readers? Shame on you, Moyer.

VOL will not be bullied into silence and we will not cease our efforts in uncovering the truth about what happened at the Church of the Good Shepherd, the $1.5 million spent on legal fees, and other matters including property issues.

Good grief! Talk about burning bridges…

I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.

- 1 Cor 6:5-8

Robert Mercer Ordained to the Diaconate: ‘An Encouragement to Members of the Traditional Anglican Communion’

UPDATE:  Fr Mercer’s Ordination to the Priesthood here.

Latest news from the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham:

Former Anglican bishop, Robert Mercer, has been ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Alan Hopes, Auxiliary of Westminster, for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, at Allen Hall seminary in London.

Mercer, who was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church on 7 January 2012, was the fourth Bishop of Matabeleland in the Province of Central Africa, before serving as a bishop of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada – part of the Traditional Anglican Communion.

Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, presented Robert Mercer for ordination, whilst other members of the Ordinariate, together with staff and seminarians from Allen Hall, were present for the celebration.

During his homily, Bishop Hopes said, “Robert, your life has been one of profound commitment and witness. Your formation and ministry within the Anglican tradition have provided you with a solid spiritual bedrock on which your life has been built. [...] You have been a bold witness to Christ and to the truths of Catholic Christianity – often at great cost to yourself”.

“Coming into communion with the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate, you bring with you some of the spiritual riches that are to be found in the Anglican church. You take on a new mission in your ministry of bridge building – that of building bridges between the Catholic Church and the ecclesial communities of the Anglican tradition”.

Mgr Newton, speaking after the ordination, said, “It is a great joy to be here today to celebrate Robert’s ordination. We hope and pray that it will be an encouragement to members of the Traditional Anglican Communion – an assurance of the respect and warmth of welcome, which the Ordinariate offers to them and to all Anglicans who are faithful to the vision of Christian Unity”.

The Reverend Robert Mercer will be ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on 26 March in Portsmouth Cathedral.

 

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 573 other followers