Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Disaffected Episcopalians Offered A New Home


From NPR-

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block. Episcopalian priests take note. The Catholic Church wants you. The Vatican is making it easier for Episcopalian clergy and their parishes to join the church, and as NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports, for a limited time, it is waiving the centuries' old tradition of priestly celibacy.

BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY, BYLINE: Mark Lewis, director of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Bladensburg, Maryland, was surfing the Internet for news one morning when something caught his eye. The Catholic Church was announcing a process to allow Episcopal churches to convert as a group.

Lewis, who's theologically conservative, was intrigued.

MARK LEWIS: I was immediately thrilled and I read it to my wife and her response wasn't as exuberant as mine.

HAGERTY: Lewis's wife was also drawn to Catholicism, but was not so sure about answering to the pope. Still, over several months, their church studied the bible and catholic doctrine and concluded that Catholicism was the one true church.

In October, the priest, the church and its 70 members converted en masse. Once that happened, Lewis could no longer lead St. Luke's because he isn't a catholic priest, but he hopes to become one soon. Later this month, he, along with several dozen Episcopal ministers, will begin the process of becoming catholic priests.

More here-

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/02/144587794/disaffected-episcopalians-offered-a-new-home

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