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Yesterday, September 3, 2009 ten Episcopal nuns, all members of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor convent in Cantonsville, Maryland, became Catholics as they were confirmed during a Mass in their chapel.
Why? The answer the sisters say, is orthodoxy and unity.
They became the latest in a long line of defectors leaving the Episcopal denomination divided over the approval of women's ordination and the ordination of a gay bishop.
"We kept thinking we could help by being a witness for orthodoxy." said Sister Mary Joan Walker, the community's archivist.
"We know our beliefs and where we are." said Mother Christina Christie, superior of the order. "We were drifting farther apart from the more liberal road the Episcopal Church is traveling. We are now more at home in the Roman Catholic Church."
"For us, this is a journey of confirmation," Mother Christina said, "We felt God leading us in this direction for a long time."
Also joining the Catholic Church was the Rev. Warren Tanghe, the sister's chaplain.
Their departure had been discerned for years, said the sisters. The 2003 consecration of the Episcopalian Church's first openly gay bishop thrust long-standing divisions over homosexuality out in the open.
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered." It celebrates marriages only between men and women.
According to the Rev. Ian T. Douglas, a scholar of Anglicanism at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., said "That while individuals have moved back and forth between the Episcopal and Catholic Churches, the confirmation of virtually an entire order appears to be the first." (from baltimoresun.com article by M.G. Hare & M. H. Brown)
As Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien blessed them they renewed their vows of poverty, chasity and obedience.
The Archbishop also lauded the sister's 135-year history of caring for the poor, for children with special needs and for the dying.
The All Saints Sisters of the Poor have been a visible beacon of hope in Cantonsville, Maryland for decades.
They lead a monastic lifestyle, filled with prayer and work: with the terminally ill at Joseph Richey House in Baltimore, which they opened in 1987 with Mount Calvary Church. They also conduct retreats and open their chapel daily to their neighbors.
Members say they will continue that same life of prayer and service as Catholics.
The two nuns who decided against joining the Catholic Church plan to remain at the convent and work alongside their sisters.
That they all may receive God's peace in their decision, let us pray.
Comments
This is an inspiring story of how these nuns' great love for the Lord Jesus Christ has drawn them home to the Catholic Church. May God bless each and every one of them as they begin this wonderful new chapter in their walk with Christ!
I am an Australian, and things are pretty bad in our country with the decline in standards and decency. However, I never thought I would live to see the day when a newspaper would allow a comment as vulgar as 'Bill' to be posted. You are a lout and no gentleman.
To Phillip Turnbull: Thank you very much for your comment. As an Examiner I have tried always to respect different opinions of readers. However, you made me think about where the line should be drawn on posted comments. While I hesitate to delete anyone's comment and recognize we may differ on subject matter, I do hold personally to standards in the most basic of cases, not to be offensive to anyone as a person. On that note, I have chosen to delete two comments from my articles.
As always, I am most appreciative of all readers and comments with the purpose to add and not degrade.
Welcome to the True Catholic Church Anglican Nuns. You are no longer in a church where Anglican Orders are invalid.
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