Calling all Anglicans!

Toronto Archbishop welcomes Anglicans

Tuesday, 18 January 2011 18:26 Deborah Gyapong

Anglican Catholic Church of Canada Bishop Peter WilkinsonArchbishop Collins invites Anglicans interested in Canadian Ordinariate to conference
By Deborah Gyapong
Canadian Catholic News

OTTAWA (CCN)—Anglican groups interested in a Canadian Ordinariate will be gathering in Mississauga March 24-26 at the invitation of Archbishop Thomas Collins

“To help move our dialogue and planning forward, I would like to extend an invitation to all those interested in Anglicanorum coetibus to join me for a conference dedicated to this topic,” the Toronto Archbishop said in an open letter posted Jan. 18 on the Toronto Archdiocese’s website.

“I look forward to meeting with clergy and laity from across the country this March to engage in prayer, fellowship and dialogue as we move forward with this important initiative,” said Collins, who the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith named as the episcopal delegate for Canada. It’s his job to liaise with the Anglican groups interested in an ordinariate, the CDF and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB).

Though the conference schedule is still in the planning stages, Archbishop Collins has invited Father Christopher Phillips, who founded the first Anglican Use parish in the United States in 1983 under Pope John Paul II’s Pastoral Provision.

Phillips, a married Catholic priest, started Our Lady of the Atonement Anglican Use Parish in San Antonio, Texas with a mere 18 fellow Anglicans, including five children, who wished to avail themselves of the provision. The Atonement parish has since grown to over 500 families and runs a school that has more than 500 students who attend Mass everyday according to an approved Anglican liturgy.

Phillips hosted the Becoming One conference in San Antonio last November that drew Anglicans from across the United States and Canada, bringing together those from the Anglican Use parishes, the Traditional Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church and other Anglican groups.

“When Archbishop Collins contacted me and asked if I would be able to take part in this meeting, I was impressed with his sincere desire to provide an opportunity for all the Canadian Ordinariate-bound folks to get together,” said Phillips. “The Archbishop's dedication to the successful launch of the Ordinariate was very evident.”

“I'm looking forward to meeting him, and also to making lots of new friends in Canada,” he said on the Anglo-Catholic blog (http://www.theanglocatholic.com).

The event will take place at Queen of the Apostles Retreat Centre in Mississauga. Registration will open February 1. Details and registration information can be found at http://www.archtoronto.org/ordinariate. The web page also includes background information on the formation of an ordinariate in Canada, links to the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, and a Q&A on the “practical aspects” of the erection of an ordinariate in Canada.

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