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Ecumenical Activity with the Anglican Continuum

An excerpt from Virtue Online: Classical Anglican Jurisdictions Enter New Phase of Cooperation: Six Continuing jurisdictions see healing with fresh talks of unity prompted by Global Realignment by David W. Virtue DD

FACA IN SOUTH CAROLINA

A recent meeting of FACA in April 9, 2013, at the Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary in Summerville, SC drew two special guests including the beleaguered Bishop Mark Lawrence of the Diocese of South Carolina, and Archbishop Peter Robinson, of the United Episcopal Church.

Bishop Lawrence told his story of “leaving Egypt,” and wanting to work with FACA. The bishop invited FACA leaders to the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul for an evening visit with four bishops from East Africa and a reception.

Archbishop Robinson expressed his desire to see closer relationships throughout the continuum, and told members about the UEC’s partnerships with the Province of Christ the King and the Anglican Catholic Church.

Fr. Kevin Donlon, canon lawyer with the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA), reported on a visit he made to the Mission Province in Sweden last October, setting the stage for a meeting with Lutheran Bishop Walter Obara in Kenya (who helped give the Mission Province its episcopate) and Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini. Donlon also talked about the Anglican Mission’s extensive networks with young Anglican bishops in Africa and Southeast Asia. “We all need to be moving toward conciliar governance, whereby we live within the theology, the ministry and the disciplines of Holy Scripture and the Councils of the undivided Church,” he noted.

The Anglican Church in America and the Anglican Province in America are working toward a closer relationship, reported Bishops Walter Grundorf and Brian Marsh on their progress and on the “speed bumps” to unity. “By going slowly the two jurisdictions can marinade their lives together, leaving behind a template, or model, for others to follow,” commented The Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett, Bishop of the Diocese of the Holy Cross who moderated the conference.

Bishop David Hicks (REC) reported on the Task Force to study Holy Orders in the Anglican Church in North America. This study, now in its first phase, will recommend to ACNA’s College of Bishops whether the ordination of women is possible, based on Scripture and Tradition. Anglo-Catholics have long held the view that this is the major stumbling block to unity with the ACNA if this issue remains unresolved. The task force noted that the two sides of this issue come at the matter from quite different ecclesiology.

Former TEC Bishop Keith Ackerman, president of FiF-NA and Bishop Vicar in the Diocese of Quincy, encouraged all traditional, orthodox Anglicans to magnify the lay office of deaconess. The REC’s training program for deaconesses is fully operational as is the Anglican Deaconess Association.

Four continuing bishops recently sent an appeal to ACNA’s College of Bishops, asking to have only men in Holy Orders and to use an historic Anglican liturgy. Archbishop Mark Haverland (ACC), Peter Robinson (UEC), Bishop Brian Marsh (ACA), Bishop Walter Grundorf (APA), and Bishop Paul Hewett (DHC) all signed the appeal.

“It was an example of continuing church bishops speaking with one voice, and of seeking the reforms in ACNA that will allow FACA to be in communion with everyone in ACNA, at which point FACA’s jurisdictions and societies could join the ACNA,” Said Hewett.

On May 24 – 25, the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen, (FCA) meeting in Fredericksburg, VA, will make “The Appeal” the subject of its presentations. Bishop Ray Sutton (REC) highlighted the breakthroughs of the Task Force on ecumenical relations with (ACNA), the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, the Roman Catholic Church (a recent audience with the Pope), and the Russian Orthodox Church (an invitation to visit Patriarch Kyril in Moscow in 2014). Bishop Hewett proposed a delegation to visit Hieronymos II, the Archbishop of Athens, Greece, in the autumn of 2014, to strengthen ties with the Greek Orthodox, both in Greece, and North America.

Bishop Richard Lipka (Missionary Diocese of All Saints, Forward in Faith) announced the upcoming Forward in Faith/North America Assembly, July 17 – 19, in Belleville, Illinois, where the guest speaker will be the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir Ali, former Bishop of Rochester, England. A delegation of bishops and clergy from the Polish National Catholic Church will be part of that week’s meetings.

FORWARD IN FAITH

There are now five dioceses in Forward in Faith/NA: Ft. Worth, San Joaquin, Quincy, Missionary Diocese of All Saints and the Diocese of the Holy Cross. Bishop Ackerman noted that Forward in Faith/NA is an organism that serves all traditional, orthodox Anglicans, to teach the faith and order of the undivided Church, and to reveal the essential unity of the Body of Christ.

Bishop Hewett gave a report on the new federation emerging in the UK, with the Free Church of England (Bishop John Fenwick), the Nordic Catholic Church (Norway, Bishop Roald Flemestad, part of the Union of Scranton), the Polish National Catholic Church, and the REC’s burgeoning work in Europe. He noted that the Free Church of England is now canonically recognized by the Church of England. The Anglican Association, a Forward in Faith/UK think tank, is assisting in putting this federation together. One of the Anglican Association’s leaders, Canon Geoffrey Neal, Forward in Faith/UK Dean of the Ouse Valley, will speak at the Diocese of the Holy Cross Synod in Winchester, VA on April 19.

In a major new development, all parties unanimously agreed to a motion that whenever parishes want to change jurisdictions, their respective bishops will confer. A committee on standards of preparation for ordained ministry was also established.

“There was a sense at this meeting that FACA has become ever more important to everyone in it, as a way of living together as “continuers,” and as a catalyst for a single fully traditional, orthodox province for us all, upholding the Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order of the undivided Church,” observed Hewett.

“We need to take the 39 Articles seriously and Newman’s Tract 90 the purpose of which was to establish the contention that the fundamental ecclesiological identity of the Church of England was Catholic rather than Protestant. He has given us a way to talk to one another. The Chicago Quadrilateral is also part of our patrimony.”

Christian Witness, PNCC, ,

Transfiguration Parish renews a community and bears witness

From TribLive: Mt. Pleasant Township church to mark 5th year at current location

Just over five years ago, parishioners of Transfiguration of Our Lord Polish National Catholic Church began the parish’s first official Mass at its current location in near darkness.

Prior to the start of the Mass on Dec. 8, 2007, a vehicle accident occurred in the vicinity of the place of worship on Bridgeport Street in Mt. Pleasant Township in which a utility pole was struck, knocking out power to the edifice.

“The Mass began with emergency lighting and candles,” said Ann Rosky, the parish’s council secretary. “We didn’t even have an organ.”

The congregation — led by the Rev. Joseph S. Lewandowski, the church’s administrator at the time — pressed on nonetheless.

Soon after, something extraordinary happened.

As the parish began singing the hymn titled “Gloria,” power was restored to the building bringing light back the facility where its members had worked for roughly three years renovating it for worship.

“That’s such a joyous song. I’ll never forget how that was when the lights came back on,” Rosky recalled. “Tears came to my eyes, because all of our work up to that point was visible again to all.”

The need for such work was borne out of what Rosky and Daniel Levendusky, chairman of the church’s council, both referred to as a situation in which their parish was left with “nothing.”

Its members found their way back with a similar sense of resolve.

In September 2002, Transfiguration Roman Catholic Church in Mt. Pleasant Borough was closed after structural engineers determined the building was unsafe and could collapse.

A $2 million estimate to make repairs prompted the parish’s pastoral and finance committees to ask the Diocese of Greensburg to raze the building.

When the building was razed in 2003, the church’s parish was dissolved and its members were forced to seek out other local churches.

“The flock was scattered, and we basically wanted to reestablish our own church,” Levendusky said.

Levendusky’s son, Alan, subsequently told him about the Holy Family Polish National Catholic Church in McKeesport, which is part of the Pittsburgh-Buffalo Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church.

Levendusky and his wife, Carrie, attended a service there. Soon after, the couple and other former members of the dissolved parish worked to become a member of the church’s Pittsburgh-Buffalo Diocese.

In October 2003, the Right Rev. Thaddeus Peplowski, bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo-Pittsburgh, issued a warrant declaring the parish a member of the church.

The newly formed parish then found a temporary home at the First United Church of Christ in Mt. Pleasant, where it leased space and many of its members reconvened to conduct its Saturday Masses and fundraisers.

“The accepted us with open arms,” Levendusky said.

In early 2004, parish members set out in earnest to find their very own place of worship.

In fall of 2005, the parish learned that the site formerly occupied by Rainbow Gardens — a bar and banquet hall — was for sale by owner Kathleen Fatla, Levendusky said. By December of that year, the parish approved the purchase of the building for $135,000, he said.

In spring of 2006, roughly 10 of the parishioners began working together to renovate the facility.

“We had to frame the Sacristy, the choir room, we did all the wiring and the plumbing,” Levendusky said. “God gave us the skill to do this. I lived down here for about two years.”

The group located pews out of state and received a donated podium, choir hymn boards, tabernacle and bell.

On April 19, 2008 — about four months after the “Gloria lighting” — the church’s official dedication was held.

Since then, the parish’s members have worked hard to serve the surrounding community and to build a strong bond with the diocese on both a regional and a national level, said the Rev. Bruce Sleczkowski, who this month is marking one year as the parish’s administrator.

“With the faith and devotion of the people attending, I am totally amazed,” Sleczkowski said. “They’re growing slowly, and they’re not only demonstrating their faith, they’re sharing their faith and doing things for others in the community.

Locally, the parish members assist the Salvation Army with ringing the Christmas bell. Nationally, its members recently sent ceramic angels to Newtown, Conn., to comfort the survivors of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

“That’s admirable,” Sleczkowski said.

Parishioner Diane E. Cheek, a biology professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, serves on the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocesan Council.

Teen member Kristen Yanuck attended a national youth conference last year held in Niagara Falls.

In addition, Levendusky has served previously as a delegate representing the parish at Diocesan synods in Carnegie and Erie and at a national synod in Manchester, N.H. Synods are legislative bodies of the church which address the financial workings of the church.

“They’re finding a niche in our church,” Sleczkowski said. “And the parish is embraced by the diocese and the national church. We have a very positive direction we are going and we have a very bright future.

“I, myself, enjoy celebrating the Eucharist with them; they’re wonderful people,” he said.

Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , , , , ,

Take the 2013 Polish American Survey

I encourage everyone, and especially PNCC members, to take the Piast Institute’s 2013 Polish American Survey. The survey thankfully includes a question on the religious affiliation of Polish-American and includes the Polish National Catholic Church as a choice among many others. Our inclusion as PNCC members in the Polish-American demographic is important.

This survey follows up on two earlier national studies in 2009 and 2010 that the Institute did of 900 and 1,400 Polish Americans respectively. The new study probes some of the key social, political and economic questions asked on the earlier studies and adds a few additional issues that have aroused public concern since. It also probes the attitudes of Polish Americans on matters of concern to the community and their ideas about its future.

The study is being conducted as a “rolling survey” over a span of three months. Polish Americans and Poles living in America are encouraged to participate. Dominik Stecula, a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia who coauthored the original study urged as wide a participation as possible to give the study a broad statistical sample for analysis. “I hope all Polish Americans who have a concern about our community take the time to respond to the survey,” he said. Mr. Stecula noted that “The original study demonstrated to us that Polonia is a unique community which shows distinctive opinions and attitudes on public and community issues. We need broad national participation to allow us to confirm our earlier findings and to deepen our analysis. These will be invaluable as we seek to create Polonia anew in the 21st century.” The survey, he pointed out, which can be completed in 25 to 60 minutes, can be accessed here (NOTE: the survey did not really take that long).

The 2010 study published as Polish Americans Today by the Piast Institute has gone through three printings. Its findings have been a key item of discussion at several national conferences. The chancery of the President of Poland ordered copies for its staff as have several Polish Ministries as well as the offices of the Marshalls of the Sejm and Senate. “The Piast Institute undertook the original study because we found a dearth of information about the Polish American Community as major Research Centers such as NORC at the University of Chicago and the national election exit polls have stopped asking about European American ethnic groups.” Says Dr. Radzilowski. “Poles and other European groups were lumped into a new default category called “White” which makes no historical, cultural or demographic sense. It is a new version of the melting pot.”

The new study will be published by E. Mellen Press, a major Social Science and Humanities publisher.

Thank you for your participation. You can access the survey HERE.

Christian Witness, Homilies, PNCC

Reflection for the Institution of the PNCC

Freedom

Who are you?
God’s children.

“Then the righteous man will stand with great confidence in the presence of those who have afflicted him, and those who make light of his labors. When they see him, they will be shaken with dreadful fear, and they will be amazed at his unexpected salvation. They will speak to one another in repentance, and in anguish of spirit they will groan, and say, ‘This is the man whom we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach — we fools!’”

In the coming week we will enter the Passiontide. We will recall our Lord riding triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We will walk with Him from the upper room to the garden, to His arrest, imprisonment, trial, torture, execution, and death. He is that Man that was afflicted, whose labors were mocked and thought of as folly by His accusers.

Our Holy Church has walked with Jesus in His suffering. We have such closeness to all He experienced because we too have been mocked and accused. Our organizers, men and women, were beaten, imprisoned, spit at, and mocked. Many today still recall being called names as they went to church. The brothers and sisters of our Church in Poland were prevented from organizing and driven out of towns. During the Second World War they were placed in concentration camps and were martyred for their faith. The communists martyred Bishop Padewski for his witness to Christ.

Through it all, and into these days, often called the post-Christian era, we continue to stand in confidence, the confidence we have because of our faith in Him who assures our salvation.

We hold to the hope we have in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We know that as we have walked with Him in His suffering so too will we stand with Him in His glory.

Today we celebrate the institution of our Holy Church. 116 years ago we chose to live in Jesus, in His righteousness and freedom. We rejected the attitude of the mockers, the powers, the lords of the world and worldly power; the controllers and masters who used fear against the people rather than teaching His truth.

Those who seek Him will find Him here. The persecutors, the fear mongers, and those who claim “sole ownership” of God cannot hurt them or us. Those who, in anger, stand against God cannot affect them or us. We have His confidence.

The world looks at us now, and they ask, “Who are you?” We reply with joy, “The children of God.” We rejoice and know that we will never be accounted fools for we live in Him.

Events, PNCC, , , ,

Polish American Historical Association Call for Papers

Please see the official Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) call for papers for its January 2-4, 2014 Annual Meeting below and consider submitting a proposal.

The PAHA 2014 Annual Meeting will be held in Washington D.C. from January 2-4, 2014 as part of the American Historical Association’s Annual Conference. Abstracts for papers and panel proposals are now being accepted and should be submitted to the Chair of the Program Committee:

Grazyna Kozaczka, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Cazenovia College
22 Sullivan St.
Cazenovia, NY 13035

Electronic proposals in email and word format are strongly preferred. E-mail proposals directly to Dr. Kozaczka. The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2013.

Individuals and panel organizers should include the following information when submitting a proposal:

  • Paper/Session title(s) (of no more than 20 words)
  • Paper/Session abstract(s) (up to 300/500 words, respectively)
  • Biographical paragraph or c.v. summary (up to 250 words) for each participant
  • Correct mailing and e-mail address for each participant
  • Chair (required) and commentator (optional) for the session
  • Audiovisual needs, if any.

Please be advised that it is unlikely that PAHA will be able to use PowerPoint in its sessions, due to the high cost of rental, or that presenters will be permitted by the hosting conference hotel to bring their own. You may wish to consider distribution of paper handouts as an alternative.

The Polish American Historical Association holds its Annual Conference in conjunction with the American Historical Association (AHA). The full information about the AHA conference can be found at at their website. PAHA members who plan to attend PAHA conference only do not need to register for the AHA conference, but are required to register for the PAHA conference by November 1, 2013. Registration may be done on-line or by sending the $20.00 registration fee to:

PAHA Headquarters
c/o Magda Jacques
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
New Britain, CT 06050

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, PNCC, , , , ,

On the Bishop of Rome and a democratic Conciliar model that works

Our Holy Church does not believe that the Bishop of Rome holds any special office or power, and we categorically deny the various “dogmas” these men have proclaimed over the past several centuries (Infallibility as well as the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of the B.V.M.). The word “pope” is not part of our vocabulary. Of course in charity we wish Bishop Ratzinger, a brother in Christ, well in his retirement. We also take this opportunity to pray that the Roman Church’s leadership takes this chance to recant of its dogmatic errors and in doing so work toward a unity among Churches based on model of the Church as it existed in the first millennium, a Church that is unified and Conciliar

Our denomination began on the second Sunday of March, 1897 – nearly 126 years ago. We celebrate the gift of our Holy Church every year on the Solemnity of the Institution of the PNCC, which the Third General Synod of 1914 declared to fall on the second Sunday of March. On this Sunday the parishes of our Church remove the Lenten purple from their sanctuaries and replace them with flowers. The Gloria is again recited and the vestments are white or gold. On this special feast day we celebrate our religious freedom and our Catholic democracy.

It is important to consider some history in light of recent events. As the Bishop of Rome nears retirement, the Roman Church will meet to elect a successor. Such a resignation has not occurred for six centuries. That previous resignation was to bring an end to a period of men competing for the office who were ensconced in and supported by the powers of those days: France and Rome. What we do not see discussed in the media are the politics, bribery, and military force that played a deciding factor in this extended period of intrigue. The intrigue rose to such an extent that the office of the Bishop of Rome was deemed compromised.

A nascent democratic movement, referred to as the Conciliar Movement, arose in opposition to this corruption. The supporters of the Conciliar Movement insisted that ecumenical councils be held regularly and independently, and that they function as the highest Church body. The Council of Pisa in 1409 attempted to limit the authority of the Bishop of Rome’s office, and also elected a third contender for the office in an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the factions in France and Rome. The principle of the supremacy of the Council over the Bishop of Rome was affirmed by the Council of Constance in 1414-1418, which actually voided the authority of the sitting Bishop of Rome and elected a single replacement. The Conciliar Movement continued through the Council of Basel less than 20 years later. Unfortunately, the Bishop of Rome once again seized absolute power and tried to destroy the Conciliar movement in a competing and more successful Council in Florence.

Bishop Hodur knew this history. He immortalized Jan Hus (who was condemned at the Council of Constance and was killed despite a pledge of indemnity) in a stained glass window of our Cathedral in Scranton. It was Hus who argued against the assumed power of the Bishop of Rome and called for a return to “gospel poverty.” He spoke of the true Church as opposed to the hierarchical one, championing ecclesiastical democracy, all of which led to his being burned at the stake for heresy.

In celebrating the founding of our democratic Catholic church, we celebrate the continuation of the Conciliar Movement. The PNCC Constitution of 1922 stated:

“The task of the Synod is to: 1. Interpret authoritatively the bases of faith and morals; … In matters concerning religion and morals, the Synod decides unanimously; in national and social matters, as well as administrative ones [it decides] by a simple majority of votes.”

According to the report of the 1935 Synod, Bishop Grochowski was not anxious about this democratic authority, but rather extolled it as truly Christian:

“Bishop Grochowski announced the order of the Synod and informed the Synod that the Synod is the most important authority in the church. It was so from the very beginning of Christianity, but with the passage of time the clergy took away from the faithful those rights which the National Church returns to those belonging to it.” (Minutes, p. 190)

With an eye to the Conciliar Movement, Bishop Hodur wrote in the 1931 catechism:

“These priests, especially of the higher rank, cultivate under the guise of the religion of Jesus Christ, Moses, Buddha, and Mohammed worldly politics, personal business, and very often stand in complete contradiction to divine principles of pure religion, democratic issues, general enlightenment, the welfare of the masses, freedom of conscience, brotherhood, and social justice.”

Reflecting on these words we see the prophecy contained therein. In recent days, Roman Catholic Bishop, Keith Cardinal O’Brien of Scotland, spoke out publicly to urge an end to required celibacy for clergy (the PNCC has allowed its clergy to marry since 1921). Within a day making such a declaration he was publicly accused by other clergy of inappropriate behavior. Odd how the struggle to maintain the status quo and to stifle voices for reform rears its head. The politics of such a process cannot be hidden away as it once was.

Our Church’s remedy to inordinate power and corruption is a democratic model of Church consistent with the ideals of the Conciliar Movement and more importantly earliest Christianity. It is time that Roman Catholics consider whether the voice of the Bishop of Rome is preeminent or whether they should find a home which is modeled on Church of the first millennium, one that is at once fully Catholic and free, democratic, and Conciliar.

My thanks to Fr. Randolph Calvo of Holy Name of Jesus in South Deerfield, Massachusetts for his words, which I have significantly borrowed, and which inspired this writing

Perspective, PNCC,

On St. Stanislaus in St. Louis

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, James Rygelski writes on the St. Stanislaus Church in St. Louis in ‘Do widzenia,’ St. Stanislaus Church

It is a great reflection on what might have been with a little bit of mutual charity and living with the wisdom of original intents in relation to the parishioners ownership of its property. of course this is the wisdom of the Polish National Catholic Church which maintains its catholicity and its democratic tradition.

I never was a registered member of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish. But the Roman Catholic church founded by Polish immigrants at 20th Street and Cass Avenue was always a part of my life.

My father graduated from its grade school. My maternal grandmother was a longtime parishioner. I grew up in St. Leo Parish, a few blocks west, and we sometimes joined my grandmother for Mass at St. Stanislaus. While registered in my geographical parish as an adult, I occasionally attended St. Stanislaus, and not just the festivals. When the communist government in Poland declared martial law on a cold Sunday morning in December 1981, the appropriate place for me to attend Mass that day was St. Stanislaus.

There was an aura inside St. Stanislaus’ red brick exterior befitting a house of God, enhanced by the inspirational murals, particularly the one behind the main altar depicting Christ before He is nailed to the cross, and augmented by the singing of Polish hymns. But despite its cathedral-like proportions, the church also afforded the solitary kneeling worshipper an intimate visit with the Lord.

For nearly a decade, St. Stanislaus’ lay leaders battled the St. Louis Archdiocese for the church’s property. The fight extended to the parish’s heart and soul. Last week the archdiocese dropped its legal claims. St. Stanislaus Kostka Church is now a denominational free agent, something its members didn’t want when the conflict began. Archbishop Robert Carlson’s recent and sincere reconciliation efforts came too late, after the moat around St. Stanislaus became impassable during the tumultuous reign of his predecessor, Raymond Burke.

Full disclosure: I was editor of the St. Louis Review, the archdiocese’s weekly, when the rival forces stopped posturing and started firing. I asked my reporters to get both sides, until word filtered down that we were to publish only Archbishop Burke’s version. I obeyed but felt like a Polish Benedict Arnold, though I hoped always for a resolution that would keep St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic. Still do.

This was a tragedy in two acts. In Act One, most worshippers – Catholic or otherwise – united in opposing Archbishop Burke’s request that the parish’s lay board of directors turn over the property without his giving written assurance that the church would stay open. Those who declared loyalty to him, mostly recent Polish immigrants who’d had tiffs with the older Polish-Americans over the years, were given their own parish near the Anheuser-Busch brewery. In Act Two, the lay board’s hiring of a renegade Polish priest to make St. Stanislaus a breakaway parish deeply divided both the board and the congregation. Some quit the board and joined the archdiocese in lawsuit to reclaim the parish for the archdiocese.

But there was more to the conflict than just an archbishop trying to take the money and property of a small north St. Louis parish that had been granted a unique contract by Archbishop Peter Kenrick in 1891. That agreement gave the archbishop the right to appoint the pastor but gave the parish’s lay board ownership of the church property and control of its finances. A teacher could fashion a lively course around the resulting legal/ethical issues.

The archdiocese coveted the St. Stanislaus land in 2003 while reorganizing all archdiocesan property to avoid being crippled financially if a jury ruled against it in a massive clergy sex-abuse case. Perhaps if ordained Catholic leaders across the country had properly removed the predators masquerading as priests and prevented the scandal they hushed over during the previous decades the St. Louis Archdiocese wouldn’t have been interested in reclaiming a few acres at 1413 N. 20th St.

The archdiocese’s 2008 lawsuit to restore the original agreement, which it dropped last week, came a few years too late. If it was going to sue, it should have when the St. Stanislaus board wrongly tinkered with the 1891 contract by cutting the pastor and archbishop out of the loop on important matters, which was before Archbishop Burke arrived. That’s when the archdiocese’s lawyers could have said, “If you expect us to play by the 1891 rules you’ll have to also.” Still, one Catholic organization suing another disregards what Christ told His disciples about reconciling with people before going to court (Matthew 5:25).

If some St. Stanislaus board members altered the agreement in hopes of saving the parish amid rumors that the archdiocese would try to sell the property to developers, they only made the situation worse. Nevertheless, they and the congregation wanted only to ensure that the parish remained open, a desirefor which they can’t be faulted. The archdiocese has closed many city parishes abandoned by white people who fled to the suburbs; St. Stanislaus parishioners moved but kept coming back and kept it viable, particularly in the 1970s, when rival gang violence outside left bullet holes in the church walls.

Many St. Stanislaus parishioners descended from the immigrants who’d built and maintained that parish with their own money, labor and faith, which is what those attending St. Stanislaus have done since. This was shown in the magnificent church restoration in the late 1970 the parishioners and friends fully financed on their own, and their fully financing the decade-old Polish Heritage Center on the parish grounds. My grandmother and parents donated to the former, and I to the latter.

Some have criticized St. Stanislaus people for “disobedience to authority” in not turning over the property when first Archbishop Justin Rigali then Archbishop Burke requested it. Yet the parishioners were engaged in no collective sinful, immoral or heretical activity before the issue arose. If they had and been ordered to cease, they’d have no recourse but to comply, and no sympathy from many of us if they hadn’t. Archbishop Burke and his predecessors didn’t like the 1891 agreement, but it was valid. When the archdiocese has acquired property for its churches and schools, it’s had to comply with the law. When it comes to property, to give God what is His, the church hierarchy has first had to give Caesar what is his.

Archbishop Burke could have granted them in writing the assurance that the parish would stay open if parishioners could continue financing its operation. It was a unique situation, and granting that assurance would have neither affected other parishes nor undermined his authority. It might have gained him respect as a shepherd making sure that the 100th sheep not be separated from the other 99 (Luke 15:4-7) rather than bringing him criticism for threatening people with eternal damnation over a few acres.

Poles have been devoted to the Catholic Church. Their liturgical language may have been Polish, but rites and beliefs were always fully Roman Catholic. They’ve rebelled when they perceived that ruling clergy got in the way of that devotion. There’s precedent for the St. Stanislaus action: some Polish immigrants in America in the 1890s founded the Polish National Catholic Church to protest what they thought was the ruling Irish clergy’s indifference to them. A local PNCC parish, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, operates near St. Stanislaus.

Last week’s legal victory of St. Stanislaus is nothing to celebrate, though. Regardless how Catholic St. Stanislaus looks, it’s now an orphan church. You can’t pretend to be something you’re not…

When the PNCC broke away, it established a creed close to that of Roman Catholicism and required its bishops, priests and lay people to follow it. St. Stanislaus’ freelance pastor, former priest Marek Bozek, can remake St. Stanislaus Kostka Non-Denominational Church as he wants it, with no ecclesiastical oversight or guidance. How will that church’s board replace him, if he leaves on his own or it fires him because it doesn’t like what he’s doing? How many excommunicated Polish priests are there to fill that post?

Events, PNCC, , , , ,

View PNCC Holy Masses and other Services available on-line

Several PNCC Parishes now stream their Holy Masses and other services online. If you are homebound or unable to attend on a particular Sunday you can still prayerfully participate in the life of the Church.

Holy Names of Jesus Parish in South Deerfield, Massachusetts televises Sunday Holy Mass and other services via Frontier Cable Access every Sunday and Tuesday on TV. Services are also recorded and are available via ‘Video On Demand.’

Tune in to Cable Channel 23 (Conway, Deerfield, Sunderland, and Whately, Massachusetts) and watch the previous Sunday’s Holy Mass at 9am and 9pm every Sunday, and rebroadcast on Tuesday’s at 4pm. Over 50 videos are now available in ‘Video On Demand.’

Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Chicago, Illinois has a live streaming web feed 24/7. You can view what’s going on at anytime, spending time in the Lord’s presence, and participate in Holy Mass and other services. Holy Masses are broadcast at 8, 9:15, and 11 am as well as 12:30 pm every Sunday in English, Spanish, and Polish.

Events, PNCC, , ,

Online Bible Study for Lent

Father John Kowalczyk of St. Michael the Archangel PNCC in Cedar Lake, Indiana will be conducting an on-line webinar Bible Study during the Lenten Season. The theme for this Bible Study is the “Character of Christ.”

  • Are you looking to participate in Bible Study?
  • Do you just not have time to go to the Church to participate?
  • Do you have an hour and a half for God on Tuesdays?
  • Would you like to join Bible Study from the convenience of your own home?

Join in on Tuesday evenings during Lent for the “Character of Christ”. Invite family and friends to attend as this intriguing topic is explored. We pray that you can make time in your busy schedule to join in for one or more of the Studies. There is NO COST for the Bible Study.

The Bible Study Webinar is held every week on Tuesday, February 19th through March 12th from 7 – 8:30 PM CDT.

To register visit GoToWebinar.

Once registered you will receive an e-mail confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar.

System Requirements:

PC-based attendees
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PNCC,

Ś+P Rev. Kenneth Strawhand

Ś+P Rev. Kenneth Strawhand, SSM, Sayreville, NJ (February 2, 1949 – February 7, 2013) was called home to the Lord on Thursday, February 7, 2013. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 16th at Sayreville Memorial Home, 341 Washington Rd., Sayreville, NJ. Friends may call 3-7 pm.

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Ordained in 1985 śp. Fr. Strawhand was received into the Polish National Catholic Church in 1992 and served the Church for over 20 years at St. Casimir’s in Lowell, Massachussetts and more recently at St. Casimir’s Parish in Irondequoit, New York. Prior to entering the Polish National Catholic Church, Fr. Strawhand served in the Anglican Church in America. He also worked with the Fellowship Of Concerned Churchmen. He was educated at St. Anthony Seminary where he earned a Masters in Sacred Theology with concentrations in theology, liturgy, and philosophy.

Fr. Strawhand’s had served as Missionary Director, United Episcopal Church of America (New York State); President, Ministerial Alliance, Hot Springs, Arkansas; Former Member of the Matrimonial Commission, Diocese of the Southwest, American Episcopal Church; Former Recording Secretary, Diocese of the Southwest Diocesan Council; Examining Chaplain, Liturgy, Diocese of the Southwest, Anglican Church in America; Instructor and Examining Chaplain, Theology and Vice-President, Clergy Conference and Member, Eastern Diocesan Council, PNCC; Chancellor and Diocesan Secretary, PNCC, Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese, Chaplain, 191st Assault Helicopter Company (US Army); Contributing author to Ecclesia, a publication of the American Episcopal Church as well as Rola Boża (God’s Field) of the Polish National Catholic Church. Fr. Strawhand authored several papers, including “The Psychological Ramifications of the Sacrament of Penance” (1988). He was a member of The Society of St. Michael the Archangel, The Anglican & Orthodox Society of St. Willibroard, The C.S. Lewis Society, American Catholic Church Union, The Society of St. Luke the Physician, The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, Alumni Association, Trinity Seminary, International Society of Theology, Society of Online Christian Theology and Philosophy.

Eternal rest grant unto your servant and priest, Kenneth, and may the perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.

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