Our Lady of the Atonement

[Amppax]

I believe I have posted about the situation at Our Lady of the Atonement, and solicited your prayers for a good resolution. Here is a recent article from the National Catholic Register discussing the situation: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/historic-anglican-use-parish-faces-challenges-in-bid-to-join-ordinariate

An excerpt: 

Quote

SAN ANTONIO — The archbishop of San Antonio last month suspended the founding pastor of the first Anglican-use parish in the United States from pastoral ministry. The suspension, which came as a surprise for many in the parish, coincides with the parish’s application in Rome to leave the jurisdiction of the archdiocese and join the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

Our Lady of the Atonement Church in San Antonio began in 1983 as an Anglican-use parish, operating under a “Pastoral Provision” established by Pope John Paul II in 1980 to provide personal parishes for Episcopalian converts who had entered into full communion with the Catholic Church but wished to preserve liturgical aspects of Anglican worship.

Father Christopher George Phillips, the parish’s first and only pastor, has overseen significant growth in the parish and the school. The parish, which began with 18 members, has grown to 630 families, while the school, started in 1994, has more than 500 students. A priest celebrates the ordinariate form of the Roman rite at Mass daily, and three times on Sunday, as well as an ordinary form Latin Mass on Sunday evenings.

The ordinariate, founded in 2012 under Benedict XVI, is the canonical home for Catholic parishes and communities with a liturgical and spiritual inheritance nurtured in the Anglican tradition.

Several parishioners told the Register the parish has sought to become part of the ordinariate for that reason.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller sent a letter Jan. 19 to Our Lady of the Atonement, explaining that he had asked Father Phillips to relinquish his pastoral duties.

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Please pray for a just resolution to this situation, whatever that may be. 

[Amppax]

If anyone else is interested in this situation, here is a website created by some parishioners to provide updates on the situation. http://saveatonement.org