The Rev. Mark Lewis now offers a prayer every Sunday morning that
centuries ago would have been considered an homage to the enemy. It's a
prayer for the bishop of Rome, the pope and all the Catholic bishops and
priests.
Lewis chants, "For Benedict our Pope ... Let us prayer to the Lord."
And the congregation sings its answer, "Lord, have mercy."
The distinctly Roman Catholic offering is the outward sign of an
inner spiritual journey. St. Luke's Church in Bladensburg, Md., will
become later this year the first American Episcopal Parish to convert to
Catholicism, Anglicanism's one-time nemesis.
"What really drew us was the apostolic authority, the oneness of the
faith of the people," Lewis said "That's what we really wanted, and I
don't think you have that in Anglicanism."
Ironically, what is driving St. Luke's to Roman Catholicism is what split the church in the first place: the issue of authority.
Nearly 500 years ago, Britain's King Henry VIII broke with Rome in a
dispute involving his wish to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and
marry his young mistress, Anne Boleyn.
A showdown forced England's clergy to choose sides, with the king
demanding to know if the British bishops and Cardinals were more loyal
to him or to the Pope.
Lives and heads were literally lost in the ensuing theological and
political clash. In its wake,
The Church of England was born, with the
sitting monarch as its head, a structure still in place today.
The American version, the Episcopal church, was the faith of many of
the founding fathers, including President George Washington.
Today, the Episcopal Church, with nearly 1.5 million members, is one
of thousands of Christian denominations in the U.S.
Its recent conflicts
over the ordination of gays and women and the blessing of same-sex
unions have caused some congregations to seek more conservative
branches.
But that was not an option for St. Luke's. Lewis says he felt that
the same problem would persist.
There was no authority concerning who
would have the final interpretation of scripture over the most
controversial issues the church is facing.
"Anglicanism is Anglicanism," Lewis said. "So it doesn't matter if
you go to a more conservative group like the Anglican Church in North
America or any of the others that are around. It's still the faith of
this body here. (It) doesn't necessarily mean it's the same in Nigeria
or Sierra Leone or any other outlet."
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI
created a special Ordinariate, a path through which Anglicans could
reconcile with Rome and come back to the Roman Catholic flock. In some
circles it's been called the religious equivalent of sheep stealing.
The Rev. Scott Hurd, who's assisting Washington's Cardinal Donald
Wuerl to create the new Anglican Ordinariate, disagrees with the
implication, saying, "This initiative is a response to repeated and
insistent requests from Anglican groups. So it's not a matter of
stealing sheep. It's more a matter of opening the door for people who
have been seeking to come in for some time."
In the last few years, bitter legal battles over property have
erupted in the American Episcopal church when conservative congregations
sought to leave and be led by more orthodox Anglicans groups.
But St.
Luke's transition was essentially given a blessing by the Washington
Diocese's Bishop John Bryson Chane.
"Christians move from one church to another with far greater
frequency than in the past, sometimes as individuals, sometimes as
groups," Chane said in a written statement. "I was glad to be able to
meet the spiritual needs of the people and priest of St. Luke's in a way
that respects the tradition and polity of both of our churches."
Under the terms of the agreement, St. Luke's congregation will have
three years to either buy its current building or move elsewhere.
That especially pleases its 100 members, who are mostly West African immigrants like Gloria Deigh, from Sierra Leone.