(The majority of Ordinariate parish administators and two ordinands)
This year's Anglican Use Conference was hosted by the Our Lady of Hope Society and its hosting parish, St. Therese Little Flower in Kansas City. It was much smaller than last year's gathering as it wasn't at one of the larger parishes, but it was a very good time for us all to meet together nonetheless. Most of the "first wave" Ordinariate clergy here in North America came and it turned into an unofficial clergy conference, which was welcome and needed.
Our theme was evangelism, being in this Year of Faith, and being the start of the Ordinariate here. It was good to share ideas and discuss our future together. A couple of the groups in the Ordinariate are proper parishes, but most are small groups numbering under one-hundred people, so hearing how the first few months of existence have been for each of us was necessary.
As is the case in most gatherings like this, it was the informal conversations we had among our number that were of the most benefit, but the sessions themselves were very helpful. The hope is to have a formal conference of Ordinariate clergy and ordinands sometime in February in Houston.
(Clergy listening intently to Mgr. Steenson)
We all left with encouragement for the future and hopefully this next year will bear some real tangible fruits of this hope! The immediate sign of this hope is that we have another crop of clergy coming in, many with groups of their own, and many who wish to start groups in their regions. They will be in Houston in November for the second round of training and discernment for those who hope to compose the second wave of Ordinariate clergy.
Instead of posting details of plans that may or may not work out as intended for the Ordinariate at large, I will begin posting plans as they begin to be enacted.
One plan I can safely announce is that the idea of having a National Pilgrimage to the American Walsingham shrine in Houston has been approved and the first pilgrimage will occur, hopefully by this time next year! The hope is to combine the traditional Anglican Use Conference into this pilgrimage for one big annual event and have clergy and parishioners caravan from Ordinariate, Anglican Use, Latin Rite, and other parishes all over North America join together once a year who have a devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham. Please pray for the success of the planning and implementation of this large endeavor. We hope to make Fr. Hope Patton proud.
(Shrine in Houston)
