Behind the walls of St. Michael the Archangel Church, two congregations share one altar.
One is Catholic, the other Protestant. The Revs. Jack Morrison and Scott McCleary consider their situation unusual.
”We are very much alike and very different,” Morrison said.
”It’s great fun,” McCleary said.
Morrison is the pastor of St. Michael Archangel Maronite Catholic. McCleary is pastor of St. George’s Anglican. For more than a year, the two congregations have been sharing space at the small brick church next to the Museum of the Cape Fear. St. George’s organized in 2003 after a group of people broke away from St. John’s Episcopal Church. Disagreements over homosexuality, among other things, drove them to start from scratch. The members of St. Michael offered them a place to worship. Now, the congregations take turns using the sanctuary. St. George’s holds its Sunday services first, at 8:30 a.m. St. Michael follows at 10:30. The two congregations often meet, especially now, during the season of Lent. When Bishop Gregory Mansour came to Fayetteville last Sunday, he agreed to preach at both services. If cooperation between the two churches is unique, perhaps it is more remarkable because it has the blessing of a Catholic bishop. [Source] [Browser warning: Firefox won’t display this story, but Internet Explorer does]
Sounds almost like the Church of the Holy Apostles in Virginia Beach, Va which calls itself a Anglican/Roman Catholic Congregation and was instituted by their previous Bishop. This is how they handle it:
Services are held each week at 10:00 a.m. We share the Liturgy of the Word, but maintain separate altars for the Eucharist. Roman Catholics may receive from the Roman Catholic priest; all other Baptized Christians in good standing with their own church may receive from the Episcopal priest.
I created a church bulletin previously for a combination Catholic/Anglican Church, which can be found here.
Update: Since a reader asked, I have made the bulletin available for download.
Church Bulletin in Word Format
Church Bulletin in PDF Format
6 comments
I have Mozilla Firefox and it displayed the story with no problem. Just thought you might like to know…
There actually is historical precedent for this.
I’m reading Regine Pernoud’s books about the Crsauderrs, and she relates how, in the holy Land, many mosques were converted into churches after conquests by the Crsuaders, but Muslims were permitted to do their own prayers, inside these mosques-turned-churches, at their appointed prayer times.
In France, following the Reformation, there apparently was at least one parish Church with two Sunday services: one Catholic, one Protestant.
Still, I don’t like it one bit.
That bulletin was was great, man.
In the Diocese of Austin, there used to be a church that housed both a Catholic and a Protestant congregation. It was founded as part of a master-plan community that only have one piece of land for a “church”. In the 60s, after some years of both sides being ministered to by a mission priest/pastor, they agreed to build one church for their combined use. This agreement lasted until 1995 or so when the Catholics built a new campus and moved out.
In the sixties (when else?) the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph was partner in an ecumenical parish with three protestant denominations (I believe they were Episcopalian, Lutheran (NOT Missouri Synod – they knew better!) and Methodist. I don’t know how long it took, but eventually the bishop gained the good sense to see that such a venture is not possible. Though our bishop (together with the Episcopal Bishop) still begins the Easter Vigil at a common fire – the Cathedrals are two blocks from one another. – something a friend of mine once dubbed: “The Divided Light of Christ!”
In the case of this Maronite / Anglican Church it sounds more like the Maronites are simply being hospitable to a group of Anglicans who ARE searching for the Truth – we must pray (as I am sure those good Maronite Catholics do) that they will find it where it has always resided!
I met Bishop Mansour at a Maronite ordination last February (2003) Very personable man.
BTW Jeff, I DO like the bulletin! Do you have that in Word or PDF file? I would like to make a hard copy!
We drive past Holy Apostles every time we go to the beach. The odd thing is that it’s only a block or two away from a standard Catholic-only parish.
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