Church News
April 4-5, 2008.
The east-coast church gathering opened on Friday April 4 with a day-long
retreat in Bethesda Maryland, followed by an Ecumenical Celebration of the
Eucharist at the Concord-St. Andrews United Methodist Church, with members of
both churches attending. Fellowship and a business meeting followed on
Saturday in Washington D.C.; the west-coast churches were represented at the
meeting by Fr. Tony
Prandini of Sacramento.
April 2008.
The west-coast churches will gather in California on July 11-12 with Bishop
Hollis Dodge attending as the representative for the east-coast churches.
The Rev. Deacon Lana Engler will also be ordained to the priesthood as part of
that gathering, on Sunday July 13, 2008.
March 2008.
The Good Shepherd parish in downtown Sacramento has launched a daughter
congregation which meets at 9242 Kiefer Blvd. in the Rosemont area of
Sacramento. The same pastoral team is supporting both locations, with
Masses at 8:30 and 10:00 am on Sunday morning at the original 2331 K. Street
location, and with Sunday evening services at 6pm in Spanish and at 7pm in
English at the new Rosemont location.
January 19, 2008.
The Rev. Elizabeth English was ordained to the Sacred Order of Presbyters in
Christ's One, Holy, Apostolic, Catholic Church at the hands of Bishop Terry
Boyer, today at the
Atonement Lutheran Church in Sacramento,
California. The Reverend English will serve the growing Good Shepherd Parish in
Sacramento, and will celebrate her first Mass at Good Shepherd on Sunday January
20.
January 13, 2008.
The Rev. Dr. Linda Jones served as a worship leader at the Interfaith Conference of
Metropolitan Washington's Martin Luther King Service in Washington DC, giving the Prayer of
Dedication after the Offering. Other worship leaders and speakers at the
service included
U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin, Montgomery County (MD) Executive
Isaiah Leggett, lay Scripture readers from ten diverse faith traditions, and the
Rev. Barry Black, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, who preached the sermon.
Bishop Rose Tressel spoke at the 'Demanding Excellence in Pain and Symptom
Management Challenges for 2008 and Beyond' Symposium held recently at Yale
University's Anlyan Center for Medical Research and Education, presenting
a session on Spiritual and Existential Pain in the terminally ill.
Tressel, a chaplain, has worked with people with life-threatening illnesses for
the last seven years, and frequently works with those in the medical profession
to foster increased understanding of the role that spirituality and religion
plays in the physical and emotional health dynamic, in overall life satisfaction
levels, and in the assignment of life and circumstantial meaning.
Bishop Hollis Dodge has taken up pen and paper and is now authoring a monthly column called "All People That On Earth Do
Dwell" in the Shenandoah Journal, a newspaper with a readership of
35-40,000 in Western Virginia. Dodge contends that people naturally
incline to the spiritual way, and encourages every seeker to bring as much of
oneself as possible to as much of God as he or she understands, commencing the
spiritual journey. In this new column Dodge seeks to provide assistance in
that pilgrim walk to readers at a distance from a pastor, priest and bishop
whose ministry has spanned four decades.
2007 News Archive
December 20, 2007.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing
of Fr. Rick Lyddon, the Assistant Pastor of Guardian Angels
parish in Tempe. Fr. Lyddon came to our church through his association
with the Gray Robe Monks of St. Benedict after serving United Methodist Church
congregations for many years, and blessed us all with his deep spirituality and
encompassing, lived-out love of God and humanity, his keen sense of social
justice, and his tremendous gifts as a pastor. He will be sorely missed by
us all. Your prayers for his wife, children, and church family are appreciated.
December 3, 2007.
Major Fr. Joseph Moldon, Chaplain, US Air Force Auxiliary,
was recently named Chaplain of the Year by Civil Air Patrol Group 7 Headquarters
in Miami for his work. He was also given an award for his work with staff
and cadets by his squadron, Search and Rescue, Florida 355, Tamiami Composite,
and a commendation and ribbon medal for outstanding duty performance,
leadership, and spiritual and counseling excellence, by the Commanding General
for the United States Civil Air Patrol, US Air Force Auxiliary.
Congratulations Fr. Joe!
November 10, 2007.
The Code of Canons were revised and adopted by consensus of
the laity, clergy and bishops. The adopted change replaces the
diocese structure with its single bishop authority and leadership within a
geography, with a shared
oversight structure that involves the entire House of Bishops working as a team.
Each bishop takes on a set of daily ministry oversight duties that best fits
his/her expertise, availability, and interests, and these are match-aligned to
the needs, time demands, and desires of each ministry in the church. The
formal oversight of all ministries is held by the HOB as a whole, thereby
enabling assignments to be changed as conditions warrant, while also providing
for an ongoing peer review. This change was the subject of a trial
experiment for over one year prior to introducing the canon change resolutions, and
was found to promote an enhanced sense of unity throughout the church, and to
foster more openness and a more active voice throughout the church.
October
8, 2007.
The spring gathering of the Church will take place in
Washington DC on April 4-6 (date change).
September
16, 2007.
Judy Rodriquez, Lana Engler and Elizabeth English of the Good
Shepherd parish in Sacramento, California were ordained to the Deaconate.
All have extensive backgrounds in ministry and will be a tremendous asset to
this fast growing parish as it continues to reach deeper in service to the local
community.
June 24,2007.
The Reverend Deacons Sue
Ringler and Kate Lehman from our
Associate Church, the Independent Catholic Church of the West, were ordained to
the priesthood at the Guardian Angels Church in Tempe Arizona. Reverend
Ringler served the Guardian
Angels community in Tempe, Arizona as Deacon and will now serve there as
Pastor. Reverend Lehman will continue to serve the community at Holy
Family in Goodyear, Arizona, through the summer as Associate Pastor, and then
move to the Spirit of Life Parish in Scottsdale in August.
June 23, 2007.
Bishop Rose Tressel participated in the
Pheonix synod meeting of the ICCW and also met with Bishop Terry Boyer to
discuss ecumenical outreach to other churches.
February 19, 2007.
Congratulations to Fr. Joseph Moldon who was promoted from the rank of Captain
to the rank of Major this month in the Civil Air Patrol Chaplain Service.
He was also recently given the General Benjamin Davis award in recognition of
his service.
February 10, 2007.
Congratulations to Bishop Terry Boyer on his February 10, 2007
consecration to the episcopacy and to his election as bishop of our Associate
Church, the Independent Catholic Church of the West. He replaces Bishop
Bill Christen who has retired and hopes to finally find some time to stay home,
relax, and play some serious rounds of golf. Our very best wishes to
Bishop Bill as he enters this new season of his life, along with our many thanks
for all the leadership contributions he gave to this church over the years as a
sitting member of the United Catholic Church House of Bishops.
January 31, 2007. Bishops Rose Tressel and
Hollis Dodge are back in the States after a several day meeting with Christ the
Servant Church in Ontario to assist them with their strategy and
associated missioning development work, which is ongoing.
2006
News Archive
December 3, 2006.
Rev. Deacon Bruce Cory, the pastor of a house church in Cleveland, was ordained
to the transitional deaconate at St. Michael's United Church of Christ Church in
Staunton, Virginia by Bishops Tressel and Dodge. On the same day, the Rev. Joseph Molden, Chaplain for the Disabled Veterans Support Ministry
of Miami was ordained to the priesthood at Sanctuario del Nino Jesus in St.
Cloud, Florida, by Bishops Bowman and Morales. Cory holds a
MA in Theological Studies and a BA in Chemistry and Religious
Studies, both from the University of Dayton, and is specializing in the
development of alternative eucharistic communities and spiritual direction
programming. Molden holds a BA from Temple University in Literature and
has two years of graduate education in Ecclesiology and Ministry. He trained for the deaconate and priesthood under an
equivalency program under the mentorship of Archbishop Bowman, and was ordained
as a transitional deacon in December 2005. He has a vibrant ministry
working with disabled veterans, and focuses his work especially on the needs of
those from the Spanish-speaking community.
November 2006.
Rev. Luis Gomez and Rev. Jeff Graves were
ordained into our Associate Church, the Independent Catholic Church of the West,
for service in the Good Shepherd Parish of Sacramento, California on November
12, 2006. On October 12, the Holy Family Parish of Goodyear,
Arizona, ordained Kate Lehman to the diaconate and both Rev. Judith Loftus and
Rev. Tim Ward, transitional deacons, to the priesthood for service in that
community.
August 13, 2006.
Rev. Tony Prandini of the Good Shepherd Parish in Sacramento, California was
ordained to the priesthood.
August 10, 2006.
The House of Bishops announce the creation of a covenant level
inter-jurisdiction relationship model using the Associate Church provision of
the UCC canons.
Announcement Attached. (See also, the About Us
Section homepage and Code of Canons in the Document section for more information about Associate Churches).
June 19 - 21, 2006. The House of Bishops met in
Florida during the week of June 19 and released clarified ordination and
incardination requirements. They also made significant progress on a
communications plan for enhanced intra and inter-church communications and
relationships.
June 20, 2006. The Reverend Hollis Dodge was
consecrated as the Bishop for the Diocese of St. Oscar Romero, and the Reverend
Rose Tressel as the Presiding Bishop of the United Catholic Church, at Sts. Felicity and Perpetua
Church (Sanctuario del Nino Jesus) in St. Cloud,
Florida. Archbishop Robert Bowman was the primary consecrator and was
supported by Bishop Morales of the Diocese of St Mary Magdala, and Bishop
Christen of the Diocese of the South West.
May 9, 2006.
The Diocese of the Great Lakes led
by Bishop Lawrence Cameron, elected to leave the United Catholic Church, and has
become affiliated with the American Anglican Council. Fathers Brian Brown
and Francis Sahuque also resigned.
March 27, 2006.
The houses of governance of the
United Catholic Church elected the Reverend Rose Tressel as the Presiding Bishop
of the church, and the Reverend Hollis Dodge as the Bishop of the Diocese of St.
Oscar Romero.
Bishop-elect Tressel was ordained a priest by the United
Catholic Church in 2001 and has since served as the pastor of Bethany Church, a
cell church network with parishioners in New York, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts. Tressel holds a MDiv from the Trinity Theological Seminary
with the University of Liverpool, and a MBA from the University of New Haven in Connecticut. A certified
clinical healthcare chaplain, Tressel is employed as a hospice chaplain
supporting at home and nursing home based patients in the central Connecticut
region. Prior to turning to the ministry, Tressel was a successful
business executive and business strategy consultant serving companies in the
global 200.
Bishop-elect Dodge was ordained a priest in 1974 and was
subsequently active in pastoral ministry for 18 years in the Virginia region.
Dodge incardinated into the United Catholic Church in 2004, and is currently
pastoring St. Michael's Church, a United Church of Christ congregation located
in Bridgewater, Virginia. A certified rehabilitation counselor, Dodge is
an active consultant in this field as well. Bishop-Elect Dodge holds BA in
Philosophy from St. Mary's College in Baltimore Maryland, a MDiv from St. Mary's
University in Baltimore, a MA in American History from James Madison University
in Harrison, Virginia, and a MS in Rehabilitation Counseling from the
Virginia Commonwealth University.
January 2006.
The clergy and laity begin the year continuing the
discernment process that the church began with Archbishop Bob Bowman's
retirement plans announcement in the Fall of 2005. Archbishop Bowman will
be stepping back from his active leadership roles at both the national and
diocesan levels when a succession plan is put in place.
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