THE UNITED CATHOLIC CHURCH

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                        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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