st. thomas more society

St. Thomas More Society’s Mission in Fostering Christian Unity

By Suzanne Till
Special to the HERALD
(From the Issue of 5/24/07)

The Episcopal Church is in crisis. Locally, the impact of that crisis has been felt with seven Virginia Episcopal parishes voting to separate from that church, the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Community.
A conference scheduled for May 31-June 2 at Catholic University in Washington will attempt to spread the word about the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Provision Decision that could offer alienated Episcopalians a way to preserve their conservative church roots.
With 111 dioceses and 2.3 million members, the Episcopal Church has been struggling with a number of doctrinal issues since 1930 when the Anglican Communion approved the use of contraception for married couples. In the succeeding years, the leadership of the Episcopal Church has made a number of decisions that have appeared to accommodate the increasingly liberal mores of society. The General Convention has been an advocate of legalized abortion since 1967, approved the ordination of women in 1976, and appointed its first openly gay bishop in 2003. These developments have left many conservative Episcopalians feeling that the church has moved far away from its traditional teachings and practices, leaving some seeking a church that is truer to those teachings.
In an attempt to meet the spiritual and doctrinal needs of those members of the Episcopal Church, and foster the restoration of Christian unity, the Catholic Church responded with the Pastoral Provision Decision. This decision was requested in 1976 by the North American Province of the Society of the Holy Cross, a secular institute of Anglican priests whose married members wished to offer themselves for priestly ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, and lay Episcopalians who wished to enter the Catholic Church with a common spiritual and liturgical identity.
The decision was rendered by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and issued by Pope John Paul II in 1980. Essentially, the decision provides for the conversion to Catholicism of those who feel that the Episcopal Church can no longer meet their needs while, at the same time, allowing those converts to retain many of their Anglican rites, rituals and prayers. As increasing numbers of Episcopalians felt forced to leave their church, interest in implementing the Pastoral Provision Decision grew, and the Anglican Use Society was formed in 2003 to facilitate the establishment of Anglican Use congregations in the United States. Since that time, seven Anglican Use congregations have been established.
One such congregation, known as the St. Thomas More Society of St. Clare’s Church in Scranton, Pa., has taken an active role in educating people about the Pastoral Provision Decision and Anglican Use worship. At the end of 2004, Eric Bergman, former pastor of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Scranton, renounced his ministry, saying he was no longer able to reconcile the differences he had with the current teaching and practices of the Episcopal Church.
The Diocese of Scranton formed the St. Thomas More Society in January 2005, naming Bergman to serve as it executive director. The society took as its name and patron St. Thomas More, the martyred 16th-century statesman who refused to acknowledge King Henry VIII’s position as head of the Church of England, and who had a fierce desire to see all Christians in communion with Rome.
Simultaneously, Scranton Bishop Joseph F. Martino announced that Bergman had begun the formation process toward ordination as a Roman Catholic priest. With the full support of his wife and four children, Bergman spent the next two and a half years completing the necessary requirements before finally being ordained during a special Mass at St. Clare’s on April 21. Bergman’s duties as executive director of the St. Thomas More Society include managing the organization’s administrative affairs, providing spiritual support to its members, and catechizing those in the process of conversion.
As part of its evangelization effort, the St. Thomas More Society sponsors an annual conference to educate and inform interested clergy and laity about the Pastoral Provision Decision. This year’s conference will be the third of its kind, and the first in the Washington area. In addition to nationally recognized speakers, the event will also include an Anglican Use Mass and other prayer services using the Book of Divine Worship.
Given the recent separation of two large Washington area Episcopal congregations, one of the topics the conference intends to address is the issue of establishing an Anglican Use congregation in the Washington area. Representatives of the St. Thomas More Society have approached Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl and Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde to begin an open dialogue with the common goal of conversion of local members of the Episcopal Church. It is their hope one day to unite these Christians in full communion with the Catholic Church.