Week of September 21, 2025

My brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
This weekend’s update is extremely excited as the Ordinariate just released a draft text for our liturgical rites.  I hope to begin practicing these rites and hope to start broadcasting liturgies by the end of the year in hopes of creating a virtual and in-person ministry.
​
Moreover, we released several videos this week.  One video explores Dutch Catholicism after the Second Vatican Council.  Perhaps no other bishop’s conference was as enthusiastic about the potential for reforms.  Sadly, these reforms did not have the intended consequences.  One can argue if the Pre-Vatican II church was a shining beacon, but one cannot doubt real losses in identity and vibrancy since the council’s reforms.

I also began a series of videos we will release over the next month of so exploring Old Catholic themes from a Protestant perspective.  So much of my work explores how Old Catholicism fits with Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.  We want to be seen as maintaining the traditions that they maintain and remaining steadfast in the ancient faith.  At the same time, the reality is that Roman Catholics and the Orthodox tend to see Old Catholics as Protestants with vestments.  Maybe we are doing a disservice to our Protestant brothers and sisters by not focusing on our common baptism and Christian inheritance. 

The online apologetics world was shocked this week by Cleve to Antiquity’s sudden conversion from Protestantism to Eastern Orthodoxy.  I heard the anguish of my brothers and sisters in the Protestant world that there are so few online discussions of Protestant belief and practice. I truly believe Protestantism has much to offer the church.  Moreover, there are ways of reading the Protestant tradition that align closely with early church beliefs and practices.  I think we have an obligation to help our Protestant brothers and sisters in their profession of the Triune God especially as many have a Protestant Catholicity.  These videos will examine how Old Catholic beliefs share much in common with Protestants and can help Protestants realize together we can bear common witness to the Gospel. We must pray for our Protestant brothers and sisters to remain faithful to their call as disciples and announce the Gospel to all of creation.
Peace,
Rev. Ben