The sad collapse of an apostate church

In 1976 Fr. Jim Callan was assigned to Corpus Christi Church in Rochester NY, an inner city parish that was struggling to survive. Soon, Fr. Jim and the two hundred parishioners of Corpus Christi began to make some changes, setting the tone for the future of the parish. Trusting God for their financial well-being, they started tithing 10% of the meager collection to the poor of the world, sold off the parish's stock portfolio, and got rid of Bingo. Fr. Jim's preaching inspired people to start changing the neighborhood. Sr. Margie Henninger started a neighborhood drop-in center. People began coming to Corpus Christi, attracted to the rebirth and the sincere attempt to live the Gospel which they saw happening there. More outreach efforts were soon underway. In 1980, the church began a prison outreach and a child care center, as well as a supper program, which would eventually grow to include overnight shelter. The church was bursting with life.

Two things were the basis of all that new life and growth: absolute dependence on God in all things financial, and empowerment of the people to do the work of God. Those who approached Fr. Jim with ideas usually were told to "Go for it!"--and they did. In 1981, the parish began holding Parish Meetings as a vehicle for parishioner participation in decision making, where any parishioner could come and discuss whatever issues were in front of the parish at the time. In 1983, the parish refined the decision-making process further, defining five criteria for decisions that needed to come to the parish.

The eighties saw the formation of several more outreach programs: Isaiah House, a home for the dying; Rogers House Restaurant, where men living at Rogers House, the prison ministry, could get work experience; Matthew's Closet, a clothing outreach, and Dimitri House, which housed the supper and shelter programs, as well as a recovery house for those recovering from addictions.

The eighties also were a time of greater awareness of justice issues, and in 1983 the parish voted to serve as a sanctuary for illegal refugees from El Salvador. In 1984, we welcomed the Gomez family into the rectory and into our community, in an effort that was carried out in partnership with Downtown United Presbyterian Church and Friends Meetinghouse. Also during those years, we traveled three times each summer to the Seneca Army Depot and celebrated a Mass for peace outside the gates there. Civil disobedience became a part of our consciousness, as parishioners as well as Fr. Jim climbed over the fence in various actions at the depot over the years; others traveled to Nevada to protest at the Nuclear Test site, and some were arrested for trespassing there, as well. The idea that there are some laws one must disobey in order to bring justice change to the world, became a part of us.

Slowly we began to work for justice change within our own church. During a Mass in 1987, Fr. Enrique Cadena spontaneously handed the chalice to pastoral associate Mary Ramerman and asked her to raise it while he elevated the host. [If only the diocese had stepped in here, the aposasy could have been prevented!-ed.] Over time, the role of women leaders in the Mass grew, as having the chalice elevated by Mary or Sr. Margie became a regular part of our services, and more liturgical prayers were said by Mary Ramerman. In 1994 Mary was vested with an alb and a banner which hung from her right shoulder, as a sign of her ministry at Corpus Christi.

Gay parishioners approached Fr. Jim Callan, asking that their unions be blessed. Over time, five gay or lesbian couples received a blessing from Jim or from Family Minister Denise Donato.

Bridges were built with Protestant communities. In 1986 the congregation traveled across the street one Sunday morning, to worship with the First Reformed Church. Each Sunday and Thursday, Fr. Jim extended a welcome to all who loved the Lord and wanted to follow Him to join in communion.

By 1998, Corpus Christi had grown to approximately three thousand parishioners. The six outreach programs, as well as Rogers House Restaurant, and missions in Haiti and Chiapas, Mexico, were thriving. The Prison Ministry was expanding to include a new outreach for women, called Pearl House. The staff, which twenty years before had consisted of Fr. Jim, Sr. Margie Henninger, and several volunteer pastoral associates, now numbered nineteen. Financial worries were a thing of the past, and our biggest problem was finding a place to park on Sunday morning.

[Here, there is an image of a crown of thorns, with a dove, presumably representing the Hoy Spirit, over it. The uncanny thing is that the Holy Spirit appears to be flying away… What an image for the paragraph about the schism.]

On Thursday, August 13, 1998, Fr. Jim Callan received word from diocesan officials that he was to be reassigned. Word of the work of Corpus Christi, including the boundary-stretching inclusion of women prominently on the altar, the inclusive welcome to communion, and the blessing of gay unions, had reached the Vatican. Fr. Jim was to be removed from his post as administrator of Corpus Christi, and the parish was to be "brought back in line" with the Roman Catholic Church. Parishioners responded by organizing into seven committees, collectively known as the Spring Committee, to protest Fr. Jim's removal and to attempt to get him reinstated, as well as to raise public awareness of the three issues. Working tirelessly, the six hundred members of the Spring Committee used their knowledge and job skills in the attempt to save the parish they loved. Their appeal of Jim's reassignment was denied, and Jim's removal date was advanced in response to parishioner protests. During the weekend of August 23, parishioners voted 3,022 to 6 for a Statement of Faith which affirmed our commitment to the three issues as well as our determination to remain a part of the Catholic Church. Various rallies and prayer vigils were held, including candle-light walks to Rogers House Restaurant and Dimitri House, where parishioners prayed and sang. The pain and shock of Jim's announcement, and the energy of our response, was bringing the community closer together. In a homily the weekend of August 30, pastoral associate Mary Ramerman told the parish that if she were asked to remove the alb and banner that she wore as a sign of her ministry, she would not take it off herself. On September 5 and 6, 1998, Corpus Christi gathered to say good-bye to Fr. Jim Callan in four standing-room-only Masses, foot-stomping, standing ovation Masses that reflected the adrenaline and energy that filled the parish in those last days before we said good-bye.

The next four months held many changes and much pain. A transition team was named in mid-September, with the job of getting the parish in line with the Catholic Church before the new priest arrived. Fr. Enrique Cadena, Corpus Christi pastoral associate, was named to the team, but resigned after one week, saying "I am for the people," and stating that he didn't believe the diocese was truly open to dialogue. He remained a pastoral associate at Corpus Christi for another month, before announcing that he would take a leave of absence from the priesthood. Mary Ramerman was fired on October 15, for refusing to agree to step away from the altar at Mass. Tensions escalated with the arrival of a new priest only two days after Mary's firing. The parish received words of encouragement from visitors from national and international Catholic organizations which were working for change. At the end of October, we adopted the symbol of purple stoles, worn in Europe as a sign of support for the ordination of women. The night that Mary was fired, Enrique, celebrating Thursday night Mass, invited the congregation to join him in saying the words of consecration, a reminder of the priesthood of the people.

A void was forming, as parishioners left the church and had nowhere to go. On Tuesday, October 27, an alternative worship service was held at Downtown United Presbyterian Church, led by Mary Ramerman and organized by members of the Spring Committee. Four hundred people came that night, and began referring to themselves as the Corpus Christi Faith Community. Originally intended as a series of four services, the Alternative Service was the seed that became the new church. Tensions within the parish escalated. More and more parishioners left, some to attend other churches. Others held services in their living rooms, finding that "church" was not dependent on a particular place, but could be had anywhere that believers gathered. Fr. Jim Callan had been sent to a parish in Elmira, NY for six weeks. When that time was up, he returned to Rochester, uncertain of his future. He was told that in order to return to active service as a priest, he would have to write a letter recanting his positions on the three issues. He would also have to promise not to talk about the issues any more, or to repeat any of the actions which had got him in trouble.

On December 1, realizing that he could not obey that directive without abandoning the people he had tried to serve by breaking those rules, Fr. Jim Callan came to the alternative service at DUPC for the first time, and said Mass. One week later, he was suspended from the priesthood. On December 14, six staff members were fired, an act which drove many more parishioners away from Corpus Christi. Attendance dropped precipitately during the month of December, and continued to drop throughout the spring months. The old Corpus Christi was no more. The old parishioners - those who left, those who stayed, those who went to other parishes - grieved the loss, would continue to grieve the loss for months to come. Many still grieve that loss today.

The new community found space to celebrate together on Christmas Eve at Salem United Church of Christ on Bittner Street. 1,400 people came, a crowd that flowed out the doors, willing to endure discomfort in order to be together.

On Saturday, January 30, 1999, the new community gathered for a Visioning Day. Visioning days had been held every few years at Corpus Christi, and were a fertile time for dreaming together. This visioning day was different: we needed to discuss the nuts and bolts of putting a new parish together. A group called the Temporary Planning Committee was introduced to the parish, and approval of their work sought. The TPC was charged with the nitty-gritty realities of getting a lease signed, hiring staff, and getting the new parish underway, and consisted of Mary, Jim and Enrique (the pastoral team), two former staff members, two Parish Community Forum facilitators, and two members of the Spring Committee. The TPC got to work, and soon a one-year lease had been signed with Salem United Church of Christ. The fired staff members from Corpus Christi were hired, along with those who had since resigned. A schedule of weekend services was drawn up, with two on Saturday afternoon, and one early Sunday morning, to work around the needs of our hosts at Salem UCC. On February 13, six months after Fr. Jim Callan received word of his reassignment, the New Faith Community celebrated its first weekend services. About five hundred people had been celebrating at the alternative services at DUPC; now, with Religious Education available, several hundred more joined the new parish. We were home. An Ash Wednesday evening service was held at Immanuel Baptist Church on Park Avenue, where a weekly noontime service was already being held. We maintained our relationship with DUPC, holding a noontime service once a week in their chapel.

On February 24, the diocese of Rochester announced that all of those who had joined the new parish had incurred automatic excommunication, and declared us in schism. In March, the parish voted to begin celebrating the sacraments. Jim Callan had not said Mass in the new community since being suspended from the priesthood. The first sacrament celebrated would be reconciliation, with a general penance service at Thursday Night service on March 25. Baptisms were soon begun, as well. Our first Mass was celebrated on Holy Thursday evening. Tears flowed along with the joy, as we rejoiced to be celebrating the Eucharist together again. The service was held at the Hochstein Music School, because Salem UCC needed the church for their service that night. The performance hall at Hochstein had previously been a Presbyterian church, attended by Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, and had once been a stop on the Underground Railway. We felt our connection to those who worked for justice in the past. Easter Sunday Mass was held in the Harrow East Ballroom.

The community was getting to know its way around downtown Rochester very well. Normal as things were beginning to feel, there was still much grief in us, and healing to be done. Some of that grief surfaced in the discussion about what our name would be. It was hard to let go of the name Corpus Christi, which, meaning "The Body of Christ," had always held great significance for us. The discussion and vote on our name, begun in March, would not be completed until August. Each of us, individually, had to come to the realization that we needed to let go of our old name, before we could come to peace about it as a group. Using "New Faith Community" as a name until we had something permanent, we continued to worship together, to function and grow. We began discussing three central topics: our identity, our mission, and our structure. Committees were formed on each of those topics, and the discussions were still going a year later. The TPC and the Structure committee called for the hiring of a consultant to help us with the work, an idea which was approved by the Parish Community Forum. In June we began celebrating a 9:30 Sunday morning Mass at Hochstein, giving us an added sense of normalcy, and our numbers rose once again. Our charism as a community had been about service to the poor of the city for over twenty years. It wasn't long before our first outreach program was underway. Sr. Margie Henninger, who had been fired from her position at the Recovery House at Corpus Christi, was ready to start up again, and by April was presenting her idea for the Grace of God Recovery House at the Parish Forum. In June, an all-parish vote was held, and the first outreach program of the New Faith Community was begun, before we even had a name! The final name vote was held in August. We chose to call ourselves Spiritus Christi, a name which honored our connection to the past while calling us into a new present.

The new community, Spiritus Christi, was healthy, growing, alive, renting space in three Protestant churches and a music school, with an outreach program in place and another in the dreaming stages. In the fall of 1999, it was announced that the Corpus Christi Outreaches would be allowed to decide for themselves whether they wished to remain a part of the parish. In the months to come, Isaiah House, Dimitri House and the Prison Ministry would decide to incorporate separately. Although suffering a loss of funds and volunteers, they had not missed a beat in their service to the poor of the city.

Matthew's Closet would remain an outreach of Corpus Christi. Rogers House Restaurant closed in August, but a neighborhood group was soon investigating the possibility of buying the building for continued use as a restaurant and neighborhood anchor. Spiritus parishioners wanted to maintain support for the former Corpus Christi Outreaches, including Matthew's Closet, and voted in February 2000 to set aside tithing money during the year 2000 for their support. Individuals maintained their ties with the various outreaches, just as individuals maintained ties with friends who remained at Corpus Christi or went elsewhere. Many of those who remained at Corpus Christi, although grieving, found an advantage in the intimacy of a smaller parish.

There are some, with ties in both parishes, who freely attend services in either. Our ties are deeper than our disagreements. Scattered though we may be, we feel our connection to each other and to the former Corpus Christi ministries. We are a community of human beings, loving God, following Jesus with all our hearts - failing, falling down, getting up again, forgiving and moving on. God has blessed us with each other, and we are profoundly grateful. Thank you, Lord of Love, for all of it!

22 posted on 07/06/2005 6:47:46 PM PDT by mercy (never again a patsy for Bill Gates - spyware and viri free for over a year now)

"I thought it was a cheeseburger!"

Me too.
But then I remembered: it takes two hands to handle a Whopper.

It also looks like a "no-no" ceramic chalice.

All that's missing is the straw, and then it would look like she's holding up a cheeseburger and a milkshake. I suppose she's a priestess of the order of Ronald McDonald.

I found this church in a link from another thread, posted by NYer. >>

what link was that?

Seems every diocese has their share of liberal churches, most don't cross the line, Corpus Christi Church in Rochester NY, did.

International team Teaches Kids to Uphold Diversity (Catholic Kumbya Alert)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/808382/posts

Good Heavens... Is that a Whopper she's consecrating?
Seriously: Leavened bread, leaden challice.

(I'm trying to get used to moring mass daily. Once in a while, I find it really hard to get moving, but Fox News keeps reminding me, by showing those Burker King commercials.

Think which ones, for a moment, before you read on.

Ya ready?

"Wake up with the King." :^D

ROTFLOL!

I just commented it looked like a burger she was holding... but you hit the nail on the head!

Perfect!

"Wake up with the King"

Was that where Bill laid down his famous quote (previously used even more effectively in Fatherhood):

"I brought you into this world, and I'll take you out!"?

:^D

It's a sorrowful situation that 1500 souls were lost when the bishop could easily have stepped in, as soon as the priest had the nun take part in the transubstantiation. (Or even while the nun was still only in grasping distance on the altar!)

Hehhehe... That's not really a Big Boy statue... That's a vessel for Doctor Evil!

There was a Charlie Brown comic where Linus said "It does not matter what you believe as long as you are sincere."

I think these people have mistaken sincerity for doctrinal correctness.

May God enter their hearts and open their eyes before they are damned entirely.

That's what happens when you get your theology from St. Linus of the "Acts of the Peanuts."

37 posted on 07/07/2005 6:55:34 AM PDT by Romish_Papist (The times are out of step with the Catholic Church. God Bless Pope Benedict XVI.)

Ee-yeah. Seriously, folks, what is wrong with your heirarchy and why was this nonsense permitted to go on so(literally)Goddamned long???

Didn't the ROC bulldoze a church where the "priest" preformed a "marriage" between two men a few years ago? If pope Benedict and the Patriarchs, guided by the Holy Spirit do find a way to, mend our fences, can we borrow the 'dozer?

For a minute there I thought this "priestess" was holding up a hamburger to be consecrated.

Hummm

"Certainly the Pope and the bishops have a very important role, but also primary in Catholic theology is the role of conscience and the role of speaking out for justice," says Ramerman. "And Catholics are told that if something goes against your conscience, you are, by your faith, required to follow your conscience. So the idea of Catholicism is much bigger than the Pope says this or that. Certainly if we look back in history, for 2000 years there are many Popes that you would not want to be known as having followed."

Involuntary ignorance, or willful ignorance?

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