Is Saint Luke’s a Catholic church?
Who may attend liturgies at Saint Luke’s?
What diocese is Saint Luke’s in?
Can I join Saint Luke’s without joining the Ordinariate?
What is different about your Mass?
Who may receive communion at Saint Luke’s?
Why does the priest turn his back to the people during Mass?
Why not just be a regular Catholic?
Q. Is Saint Luke’s a Catholic church?
A. YES! Saint Luke’s is a fully Roman Catholic church which is part of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. All members of Saint Luke’s are completely Roman Catholic. We are not an Anglican Church, though many of our members were formed in the Anglican tradition.
Q. Who may attend liturgies at Saint Luke’s Catholic Church?
A. Anyone may attend our liturgies and all are welcome. One does not need to be a member of Saint Luke’s Catholic Church to attend our liturgies. All of our sacraments are valid and licit Roman Catholic sacraments, and all of our priests are validly and licitly ordained Roman Catholic priests. Any Catholic may receive the sacraments offered by our clergy. Attendance at our Sunday and holyday Masses fulfills the obligation of all Catholics. Non-Catholics are welcome to attend and pray with us as well, but should not receive communion.
Q: What diocese is Saint Luke’s in?
A: While located within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of Washington, Saint Luke’s Catholic Church is in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter (POCSP), a special canonical jurisdiction (like a super-diocese) within the Roman Catholic Church. The POCSP spans the entire United States and Canada, overlapping regular territorial dioceses, but applying only to certain persons and parishes, and is governed by our own bishop in Houston, Texas, who is familiar with our English patrimony.
The pastor of St. Luke’s also serves as the pastor of historic St. Ignatius, Oxon Hill, which is a standard Roman Rite parish of the Archdiocese of Washington. We share this beautiful 1890 church—one family with two different Masses of the Roman Rite, the Divine Worship Mass of the Ordinariate and the Ordinary form of the Roman Missal Mass of the local Archdiocese.
Q: Can I join Saint Luke’s without joining the Ordinariate?
A: Yes. Any Catholic is welcome to become a member of our parish while remaining in their current diocese.
Q. What is different about your Mass?
A. Saint Luke’s Catholic Church uses Divine Worship. It is a third form of the Roman Rite, a unique liturgy based on Sacred English (or "Prayer Book English") that was brought back into the Catholic Church by Anglican converts to Catholicism. Even though our liturgy comes from English heritage, that was preserved by Anglicans for centuries, it has now returned to the Catholic Church and is fully Roman Catholic. Just as the general Roman Rite has two common forms (Ordinary and Extraordinary), so it now also has a special third form (Divine Worship) that comes directly from the English patrimony, and is of special value to English-speaking Catholics. The English patrimony can be summarized as the traditions, liturgy and spirituality that comes to us from medieval England, much of which was preserved within Anglicanism over the last five centuries. Rome has re-adopted this patrimony back into the Catholic Church, as part of welcoming Anglicans and Methodists who return to Catholicism, and as a gift to all Catholics in the whole Church.
Like all other Catholics, we use the same Catechism of the Catholic Church, issued by Rome and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Because we are part of the Roman Rite, we fall under the same Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law for Latin Rite Churches. Our bishop is a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). His cathedral is located in Houston, Texas, and he answers directly to the pope and the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
Q. Who may receive communion at Saint Luke’s Catholic Church?
A. Any Catholic, who is properly disposed, and in a state of grace, may receive the sacrament of Holy Eucharist during our Divine Worship Mass. We encourage reception of the sacrament of reconciliation (confession) before Mass if there is any doubt or question about a state of grace. Non-Catholics should not receive communion. If you believe there is a special circumstance, that would make an exception to this, please discuss this with our priest privately before receiving communion. Those who will not be receiving communion may still approach the altar rail for a blessing. This is done by placing one's hands on opposite shoulders, arms crossed, to signal to the priest that one will be receiving a blessing in place of the Holy Eucharist. The priest will always understand what this means.
Q. Why does the priest turn his back to the people during Mass?
A. All Masses at this parish, both Divine Worship and Roman Missal, are celebrated ad orientem --facing east, which is a liturgical stance based on Scripture: "For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:27)
This is not a case of the priest turning his back to the people” but of facing the Lord with the people, leading them in worship. This position is the usual position for Eastern Catholics, and had been the normal position for Western Catholics up until the 1970s when the position of versus populum ("facing the people") was introduced. Many High Church Anglicans preserved the ad orientem, or versus Dominum ("facing the Lord"), tradition in their churches, and in keeping with that English patrimony, we do the same at Saint Luke’s Catholic Church.
Q. Why not just be a regular Catholic?
In 2011 Pope Benedict XVI invited groups of Anglicans to come into full communion with the Catholic Church, bringing with them their own traditions. He had in 2009 created the idea of the Ordinariate, saying: “Without excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite, the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.” (emphasis added)
After many years of requests by Anglicans to come into full union with the Roman Catholic Church without leaving behind all the riches that had led them on the journey to communion, the pope felt Anglicanism’s rich heritage of worship and hymnody would add significantly to the richer expression of the Catholic faith.
In a way, we are charged to help heal the wound to Christian unity caused by the English Reformation, grafting back onto the Catholic Church what was lost--a unique form of English-speaking Catholicism as having its own culture and traditions. We serve as a prophetic witness that there can be unity of faith with a diversity of expression.
“...The life we left, while holy and good and praiseworthy and honourable, was incomplete and we needed fullness...the Catholic Church asks us...to be the first fruits of the harvest of Christian unity...If the Ordinariate is to be anything worthy and worth keeping for the long term, it must be an instrument of Christian unity." -Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, founding Ordinary of POCSP
It is that simple. We are called to the work of Christian unity.