A Message of Welcome

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A Message of Welcome for Disaffected Roman Catholics
from the Clergy and People of Grace Church in Newark

 

Some Roman Catholics whose spiritual lives are grounded in the Mass and in the sacraments are, nevertheless, unable to concur with the Vatican’s position on issues such as the role of women in the church, contraception, remarriage of divorced person, homosexual relationships, or abortion. They have become increasingly disaffected as the hierarchy’s response to dissent has grown more strident and authoritarian.

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If you are among them, you may find a comfortable spiritual home at Grace Church in Newark. The church is located in downtown Newark, at 950 Broad Street, one block south of City Hall, just north of the Federal Building. We welcome you to visit the church in person. Sunday Masses are celebrated at 8:00 and 10:30 a.m. Weekday Masses are celebrated at 12:10 p.m., Monday through Friday.

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At Grace Church you will find:

• Traditional Catholic worship, offered with care and reverence;

• Worthy liturgical music, including Gregorian Chant and other choral music;

• A respectful approach to Scripture and Tradition, without fundamentalism or authoritarianism;

• A diverse congregation that embraces divorced persons, gay men, and lesbians as fully as it embraces all others.

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The Episcopal Church is not a Protestant denomination. As John Macquarrie, sometime Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford, wrote, "Anglicanism has never considered itself to be a sect or denomination originating in the sixteenth century.  It continues without a break the Ecclesia Anglicana founded by St. Augustine [of Canterbury] thirteen centuries and more ago…." The Episcopal Church is Catholic in polity. It has maintained the threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons. It faithfully ministers all the sacraments of the Catholic Church. Its liturgy affirms the sacrificial character of the Eucharist and the real, objective presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Nevertheless, its members differ widely in their theological positions. Since the sixteenth century many Anglicans—at times the majority—have embraced Protestant ideas; but other have always remained faithful to Anglicanism’s Catholic heritage, and the Anglican Communion has never departed from it in any essential. Grace Church, since its founding in 1837, has stood squarely with those who emphasize and treasure the Catholic heritage of Anglicanism.