Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson and Cardinal Thomas Collins announced Dec. 7 that the new deanery will minister to Anglicans in Canada who have come into full communion with the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
Steenson is the head of the Ordinariate based in Houston, Texas, and Collins, archbishop of Toronto, is ecclesiastical delegate for the Ordinariate in Canada. Collins and Steenson petitioned the Holy See to create the deanery. They received the full support of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops at the bishops plenary assembly in September.
Steenson has appointed Fr. Lee Kenyon of St. John the Evangelist in Calgary as the first dean of the new Deanery of St. John the Baptist.
“It’s not something I expected,” said Kenyon, who was ordained in June. “I think the real task will be uniting so many communities and former Anglican clergy who are spread across perhaps the largest geographical area that any Ordinariate covers.”
The Ordinariate in North America spans “all the way from Alaska down to Florida, from Newfoundland all the way down to California,” said Kenyon. “It’s an enormous jurisdiction to have care for both pastorally and spiritually, and so the direction of the deanery in Canada is certainly very good news.”
Communities “north of the border can be looked after by one of their own and I’m very humbled to be chosen to serve as the first dean.”
Kenyon trained for ministry in the Church of England and brought his parish community into the Catholic Church in 201. He was ordained a Catholic priest by Calgary Bishop Frederick Henry.
Over the next year, Kenyon wants to make contact, in person or otherwise, with as many people under his jurisdiction as possible, as well as other Anglican communities in Canada who wish to come to the Church through the Ordinariate.
“I think personal relationships, personal communication is absolutely essential, certainly in an area as disparate as Canada where the communities are disparate,” he said.
For the future of Anglican Use Catholics in Canada, Kenyon hopes for growth and a mutual exchange of tradition and teaching with other Catholics.
“This Anglican cultural life,” said Kenyon, “which the Pope has now said he wishes to be brought into the Catholic Church, so that Catholics may be enriched by it and we coming into the Catholic Church, can be enriched by the Church of the ages.”
Pope Benedict XVI established the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter on Jan. 1, 2012 for groups of Anglicans and Anglican clergy who want to become Catholic, while retaining aspects of the Anglican liturgy and heritage. There are two other Ordinariates in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Peter Wilkinson, former bishop of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, was ordained the third Ordinariate priest in Canada in Victoria on Dec. 8.