The Rev. David Ousley was baptized a Methodist in 1951, was ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church in 1979, and left it in 1999 for the Anglican Church in America.
And on Saturday, this 61-year-old married father of three will make one more ecclesiastical leap: he will be ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in a 11 a.m. Mass at Holy Cross Church in Mount Airy.
He is “swimming the Tiber,” as Anglicans call conversion to Catholicism ”” a reference to the river that runs through Rome ”” but the white-bearded Ousley will not emerge from his swim on some strange and foreign shore.
Is there some reason that the author of this article felt the need to label this priest as “renegade?”
‘Is there some reason that the author of this article felt the need to label this priest as “renegade?‒
It was probably not the author, but an editor. It’s an interesting question, though. I think “renegade” is one of those words that has different connotations for different people — for some the notion of betrayal is key; for others it’s more like “rebel”. I think “dissident” would have been more appropriate.
Anyone who has had the privilege of meeting Fr. Ousley would laugh at his being called a renegade, perhaps none harder than the good priest himself. At least the adjective may cause many to read an article they might otherwise pass by.