The former rector of the nation’s largest Episcopal church has become a Roman Catholic.
The Rev. Larry Gipson was dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham from 1982-94. Gipson retired in 2008 from the 8,000-member St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, where his parishioners included former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara.
Last month, Gipson was accepted as a Catholic into the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a structure set up by Pope Benedict XVI to accept former Anglicans into the Catholic Church.
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“The nature of authority in the Catholic Church is what attracted me to it,” Gipson said. “After I retired, I was concerned and had been for many years about the Episcopal Church’s authority structure.”
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The answer to the question [b][i]”by whose authority?”[/i][/b] continues to break through a lifetime of tradition. It happened to Father John Henry Newman in the mid-1800’s, it is happening to Father Larry Gibson now. When that happens the result is that which Rev. Larry Gibson is experiencing, conversion to a deeper Truth. One that is objective, not subjective.
A number of fellow Anglicans, not just priests, are experiencing that right now within the Diocese of South Carolina and are inquiring in the same direction as Father Gibson, gathering information about the Ordinariate. Unfortunately, timing makes it appear a response to the turbulence within the Anglican Communion, but, truth be told, the progress in Charleston has actually been in prayerful consideration for nearly a decade. It is not an angry response to current events, but rather a continuation of a spiritual journey towards reunification of the church in answer to Christ’s plea that we “may all be one.”
Father Scott Hurd, former Anglican priest, will be in Charleston the evening of 9 December 2012 at 6:30 to answer the question [b][i]”What does it mean to be an Anglican Christian in full communion with the Catholic Church?”[/i][/b] The talk is being hosted at, but not sponsored by, the Church of the Holy Communion. More information can be found at the [b][url=http://www.charlestonordinariate.org]Charleston Ordinariate[/url] website.[/b] It is probably time well spent in a peaceful place amongst other Christians prayerfully seeking God’s will.
So at 69, this fellow earns another master’s degree and at 70, he’s “anxious to get back to priestly work”. Wow!