History abstract:

Our particular congregation began with members of The Parish of All Saints, Ashmont, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.  All Saints has been a parish of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America for over one hundred years.

In January 1996 several dozen members of All Saints, together with their rector, elected to withdraw from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion in order to seek admission corporately into the Roman Catholic Church under the special terms of the "Pastoral Provision."  After a period of preparation, the transition was completed with great rejoicing when, on 28 September 1997 twenty-nine members of the congregation were received into full communion at the direction of His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law, then Archbishop of Boston.

Why this step?

The decision to leave the Episcopal Church was painful, for Anglicanism had provided most of us a spiritual home for many years, sometimes from birth. There were four main considerations.

First, we were convinced that Our Lord's will for His Church is that it should be one (John 13:34-35, 17:11, 22-23).  Historically, the Anglo-Catholic tradition within Anglicanism has always sought to bear witness to that truth; from that tradition we have come.  The history of the Anglo-Catholic movement is marked by a steady stream of conversions to the Church of Rome, as the life of John Henry Newman witnesses.

Second, the distance (especially in the past twenty or thirty years) between official Anglicanism and what might be termed historical faith and order has grown rapidly.  Increasingly unorthodox belief and practice has crept in, so that both Catholic and Evangelical ways of understanding the Gospel have become incongruent with it.

Third, the present disarray of Anglicanism is, in itself, clear evidence of the need for a defined focus of authority in the life of the Church on earth, and that such a magisterium is to be found in the person of Peter and his successors in the Holy See.

Fourth, we thank God for the good and beauty we have taken from the Anglican  tradition, and we long to bring all that is best in it to the life of the Universal Church.  As Anglicanism decays around us, we have come to feel it can best and most safely be preserved within the household of the Roman Catholic Church.

Organizational Document

An Important Message to Visitors and Newcomers

For some Further History: See "The Anglican Use"

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