Saturday, May 20, 2017

Fr Mark Lewis Moves To Our Lady Of The Atonement

A visitor kindly forwarded this e-mail from the OLA parish:
So much has been happening with our transition into the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter! Of course, much of it is behind the scenes as our thirty four years as a parish of the archdiocese is translated into being the newest parish in the Ordinariate. Our new pastor, Fr. Mark Lewis, will be moving from Washington, D.C. with his wife Vickey, and we look forward to them taking up residence at the beginning of August. Fr. Moore continues his duties as parochial vicar, and will assist Fr. Lewis in the many pastoral duties in the parish. Fr. Phillips is our pastor emeritus and enters that state called “retirement.” He and JoAnn will continue living in their home by the church and school, and he will have additional duties throughout the wider Ordinariate, visiting and advising young communities and being available to his brother priests for anything they might need.
So far, I'm not aware of any announcement regarding who will replace Fr Lewis in Washington.

I'd been receiving reports of an accelerated schedule for fully replacing Fr Phillips at OLA. It had originally been announced that a replacement would be named in 2018, but circumstances have apparently required a faster move. The visitor comments, "I wonder if we are in for another fight to preserve Fr. Phillips from retirement."