My name is Ron Fox. I'm the Director of Vocations for the Brotherhood of St. Gregory, a community of the Episcopal Church. Unlike traditional orders, we are an intentionally dispersed community, with brothers living coast to coast, and in the Philippines, New Zealand, and Australia. Most of our brothers are lay brothers, but we do have priests and deacons in the community as well. Our Minister General and Founder is Richard Thomas Biernacki, who began the community on Holy Cross Day in 1969. Today, we're most likely the largest community in the Episcopal Church with 48 members. This blog was hosted previously at Tumblr, but due to unfortunate hacking of the blog, with many risque comments that were not mine, I decided to close that blog and start anew here. I made my final decision after learning that a social network writer for Reuters was also leaving due to many problems.
The Brotherhood of St. Gregory had a great Convocation and General Chapter in New York that ended this past Saturday. Congratulations to our new postulants, Harold, Eric and Larry; to our new novice Richard Edward; to our newly professed Blane Frederik and James Patrick; and our newly life professed Ron (Fender) and Enoch John.
Our community was blessed in having the Superior of the Order of the Holy Cross, Robert Sevensky, with us for Evening Prayer and admission and reception services on Friday.
Congratulations also to new Ministers Provincial Thomas Mark and Thomas Lawrence. They are replacing Richard John and Aelred Bernard, respectively. We also have a new cellarer, Richard. In a monastery, the cellarer is the person responsible for maintaining the supply of food and drink. In an intentionally dispersed community such as ours, the cellarer handles drinks and snacks during convocation. He takes over from Robert James.
Several of the brothers were able to make it through the heat at St. Mary the Virgin on Sunday, where we were warmly greeted by the Rector, Stephen Gerth.
I checked out a group Sunday evening on the upper East side of New York called Lifeline, an organization that “seeks to help people attain a God-centered recovery from addictions.” I’ve been involved in the past in what used to be the diocesan commission on alcoholism (no longer in existence) and I think this could become a new ministry. We’ll see what the Holy Spirit might have in mind. When I arrived, imagine my surprise when my friend Tom, the coordinator of the group, told me he wanted me to be the guest speaker. All went well.
Meanwhile, interest is high in BSG. I hope to be having three and possibly four candidates for interview for entrance as postulants next summer.
The URL for BSG is www.gregorians.org Please visit it to learn more about us.
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