The St. Thomas More Society

The Rev. Eric L. Bergman, Chaplain
April 27, 2007

Dear Friends and Members of the St. Thomas More Society,

As you well know, I was ordained to the priesthood on Saturday.  Many of you were present, and many others wrote or telephoned to congratulate us on this important step in our journey.  I thank all of you, whether or not you were at St. Clare Church on April 21^st, because your prayers and presence during this journey have served to help sustain and comfort my family and me over the course of these past 28 months.  Your perseverance is a witness to the world in which people all too often give up rather easily.  Well, we did not give up, we are still together as a community, I now have the faculties of a priest of the Diocese of Scranton, I have been appointed Chaplain to the Society, and the good news continues to flow into my office, and by this letter, into your home.  I’ll explain.

I received a call on Tuesday morning from Msgr. Peter Madus, Pastor of St. Anthony Church, located at 1013 Wood St. in North Scranton, just off North Main Avenue.  (For detailed directions, please call me.)  He informed me that the parish had agreed to allow the St. Thomas More Society use of their church and parish hall for the next year.  That means that beginning May 7^th we will no longer be based out Scranton, Pennsylvania.  From the generous souls – and the kind Pastor, Msgr. William Feldcamp  – who have sheltered us for more than two years we will now depart, so in a sense our move is accompanied by a touch of sadness.  I have come to know and love a great number of people from St. Clare Church, and the parishioners have been effusive in expressing their excitement over our good fortune, especially over the past two months, so I know that their support of the Society’s mission is genuine.  We will be forever grateful.  However, the move to St. Anthony Church will enable us to pursue objectives that we could not attain were we to remain in Green Ridge.

For starters I will be able to celebrate a daily Anglican Use Mass for our community and anyone else who would like to worship with us.  May 7, you’ll note, is a Monday.  Thenceforward the schedule each week will be:

Monday, Daily Anglican Use Mass at 7AM;

Tuesday, Daily Anglican Use Mass at 7AM;

Wednesday, Daily Anglican Use Mass at 5:30PM;

Thursday, Daily Anglican Use Mass at 7AM;

Friday, Daily Anglican Use Mass at 7AM.

This Daily Mass Schedule was formulated in part during the Society Meeting on March 13^th at which I announced my rescript had arrived from Rome, and our membership suggested we make the Mass early enough that people with jobs can come and go without worrying about being late for work.  But this schedule also allows us to continue our long-standing practice of praying the Rosary each Wednesday evening, which we will do at 5PM.  However, instead of following this devotion with Evening Prayer, as we have done for more than two years, we will now offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The move to St. Anthony Church will permit us to have Mass on Sunday morning, too!  Beginning May 13, our first Sunday at St. Anthony Church, I will celebrate an Anglican Use Mass each Sunday at 9AM.  St. Anthony Church, which is yoked with St. Vincent de Paul Church, as well as St. Joseph Church, hosts these three parishes’ 11 o’clock Roman Rite Mass on Sundays, and this arrangement will remain in place.  In other words, we are not displacing the people of St. Anthony Church; they are welcoming us into their home, and now because of their generosity, for the first time, we can have Mass on Sunday morning.