WCR This Week

HOUSTON – Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson of the Catholic Church's U.S. ordinariate for former Anglicans has appointed the head of a deanery newly established by the Vatican for former Anglicans in Canada.

The priest, who heads the Houston-based Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, and Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto, the ecclesiastical delegate for the ordinariate in Canada, jointly announced Dec. 7 that the Vatican approved establishment of the new deanery.

The new Deanery of St. John the Baptist will minister to groups of Anglicans and Anglican clergy in Canada who come into full communion with the Catholic Church through the U.S. ordinariate.

Steenson appointed Father Lee Kenyon of Calgary as dean. He is the administrator of the ordinariate's first congregation in Canada, St. John the Evangelist in Calgary.

"The territory of the ordinariate in North America is enormous, and it will be a great blessing to be able to delegate many of the duties for shepherding these groups to Father Kenyon," Steenson said in a statement.

"He brings to this work a superb foundation within the Anglican tradition, and he brings this patrimony to the Catholic Church with a wise and generous pastoral heart," the priest added.

Born and raised in Manchester, England, Kenyon trained for ministry in the Church of England and was ordained in 2005.

He came to Calgary in 2009, brought his parish community into the Catholic Church in 2011 and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood by Bishop Frederick Henry in June 2012.

In one year, the ordinariate, which is similar to a diocese but national in scope, has grown to include 1,500 laypeople across the United States and Canada, 35 communities and 24 priests.