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Reflection for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts-Sermon-Title-042410

Not another meeting!!!
Yes, just like the apostles.

And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

Any organization faced with questions and debate can choose between several courses of action. They can choose to let the boss decide. They can appoint a committee to study the issue and make recommendations. They can have open debate and discussion and still let the boss decide the outcome. They might meet and reach a consensus decision and act in accordance with that decision.

The early Church was not immune to questions and debate. How did they settle those?

We read that Paul and Barnabas were faced with questions and debates in the faith communities they served. They didn’t play the ‘I’m the apostle and I say so’ card. They didn’t appoint a commission to study the issue and give recommendations. Rather, they returned to the center of the Church in Jerusalem where the Church gathered in Council (or Synod) to decide on the matter collectively.

There is one key reason for doing this. The Church can only decide on important issues when it is assembled as one. When it exhibits this physical unity – gathered in Holy Synod – it also exhibits the fact that it is more than a corporation, company, club, or group. It shows the unity it has in the Holy Spirit. In Holy Synod the Church exhibits the unifying and guiding power of the Holy Spirit. The Church does not decide for itself just because. It decides as the Holy Spirit guides it to decide.

Our Holy Church closely adheres to the principals of the early Church in its democratic process. At the local level we gather during annual meetings and regular parish committee meetings to decide as guided by the Holy Spirit. We seek input and guidance from each member of the parish, because the Holy Spirit lives in us individually and most importantly as a collective body – the Body of Christ. Our diocese and the entire Church gather regularly in Holy Synod to exhibit both our physical unity and the underlying unity we have in the Holy Spirit. We trust that when gathered in meetings like these we are more that just a parish, just an organization. We are the Body of Christ, the Holy Church.

Another meeting, question, or debate? Greet each with joy as His disciples, His body, and see the Holy Spirit at work.

Christian Witness, PNCC, ,

Transfiguration Parish renews a community and bears witness

From TribLive: Mt. Pleasant Township church to mark 5th year at current location

Just over five years ago, parishioners of Transfiguration of Our Lord Polish National Catholic Church began the parish’s first official Mass at its current location in near darkness.

Prior to the start of the Mass on Dec. 8, 2007, a vehicle accident occurred in the vicinity of the place of worship on Bridgeport Street in Mt. Pleasant Township in which a utility pole was struck, knocking out power to the edifice.

“The Mass began with emergency lighting and candles,” said Ann Rosky, the parish’s council secretary. “We didn’t even have an organ.”

The congregation — led by the Rev. Joseph S. Lewandowski, the church’s administrator at the time — pressed on nonetheless.

Soon after, something extraordinary happened.

As the parish began singing the hymn titled “Gloria,” power was restored to the building bringing light back the facility where its members had worked for roughly three years renovating it for worship.

“That’s such a joyous song. I’ll never forget how that was when the lights came back on,” Rosky recalled. “Tears came to my eyes, because all of our work up to that point was visible again to all.”

The need for such work was borne out of what Rosky and Daniel Levendusky, chairman of the church’s council, both referred to as a situation in which their parish was left with “nothing.”

Its members found their way back with a similar sense of resolve.

In September 2002, Transfiguration Roman Catholic Church in Mt. Pleasant Borough was closed after structural engineers determined the building was unsafe and could collapse.

A $2 million estimate to make repairs prompted the parish’s pastoral and finance committees to ask the Diocese of Greensburg to raze the building.

When the building was razed in 2003, the church’s parish was dissolved and its members were forced to seek out other local churches.

“The flock was scattered, and we basically wanted to reestablish our own church,” Levendusky said.

Levendusky’s son, Alan, subsequently told him about the Holy Family Polish National Catholic Church in McKeesport, which is part of the Pittsburgh-Buffalo Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church.

Levendusky and his wife, Carrie, attended a service there. Soon after, the couple and other former members of the dissolved parish worked to become a member of the church’s Pittsburgh-Buffalo Diocese.

In October 2003, the Right Rev. Thaddeus Peplowski, bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo-Pittsburgh, issued a warrant declaring the parish a member of the church.

The newly formed parish then found a temporary home at the First United Church of Christ in Mt. Pleasant, where it leased space and many of its members reconvened to conduct its Saturday Masses and fundraisers.

“The accepted us with open arms,” Levendusky said.

In early 2004, parish members set out in earnest to find their very own place of worship.

In fall of 2005, the parish learned that the site formerly occupied by Rainbow Gardens — a bar and banquet hall — was for sale by owner Kathleen Fatla, Levendusky said. By December of that year, the parish approved the purchase of the building for $135,000, he said.

In spring of 2006, roughly 10 of the parishioners began working together to renovate the facility.

“We had to frame the Sacristy, the choir room, we did all the wiring and the plumbing,” Levendusky said. “God gave us the skill to do this. I lived down here for about two years.”

The group located pews out of state and received a donated podium, choir hymn boards, tabernacle and bell.

On April 19, 2008 — about four months after the “Gloria lighting” — the church’s official dedication was held.

Since then, the parish’s members have worked hard to serve the surrounding community and to build a strong bond with the diocese on both a regional and a national level, said the Rev. Bruce Sleczkowski, who this month is marking one year as the parish’s administrator.

“With the faith and devotion of the people attending, I am totally amazed,” Sleczkowski said. “They’re growing slowly, and they’re not only demonstrating their faith, they’re sharing their faith and doing things for others in the community.

Locally, the parish members assist the Salvation Army with ringing the Christmas bell. Nationally, its members recently sent ceramic angels to Newtown, Conn., to comfort the survivors of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

“That’s admirable,” Sleczkowski said.

Parishioner Diane E. Cheek, a biology professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, serves on the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocesan Council.

Teen member Kristen Yanuck attended a national youth conference last year held in Niagara Falls.

In addition, Levendusky has served previously as a delegate representing the parish at Diocesan synods in Carnegie and Erie and at a national synod in Manchester, N.H. Synods are legislative bodies of the church which address the financial workings of the church.

“They’re finding a niche in our church,” Sleczkowski said. “And the parish is embraced by the diocese and the national church. We have a very positive direction we are going and we have a very bright future.

“I, myself, enjoy celebrating the Eucharist with them; they’re wonderful people,” he said.

Christian Witness, Homilies, PNCC

Reflection for the Institution of the PNCC

Freedom

Who are you?
God’s children.

“Then the righteous man will stand with great confidence in the presence of those who have afflicted him, and those who make light of his labors. When they see him, they will be shaken with dreadful fear, and they will be amazed at his unexpected salvation. They will speak to one another in repentance, and in anguish of spirit they will groan, and say, ‘This is the man whom we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach — we fools!’”

In the coming week we will enter the Passiontide. We will recall our Lord riding triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We will walk with Him from the upper room to the garden, to His arrest, imprisonment, trial, torture, execution, and death. He is that Man that was afflicted, whose labors were mocked and thought of as folly by His accusers.

Our Holy Church has walked with Jesus in His suffering. We have such closeness to all He experienced because we too have been mocked and accused. Our organizers, men and women, were beaten, imprisoned, spit at, and mocked. Many today still recall being called names as they went to church. The brothers and sisters of our Church in Poland were prevented from organizing and driven out of towns. During the Second World War they were placed in concentration camps and were martyred for their faith. The communists martyred Bishop Padewski for his witness to Christ.

Through it all, and into these days, often called the post-Christian era, we continue to stand in confidence, the confidence we have because of our faith in Him who assures our salvation.

We hold to the hope we have in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We know that as we have walked with Him in His suffering so too will we stand with Him in His glory.

Today we celebrate the institution of our Holy Church. 116 years ago we chose to live in Jesus, in His righteousness and freedom. We rejected the attitude of the mockers, the powers, the lords of the world and worldly power; the controllers and masters who used fear against the people rather than teaching His truth.

Those who seek Him will find Him here. The persecutors, the fear mongers, and those who claim “sole ownership” of God cannot hurt them or us. Those who, in anger, stand against God cannot affect them or us. We have His confidence.

The world looks at us now, and they ask, “Who are you?” We reply with joy, “The children of God.” We rejoice and know that we will never be accounted fools for we live in Him.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, PNCC, , , , ,

On the Bishop of Rome and a democratic Conciliar model that works

Our Holy Church does not believe that the Bishop of Rome holds any special office or power, and we categorically deny the various “dogmas” these men have proclaimed over the past several centuries (Infallibility as well as the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of the B.V.M.). The word “pope” is not part of our vocabulary. Of course in charity we wish Bishop Ratzinger, a brother in Christ, well in his retirement. We also take this opportunity to pray that the Roman Church’s leadership takes this chance to recant of its dogmatic errors and in doing so work toward a unity among Churches based on model of the Church as it existed in the first millennium, a Church that is unified and Conciliar

Our denomination began on the second Sunday of March, 1897 – nearly 126 years ago. We celebrate the gift of our Holy Church every year on the Solemnity of the Institution of the PNCC, which the Third General Synod of 1914 declared to fall on the second Sunday of March. On this Sunday the parishes of our Church remove the Lenten purple from their sanctuaries and replace them with flowers. The Gloria is again recited and the vestments are white or gold. On this special feast day we celebrate our religious freedom and our Catholic democracy.

It is important to consider some history in light of recent events. As the Bishop of Rome nears retirement, the Roman Church will meet to elect a successor. Such a resignation has not occurred for six centuries. That previous resignation was to bring an end to a period of men competing for the office who were ensconced in and supported by the powers of those days: France and Rome. What we do not see discussed in the media are the politics, bribery, and military force that played a deciding factor in this extended period of intrigue. The intrigue rose to such an extent that the office of the Bishop of Rome was deemed compromised.

A nascent democratic movement, referred to as the Conciliar Movement, arose in opposition to this corruption. The supporters of the Conciliar Movement insisted that ecumenical councils be held regularly and independently, and that they function as the highest Church body. The Council of Pisa in 1409 attempted to limit the authority of the Bishop of Rome’s office, and also elected a third contender for the office in an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the factions in France and Rome. The principle of the supremacy of the Council over the Bishop of Rome was affirmed by the Council of Constance in 1414-1418, which actually voided the authority of the sitting Bishop of Rome and elected a single replacement. The Conciliar Movement continued through the Council of Basel less than 20 years later. Unfortunately, the Bishop of Rome once again seized absolute power and tried to destroy the Conciliar movement in a competing and more successful Council in Florence.

Bishop Hodur knew this history. He immortalized Jan Hus (who was condemned at the Council of Constance and was killed despite a pledge of indemnity) in a stained glass window of our Cathedral in Scranton. It was Hus who argued against the assumed power of the Bishop of Rome and called for a return to “gospel poverty.” He spoke of the true Church as opposed to the hierarchical one, championing ecclesiastical democracy, all of which led to his being burned at the stake for heresy.

In celebrating the founding of our democratic Catholic church, we celebrate the continuation of the Conciliar Movement. The PNCC Constitution of 1922 stated:

“The task of the Synod is to: 1. Interpret authoritatively the bases of faith and morals; … In matters concerning religion and morals, the Synod decides unanimously; in national and social matters, as well as administrative ones [it decides] by a simple majority of votes.”

According to the report of the 1935 Synod, Bishop Grochowski was not anxious about this democratic authority, but rather extolled it as truly Christian:

“Bishop Grochowski announced the order of the Synod and informed the Synod that the Synod is the most important authority in the church. It was so from the very beginning of Christianity, but with the passage of time the clergy took away from the faithful those rights which the National Church returns to those belonging to it.” (Minutes, p. 190)

With an eye to the Conciliar Movement, Bishop Hodur wrote in the 1931 catechism:

“These priests, especially of the higher rank, cultivate under the guise of the religion of Jesus Christ, Moses, Buddha, and Mohammed worldly politics, personal business, and very often stand in complete contradiction to divine principles of pure religion, democratic issues, general enlightenment, the welfare of the masses, freedom of conscience, brotherhood, and social justice.”

Reflecting on these words we see the prophecy contained therein. In recent days, Roman Catholic Bishop, Keith Cardinal O’Brien of Scotland, spoke out publicly to urge an end to required celibacy for clergy (the PNCC has allowed its clergy to marry since 1921). Within a day making such a declaration he was publicly accused by other clergy of inappropriate behavior. Odd how the struggle to maintain the status quo and to stifle voices for reform rears its head. The politics of such a process cannot be hidden away as it once was.

Our Church’s remedy to inordinate power and corruption is a democratic model of Church consistent with the ideals of the Conciliar Movement and more importantly earliest Christianity. It is time that Roman Catholics consider whether the voice of the Bishop of Rome is preeminent or whether they should find a home which is modeled on Church of the first millennium, one that is at once fully Catholic and free, democratic, and Conciliar.

My thanks to Fr. Randolph Calvo of Holy Name of Jesus in South Deerfield, Massachusetts for his words, which I have significantly borrowed, and which inspired this writing

Perspective, PNCC,

On St. Stanislaus in St. Louis

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, James Rygelski writes on the St. Stanislaus Church in St. Louis in ‘Do widzenia,’ St. Stanislaus Church

It is a great reflection on what might have been with a little bit of mutual charity and living with the wisdom of original intents in relation to the parishioners ownership of its property. of course this is the wisdom of the Polish National Catholic Church which maintains its catholicity and its democratic tradition.

I never was a registered member of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish. But the Roman Catholic church founded by Polish immigrants at 20th Street and Cass Avenue was always a part of my life.

My father graduated from its grade school. My maternal grandmother was a longtime parishioner. I grew up in St. Leo Parish, a few blocks west, and we sometimes joined my grandmother for Mass at St. Stanislaus. While registered in my geographical parish as an adult, I occasionally attended St. Stanislaus, and not just the festivals. When the communist government in Poland declared martial law on a cold Sunday morning in December 1981, the appropriate place for me to attend Mass that day was St. Stanislaus.

There was an aura inside St. Stanislaus’ red brick exterior befitting a house of God, enhanced by the inspirational murals, particularly the one behind the main altar depicting Christ before He is nailed to the cross, and augmented by the singing of Polish hymns. But despite its cathedral-like proportions, the church also afforded the solitary kneeling worshipper an intimate visit with the Lord.

For nearly a decade, St. Stanislaus’ lay leaders battled the St. Louis Archdiocese for the church’s property. The fight extended to the parish’s heart and soul. Last week the archdiocese dropped its legal claims. St. Stanislaus Kostka Church is now a denominational free agent, something its members didn’t want when the conflict began. Archbishop Robert Carlson’s recent and sincere reconciliation efforts came too late, after the moat around St. Stanislaus became impassable during the tumultuous reign of his predecessor, Raymond Burke.

Full disclosure: I was editor of the St. Louis Review, the archdiocese’s weekly, when the rival forces stopped posturing and started firing. I asked my reporters to get both sides, until word filtered down that we were to publish only Archbishop Burke’s version. I obeyed but felt like a Polish Benedict Arnold, though I hoped always for a resolution that would keep St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic. Still do.

This was a tragedy in two acts. In Act One, most worshippers – Catholic or otherwise – united in opposing Archbishop Burke’s request that the parish’s lay board of directors turn over the property without his giving written assurance that the church would stay open. Those who declared loyalty to him, mostly recent Polish immigrants who’d had tiffs with the older Polish-Americans over the years, were given their own parish near the Anheuser-Busch brewery. In Act Two, the lay board’s hiring of a renegade Polish priest to make St. Stanislaus a breakaway parish deeply divided both the board and the congregation. Some quit the board and joined the archdiocese in lawsuit to reclaim the parish for the archdiocese.

But there was more to the conflict than just an archbishop trying to take the money and property of a small north St. Louis parish that had been granted a unique contract by Archbishop Peter Kenrick in 1891. That agreement gave the archbishop the right to appoint the pastor but gave the parish’s lay board ownership of the church property and control of its finances. A teacher could fashion a lively course around the resulting legal/ethical issues.

The archdiocese coveted the St. Stanislaus land in 2003 while reorganizing all archdiocesan property to avoid being crippled financially if a jury ruled against it in a massive clergy sex-abuse case. Perhaps if ordained Catholic leaders across the country had properly removed the predators masquerading as priests and prevented the scandal they hushed over during the previous decades the St. Louis Archdiocese wouldn’t have been interested in reclaiming a few acres at 1413 N. 20th St.

The archdiocese’s 2008 lawsuit to restore the original agreement, which it dropped last week, came a few years too late. If it was going to sue, it should have when the St. Stanislaus board wrongly tinkered with the 1891 contract by cutting the pastor and archbishop out of the loop on important matters, which was before Archbishop Burke arrived. That’s when the archdiocese’s lawyers could have said, “If you expect us to play by the 1891 rules you’ll have to also.” Still, one Catholic organization suing another disregards what Christ told His disciples about reconciling with people before going to court (Matthew 5:25).

If some St. Stanislaus board members altered the agreement in hopes of saving the parish amid rumors that the archdiocese would try to sell the property to developers, they only made the situation worse. Nevertheless, they and the congregation wanted only to ensure that the parish remained open, a desirefor which they can’t be faulted. The archdiocese has closed many city parishes abandoned by white people who fled to the suburbs; St. Stanislaus parishioners moved but kept coming back and kept it viable, particularly in the 1970s, when rival gang violence outside left bullet holes in the church walls.

Many St. Stanislaus parishioners descended from the immigrants who’d built and maintained that parish with their own money, labor and faith, which is what those attending St. Stanislaus have done since. This was shown in the magnificent church restoration in the late 1970 the parishioners and friends fully financed on their own, and their fully financing the decade-old Polish Heritage Center on the parish grounds. My grandmother and parents donated to the former, and I to the latter.

Some have criticized St. Stanislaus people for “disobedience to authority” in not turning over the property when first Archbishop Justin Rigali then Archbishop Burke requested it. Yet the parishioners were engaged in no collective sinful, immoral or heretical activity before the issue arose. If they had and been ordered to cease, they’d have no recourse but to comply, and no sympathy from many of us if they hadn’t. Archbishop Burke and his predecessors didn’t like the 1891 agreement, but it was valid. When the archdiocese has acquired property for its churches and schools, it’s had to comply with the law. When it comes to property, to give God what is His, the church hierarchy has first had to give Caesar what is his.

Archbishop Burke could have granted them in writing the assurance that the parish would stay open if parishioners could continue financing its operation. It was a unique situation, and granting that assurance would have neither affected other parishes nor undermined his authority. It might have gained him respect as a shepherd making sure that the 100th sheep not be separated from the other 99 (Luke 15:4-7) rather than bringing him criticism for threatening people with eternal damnation over a few acres.

Poles have been devoted to the Catholic Church. Their liturgical language may have been Polish, but rites and beliefs were always fully Roman Catholic. They’ve rebelled when they perceived that ruling clergy got in the way of that devotion. There’s precedent for the St. Stanislaus action: some Polish immigrants in America in the 1890s founded the Polish National Catholic Church to protest what they thought was the ruling Irish clergy’s indifference to them. A local PNCC parish, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, operates near St. Stanislaus.

Last week’s legal victory of St. Stanislaus is nothing to celebrate, though. Regardless how Catholic St. Stanislaus looks, it’s now an orphan church. You can’t pretend to be something you’re not…

When the PNCC broke away, it established a creed close to that of Roman Catholicism and required its bishops, priests and lay people to follow it. St. Stanislaus’ freelance pastor, former priest Marek Bozek, can remake St. Stanislaus Kostka Non-Denominational Church as he wants it, with no ecclesiastical oversight or guidance. How will that church’s board replace him, if he leaves on his own or it fires him because it doesn’t like what he’s doing? How many excommunicated Polish priests are there to fill that post?

Events, PNCC, , , , ,

The Evolution of Independent American Catholicism in the PNCC

The Rev. Mark Niznik of St. Paul Catholic Church in Belleview will speak at a Tri-County Interfaith Alliance event at 7 p.m. January 8th on “The Evolution of Independent American Catholicism in the Polish National Catholic Church of America — Its Origins, Faith Tenets, and Aims.”

The meeting will be hosted by the Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship of Marion County, 7280 SE 135th St., Summerfield. The program is free and open to the public. A question-and-answer session will follow the program and refreshments will be served. For details please call: 352-674-9288.

Christian Witness, Current Events, , ,

New Pope of the Coptic Church is chosen

From the BBC: Bishop Tawadros new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians

See photos here.

Bishop Tawadros has been chosen as the new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, becoming leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.

His name was selected from a glass bowl by a blindfolded boy at a ceremony in Cairo’s St Mark’s Cathedral. Three candidates had been shortlisted.

The 60-year-old succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March aged 88.

He succeeds as attacks on Copts are on the increase, and many say they fear the country’s new Islamist leaders.

The other two candidates were Bishop Raphael and Father Raphael Ava Mina. They were chosen in a ballot by a council of some 2,400 Church and community officials in October.

‘In God’s hands’

Their names were written on pieces of paper and put in crystal balls sealed with wax on the church altar.

A blindfolded boy – one of 12 shortlisted children – then drew out the name of Bishop Tawadros, who until now was an aide to the acting leader, Bishop Pachomius.

Bishop Pachomius then took the ballot from the boy’s hand and showed it to all those gathered in the cathedral.

Strict measures were in place to make sure there was no foul play during the televised ceremony: the three pieces of paper with candidates’ names were all the same size and tied the same way.

Copts say this process ensures the selection is in God’s hands.

Bishop Tawadros will be enthroned in a ceremony on 18 November.

The new pope has studied in Britain, and has also run a medicine factory, the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Cairo reports.

He is a man of broad experience and with managerial skills, our correspondent says, adding that he will need all those talents to lead the Copts as they face an uncertain future in a country now debating the role of Islam following last year’s revolution…

May God bless Bishop Tawadros in his new ministry and may He watch over, protect, and grant increase to the Coptic Church.

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, , ,

Pray for the Holy Synod of the Central Diocese

Tomorrow, Thursday, October 11th, we begin the quadrennial Holy Synod of the Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church. As we review the accomplishments of the last four years and plan for the next four, please join in praying that the Holy Spirit guide the deliberations and grant us His sevenfold gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.

Come Holy Spirit, enkindle the hearts of Thy faithful with the fire of Thy love. Grant Your sevenfold gifts to the Holy Synod of the Central Diocese. Guide us in drawing souls to Your Holy Church. Grant us an increase in vocations. Draw Your community of faith to accord with Your will. Grant that we may set our hearts, minds, and actions to carrying out all that You will. Infuse us with love and fortitude. Renew and energize us by Your ever present grace. Grant safe travel to all participants. Amen.

And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. – Isaiah 11:2-3

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, , ,

Consecration of our new bishops

See coverage and a video of the consecration of Bishops Nowicki and Bilinski at: New Bishops Installed in Polish National Catholic Church

Scranton, Lackawanna County – Friday, [September 14, 2012] was a big day for the Polish National Catholic Church.

A mass to officially install two new bishops, including the one who will serve northeastern Pennsylvania, got underway late Friday afternoon in Scranton.

The mass began at 3:30 PM at Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr Cathedral in South Scranton.

The two bishops who will now serve their communities are Bishop Stanley Bilinski and Bishop Bernard Nowicki.

“I can’t believe the people who have come around from so far away and old friends from close places are an absolute delight,” Bishop Nowicki said.

Bishop Nowicki will serve the Polish National Catholic Church’s largest diocese, which includes Scranton. It stretches from New York to Washington, D.C.

Bishop Bilinski will be based in Chicago and will serve the church’s western diocese.

“We each bring unique gifts to the table and to understand that we can help the church along in its various needs, especially in this day and age,” Bishop Bilinski said.

Both of the new bishops, who were elected in June, say this is an exciting time for the Polish National Catholic Church. The bishops point to a new Prime Bishop in the church and a lot of new leadership that will drive them forward.

“We have our ideas, we have senses of where we want to go and certainly how we want to work together and that’s already been born out in the last few days,” Bishop Nowicki said…

Events, PNCC, , ,

Bishop elect Nowicki takes helm of the Central Diocese

From the Times-Tribune: New bishop to take helm of local Polish National Catholic diocese

The region’s Polish National Catholics will have a new diocesan bishop this fall.

Bishop elect Rev. Bernard NowickiBishop-elect Bernard Nowicki assumed administrative leadership of the Central Diocese on Wednesday and will be consecrated as bishop and officially installed in the new post on Friday, Sept. 14.

The diocese, which stretches from Maryland to New York, is the denomination’s largest. As bishop, the Rev. Nowicki will also be pastor of the denomination’s mother church, St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Cathedral in Scranton.

The Rev. Nowicki was elected bishop at a special synod held in Scranton in June, when he and Bishop-elect Stanley Bilinski were both voted into the office. The Rev. Bilinski will be bishop of the Chicago-based Western Diocese. The Rev. Nowicki assumes the Central Diocese post from Bishop John Mack, who has been bishop of the diocese for the past 18 months and was reassigned to his home Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese.

The Rev. Nowicki, a longtime pastor at a church in Bayonne, N.J., studied at Savonarola Theological Seminary in Scranton, and his wife is a native of Dupont.

Prime Bishop Anthony Mikovsky said the Rev. Nowicki will likely move to the area in late September or early October.

“He’s a very well-respected priest in the church,” he said. “He has a wonderful education.”

Prime Bishop Mikovsky also said he is excited by the number of new bishops across the church.

“A lot of the church has new leadership,” he said, “and there is a lot of excitement with new leadership.”

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