I have been trying to do this in video form for nearly three years and have all but given up. In the end I might use this series of blog entries as the basis for a script. So, if all else fails, here we go.

This is the Rev’d Alberto Cutie. He has been the Rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Biscayne Park, Miami, Florida, which is part of the Diocese of Southeast Florida in the Episcopal Church. However, Father Cutie has not always served in the Episcopal Church; He was from 1995 until 2009 a priest in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami. He left in, what is all fairness, a scandal when he was caught kissing his future wife Ruhama on a beach. One of his primary reasons for leaving the Roman Catholic Church was the discipline of mandatory celibacy for Priests. I would encourage all persons to read his book on the matter which is called Dilemma.

This is the Rev’d Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson PA. He is has been the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter (a body for former Anglicans who have sought Full Communion with the See of Rome) since it was incorporated in 2012. He has been a Priest of the Roman Catholic Church (originally in the Archdiocese of Sante Fe) since his ordination on February 21, 2009. However, Monsignor Steenson was previously Bishop Steenson of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande. He was ordained a Priest in the Episcopal Church in 1980, and a Bishop in 2005. He left the Episcopal Church on December 1, 2007 to seek Communion with the See of Rome. When he became a Roman Catholic he was accepted as a layman with his Orders in the Anglican Communion (and Episcopal Church) viewed as being Utterly Null and Void.

Why is it that Father Cutie, when he was received into the Anglican Communion in 2009, was accepted as a Priest of the Church and when former Bishop, now Monsignor, Steenson was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 2007 he was not? The answer comes to a number of Roman Catholic theological positions, and a Papal bull which declared that since the Reformation any and all Anglican Ordinations have been invalid leaving the recipient a layman. Over the course of this series I would like to go into more depth, and show that the orders of our Bishops, Priests and Deacons are perfectly valid. It should be a lot of fun. Or, pretty boring to the average person. In this series I hope to cover:

• The events of the English Reformation
• The papal bull Apostolicae Curae, which formally nullified Anglican Orders in the eyes of the Papacy… and the issues arising from the Papal bull
• The Ordination services used by Anglicans until the mid-20th Century… which are perfectly valid, and
• The services of the Holy Eucharist used by Anglicans, Catholics (Roman and Eastern Rite), Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians… all of which are perfectly valid

So, who’s with me?