Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Franciscan Brother and Seminarian Ordained as Porter

LEXINGTON, KY 13 May 2016 (ORCNS) - Rev. Br. Dom Elliott Francis, TOR Mar. received the First Tonsure as a cleric and was ordained to the Order of Porter in the Old Roman Catholic Patriarchate of St. Stephen at Christ Church Cathedral today. Br. Elliott is a member of the Franciscan Third Order Regular of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance of the Blessed Virgin Mary (TOR Mar) and a seminarian. The officiant was Mgr. Rutherford Cardinal Johnson, Patriarch of St. Stephen. The First Tonsure, now a snipping of the hair in five locations in the form of a cross, is symbolic of the full round shave area of the head typically worn by clerics and religious in the past and still some today. 

Mgr. Rutherford, Card. Patriarch of St. Stephen,
administers the First Tonsure to Dom Elliott Francis

It is traditionally through the First Tonsure that a candidate enters the clerical state. The Order of Porter is the first of the Minor Holy Orders and is also typically a stepping stone on the way to the priesthood. During the ordination of a Porter, the candidate receives the keys to the church, opens the church doors, and rings the church bells, all symbolic of the traditional and historic duties of that office. 

An audience was held by theCardinal Patriarch prior to the
ordination during which time Dom Elliott (right)
took the oaths of ordination

The Patriarchal See of St. Stephen is an ancient, autonomous, semi-autocephalous Old Roman Catholic Patriarchate with Anglican patrimony descended from the Roman Catholic See of Utrecht. The See of Utrecht has remained independent since 1145, when the Holy See in Rome granted autonomy. Modernly also known as the Anglican Rite Roman Catholic Church (ARRCC), the Patriarchate continues administrative independence while embracing as brethren other Catholic and Anglican bodies, such as the current Roman Communion (commonly referred to as the Roman Catholic Church), the Anglican Ordinariate, and the Anglican Communion.