By Rita McInerney

Fifty-six men and women joined the Church during an historic Easter Vigil liturgy at All Saints Church in Dunwoody. Thirty of the new Roman Catholics received were former Anglicans and 26 were from the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program sponsored by the parish.

The Anglicans were led by the Reverend Thad Rudd, former Anglican priest seeking to become a Roman Catholic priest. Former Anglicans received with him were mainly from the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour on North Highland Avenue, where he formerly served as rector. The Rev. Rudd’s wife, Sherri, and daughters, Allister Richey and Kendyle, were confirmed with him.

The Rite of Initiation began with the baptizing of six adults, four men and two young women from the RCIA group, by Father Chris Williamson, parochial vicar at All Saints. This was followed by all of those about to become Roman Catholics standing and making their profession of faith by responding “I do” to the question from Father Williamson: “Do you believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God?” One by one the RCIA candidates were called to the altar with their sponsors. They stood before Father Williamson as he called each by the name chosen for Confirmation, anointed the forehead with chrism and prayed that the new Catholic “be sealed with the gift of Holy Spirit.”

The Rev. Rudd was the first member of the Anglican use community to be confirmed. The former Anglican priest, wearing a Roman collar and clerical black, knelt before the seated Monsignor Donald Kiernan as the All Saints pastor anointed his forehead with chrism and prayed for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jean Farrell, coordinator of religious education at All Saints, was his sponsor.

The Rev. Rudd then served as sponsor for the other 29 members of the group.

The Reverend David Dye, a second former Anglican priest who is seeking ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood, was seated in the pew right behind the group. He was formerly assistant rector at St. Martin-in-the Fields Episcopal Church on Ashford-Dunwoody Road. He and his family were received into the Church last December by Father Peter Ludden and now attend Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Atlanta.

At the conclusion of the dual celebration of reception the entire congregation rose and warmly applauded the new Catholics.

Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, S.S.J., is the sponsoring ordinary for the request of the former Episcopal clergymen, both married and with families, to be ordained as Roman Catholic priests. Their dossier were sent to the Vatican late last year through Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston. Cardinal Law is in charge of the pastoral provision put into effect by the Vatican in 1980 that permits some married former Episcopal priests to be ordained to serve as Catholic priests. The Atlanta applications are pending.

The group of 30 Anglicans coming into the Church together is believed to be about the sixth occasion in this country when a sizable group was received according to the pastoral provision of 1980.

Father Williamson was celebrant of the Easter Vigil liturgy with Monsignor Kiernan, Father Walter Halaburda, parochial vicar, and Father Thomas Flynn of Emory University, as concelebrants. The All Saints choir sang under the direction of Steve Jones.

At the reception which followed the lengthy liturgy. Father Williamson, who was ordained by Archbishop Marino last December and began his duties at All Saints in January, commented that he “never expected to be confirming so many people so soon after my ordination.”

Mrs. Farrell developed the nine-week program followed by members of the Community of St. Augustine, the Anglican use community organized by the Rev. Rudd when they left the Episcopal Church and became affiliated with All Saints.

She viewed the liturgy a “miracle of the Holy Spirit. People were really concerned about how it was going to go,” with Father Williamson having responsibility for such a “complex situation” right after his ordination.

She called her association with the regular RCIA team led by Marge Wischmeyer, coordinator, as a “support role.”

The members of the St. Augustine of Canterbury Community who entered the Catholic Church on March 25 ranged from several couples in their seventies to teenagers. Among the older couples, Steve and Betty Richards, “cradle Episcopalians,” were typical of many members of the group who said they feel the Episcopal Church “has left us.”

Gene Sitterly, another longtime member of the Our Saviour congregation, in becoming Catholic joined several other members of his family in the faith.

For Ric Liegerot and his wife Alice, former parishioners of St. Martin-in-the Fields, the liturgy was “absolutely glorious and the culmination of a long struggle.” He said he had “felt God’s hand in it all along.” For him, he said, the move was “made emotionally prior to the election of Barbara Harris as bishop,” the first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church. He predicted more Episcopalians will be joining the Roman Catholic Church.

The Eucharist was “enriched” for them, he added, since it was the first time they had received the Sacrament since leaving the Episcopal Church and beginning study to join the Roman Catholic Church.

The new Catholics who joined at All Saints through the RCIA program also were elated.

For Ed Smith, one who entered through the nine-month RCIA program, his reception was a “miracle” brought about by the prayers of the people in his group, their sponsors, co-workers, and others from all over the country. Just two weeks ago the young man had been hospitalized with what his doctors first diagnosed as cancer.

Dale Godwin and her two daughters Chris Krupp and Kathleen Godwin joined the Church together through the RCIA.

Father Williamson, in a telephone interview before the Easter Vigil, said he will serve as chaplain and beginning April 4 celebrate the liturgy for the former Anglicans each Sunday at 4 p.m. The Mass he will celebrate, he said, “is different from our Mass but contains everything our Mass does.”

Essentially, he said, the prayers will differ, being taken from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. He said the Anglican-use Community of St. Augustine is a temporary one within All Saints parish and he expects the group will be assimilated into the parish.

He called the St. Augustine Community members “a wonderful group. I hope we can ease their passage.”

He said during the nine weeks of preparation for becoming Roman Catholic, two or three of the group has some difficulty about confirmation since they had already been confirmed as Anglicans. “They are beginning to understand that the whole idea is they are going to be confirmed and make their profession of faith in the Roman Catholic Church.”

Father Williamson said the former Anglicans were “aware and accepting” there would be no separate rite or separate pastor.

The Rev. Rudd also discussed the nine-week program in a telephone interview with The Georgia Bulletin. He said the first two classes, on community and sacraments, were “on the redundant side.” The people, he said, “had already been there.”

A “lot of time” in the classes was spent on the infallibility of the pope, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. These three Roman Catholic beliefs are the only three differences dogmatically between the communions, he said.

The Rev. Rudd said there had been no problems with the theology presented during the nine-week program although some of the group expressed concerns over the liturgical differences.

Among those giving instruction were Father Halaburda, Father Stephen Churchwell, officialis of the Metropolitan Tribunal for the archdiocese; Dean Hudson, a former Baptist minister, and David Donahue, All Saints parishioner.

The Rev. Rudd said members of his group had been going to Sunday Mass at various churches around the area, including the Melkite and Byzantine rite churches, “trying to get the flavor.”

The group, the former Anglican clergyman added, “need a lot of prayers.” The Roman Catholic community in the parish and elsewhere around Atlanta has been “unbelievably wonderful,” he said.

The Rev. Dye, the second former Anglican clergyman, said he has been working with Catholic campus minister Betty Goodwin at Georgia State University for more than a month.

He said he is learning, observing and helping. He participated in a retreat for Hispanic students at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers and in group activities at the downtown campus.

“My position right now is like that of a seminarian,” he said. While he accepts the fact that becoming a Roman Catholic priest is a “slow process,” he said the frustration is helped by being able to work at Georgia State. “There is a lot of ministry even though I’m not ordained.”