By Thea Jarvis

Transitional deacons Stewart A. Wilber and Thad B. Rudd will be ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, on Saturday, Dec. 14 at the Cathedral of Christ the King.

The ordination Mass will begin at 10:30 a.m. with a reception immediately following in the Hyland Center.

Reverend Mr. Wilber, who has been serving at the cathedral parish, will celebrate his first Mass there Sunday, Dec. 15 at noon.

Effective January 23, 1992, he will be assigned as a parochial vicar at Holy Family Church in Marietta.

Reverend Mr. Rudd will celebrate his first Mass at All Saints Church in Dunwoody Sunday, Dec. 15 at 12:15 p.m. He has been assigned to All Saints Church as parochial vicar effective as of his ordination. Archbishop Lyke has also freed him for assignment as an active duty military chaplain.

Rev. Mr. Rudd, 52, former rector of the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Atlanta, requested ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1988. Pope John Paul II approved the request in June, 1991, at which time he was ordained a transitional deacon.

Rev. Mr. Rudd, his wife Sherri and two daughters were received into the Catholic Church in March, 1989, along with a small community of Episcopalians from his former church.

Rev. Mr. Rudd received a master’s of divinity from the University of the South in Suwanee, Tenn. in 1971. He had served at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour on North Highland Avenue in Atlanta since 1983. Married for almost 30 years, Rev. Mr. Rudd has three children, Thad, Jr., Kendyl and Allister.

During the Persian Gulf conflict, Rev. Mr. Rudd, a lieutenant colonel with Georgia National Guard, saw active duty.

He will be the first married former Episcopal priest ordained for the archdiocese of Atlanta. Approximately 50 priests have been accepted since 1980 under a special provisory of the Vatican, for the United States.

Rev. Mr. Wilber, 44, grew up in Houston and came to the archdiocese of Atlanta in 1990 after earning his master’s of divinity from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, Calif. After completing simple vows with the Dominicans, he decided to continue pursuing a vocation, but not as a religious order priest.

His interest in Atlanta began when he spent two summers working with the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta and Grady Memorial Hospital. When he affiliated with the archdiocese, he was sent to Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, where he served until this spring.

Rev. Mr. Wilber is a convert and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Texas. He earned a master’s degree in communications and worked at both campus and public radio stations. He spent two years as a tribal employee with the Hoopa Valley Indians in Northern California and also worked for a large electric corporation in their San Francisco and Houston facilities.

His parents, Rhona Ryan Wilber and Stewart A. Wilber, M.D., will be present at the ordination ceremonies, as will his three sisters.