SJC² Partnership

Rev Fr Chrysostom Frank

greatly appreciates the Anglo-Catholic strain within the Western liturgical tradition, but he also appreciates the liturgical reforms of the Roman Catholic Church in the 20th century, and wants to have a blend of both for the parish’s prayer book service.

The Rev. Chrysostom Frank

Frank is returning to his roots. He worshiped at an Episcopal church in Pennsylvania as a teenager. “I was always an Anglo-Catholic, from the time I was a child, even though I didn’t know what that was,” he said.

He began seminary studies as a Lutheran and spent a year as a pastoral intern in the Church of Sweden’s Diocese of Gothenburg. Swedish Lutherans suggested he finish his studies at Nashotah House, and that he should be ordained by an Episcopal bishop, as Lutherans in the United States did not have bishops then.

The late 1970s was a challenging time for the Episcopal Church, and Frank was troubled by the deep divisions over the ordination of women. He postponed ordination and attended the University of St. Andrews in Scotland to study the Caroline Divines, where he became interested in Orthodoxy. “Orthodoxy seemed like a way of avoiding things in the Episcopal Church I didn’t know how to handle.”

Frank is happy to return to the church he grew up in. “I’m doing what I’d wanted to do for a long time: return to the Episcopal Church,” he said. “I simply realized I’ve always been Anglican. The reception is much better than I expected.”