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Visit of ECC Bishop Peter Hickman

On November 27, 2005, ECC Bishop Peter Hickman visited Dignity Center. He is shown here delivering a homily during the Mass celebrated at Dignity Center at that time.
Bishop Peter Hickman of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion ("ECC") visited Dignity Center on November 27, 2005.

During the past year or so, Dignity/Los Angeles has had seminars, presentations, and panel discussions by experts, and has discussed church reform and our place in the Catholic Church, as it is presently constituted. We have talked about ways in which we might become a more inclusive community, such as by inviting other reform-minded catholics to join us in becoming a more ecuminical catholic community and not just a center for Mass for GLBT persons.

Rome under John Paul II and now under Benedict XVI has marginalized, even pushed away as unwelcome, GLBT Catholics. We cannot wait for the hierarchy to get serious about church reform. Thus, we invited Bishop Peter Hickman from the ECC to talk to us about the ECC's experiences in being catholic outside the structures of the Roman Catholic Church.

ECC is a fast-growing organization comprised of about 20 independent catholic faith communities all over the country. We took advantage of this excellent opportunity to learn more about this reform-minded movement and to explore coming together with others in providing for the spiritual needs of our members and seeking the Jesus of the Gospels, in the company of other reform-minded catholics. At some point in the future, the chapter may even want to create some sort of formal affiliation with the ECC, so it is vital that we all understand the ECC and what the implications would be for us as a chapter to grow closer to the ECC.

For more information, click here to go to an article on the ECC on the News page of this website.
During the visit of ECC Bishop Peter Hickman to Dignity Center on November 27, 2005, he concelebrated Mass with several of the priests who have served Dignity/Los Angeles in recent years.
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