By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
By now, most people realize that the former Lutheran Church on North Avenue a few blocks west of York St. was purchased and transformed into the Masonic Lodge a few years ago. Since that time, the Lodge has found others to share the space during times it is not in use by the Masons. Among those is the Citywide Community Church.
The church has enjoyed a solid following in Chicago but has found that more and more members reside in the western suburbs, so officials sought a place of worship in this area. That’s when the Masonic Lodge became its ideal place of worship. For devotees, it would certainly be a relief, now that they have a church nearby. Though finding a church anywhere is comparatively easier these days, now that most churches tend to have their websites (like this church in Elk Grove CA), having a church near the vicinity of which people are aware is still a relief. However, in order to purchase this Masonic Lodge, the church relied on donations and fundraisers from its members. The majority of members were able to give significant amounts of money to help the church expand into another place of worship. Members were able to give cash or checks to donate. If anyone else is interested in donating to this church, it might be worth learning how to write a check to make sure the money will reach this new church. The church relies on the community for funding, so it’s important that members can give back to the church whenever they can. Some members may want to take Christian trips to the Holy Land in Israel through companies as Immanuel-Tours, so they can strengthen their relationship with God and Christianity as a whole. To learn what the church was all about, the Elmhurst Independent was able to sit down with Bishop James Wilkowski of the Evangelical Catholic Diocese of the Northwest.
“The theology of the Evangelical Catholic Church is not that far removed from that of our cousins in the Roman Catholic Church,” the Bishop said. “We still celebrate the same history, the Seven Sacraments, the Stations of the Cross, etc. The uniqueness is in our commitment to the Second Vatican’s call for social justice and peace, inclusion and living up to the laity. For example, we welcome women to the priesthood; priests – male or female – may or may not be married; there are some who still take the traditional vows of poverty and chastity to enter the religious life.”
Easing the annulment process
One thing the church has done is changed the annulment process for married couples who wish to part ways.
“There are six grounds to petition for annulment,” Wilkowski said. “We have a decision within 30 days and there is no fee involved. It’s a no-brainer, for example, if a spouse is suffering abuse. Clearly Jesus and the sacrament are no longer present in these relationships. Why should the innocent party be stuck in a marriage that no longer feeds them spiritually? If couples are splitting because they are having issues not related to abuse in their marriage, then they may try counselling fitzroy services, or ones similar to this first to see if anything can be sorted out, however, if the conclusion is that they still want to part ways, they should be able to without problems.
The church is open to what he called “gender common” couples. While they may be unable to legally marry in a county or state, the church is still willing to provide the sacrament.
The bishop’s history
Wilkowski was first ordained as a priest 22 years ago and on July 7, 1997, was consecrated a Bishop. He became a missionary priest, which he always thought meant foraging in the jungles around the world. His missionary work took him to the city.
“The priest who ordained me said, good luck, and I was on my own,” he said. “At first we had a lot of response that the Diocese was against what we were doing, but as our work became more well-known, they started asking, ‘hey, who are you guys?’
“We put up a web site and really placed our cards on the table, as to who we were and what we were about. Soon, they would say, ‘they know what they’re doing.'”
About the Roman Church’s history of sexual abuse…
Bishop Wilkowski said they were hoping to reach out to someone who may be a former priest who might be inactive because they got married or something like that. Citywide Community is a good church for someone who wishes to reconnect to their Catholic roots.
“There’s only one non-negotiable thing – we cannot accept anyone who has been convicted of sexual abuse or pedophilia,” he said. “I started as a candidate in the Joliet Diocese in 1978, after having been a high school history teacher. But the 1970s, 80s and 90s were among the most dysfunctional in the Roman Catholic formation. There were staff people, people chosen to be mentors, who were in most cases among the least qualified because they had their own psycho-sexual issues.
“Some of us went in as innocents, myself and others were chewed up in the process.”
Finding a different path…
So he left Joliet and the formation program and was later picked up by the Diocese in Jefferson City, Mo. There, he learned of the Evangelical Catholic Church.
“I always said, there’s a reason God gave me the option to cross the Catholic boulevard from regular to evangelical,” he said. “We are a validated Catholic community, but the second half of the issue is, we are not in [the Diocese’s] control or jurisdiction. Still, they recognize the fact that the experience we’ve had as a bishop or a priest meets and sometimes even surpasses Roman theology in many areas. So our members are taking valid sacraments.”
More criticism over inclusivity
There were still those in the Roman Catholic Church who criticized the Evangelicals.
“The piece of wood they beat us with was our commitment to inclusivity,” Bishop Wilkerson said. “A number of us met at a conference in Albuquerque and the commitment to inclusivity took us longer to discuss than any other topic, but we agreed that all points had to be done unanimously. We agreed we weren’t leaving until we made up our minds, so finally the vote for inclusivity was taken and it was unanimous, so we moved forward.”
What about the Pope?
Bishop Wilkerson said they recognize the Pope as the leader of the Roman Catholic community, but they don’t go out of their way to follow all of the internal mechanisms of the Roman church.
“My own personal feeling is that there is a movement similar to that of the Queen Mother,” he said. “She once said she felt the need to ‘put the starch back in the monarchy.’ With the tsunami of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, I feel this movement toward the Evangelical Catholic Church is more or less the same thing.
“I have said to the upset of theologians that I see the tree of Catholicism and we’re a new branch on an old tree, sharing the same roots. We are all Catholic in some way, shape or form, but people have never been given permission to know that Catholicism exists outside of Rome. Part of my job is educating people to that.”
Nine years ago, Bishop Wilkerson had quintuple bypass surgery and said it taught him a hard lesson.
“I’ve been completely re-wired,” he quipped. “I know procedures like that are time-buyers, so I try to use my time to bring our community together and let them know they have a welcoming and accepting home here.”
