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St. Patrick’s Priory Church in Parkersburg to welcome new members

By Jeff Saulton 5 min read

PARKERSBURG -- This St. Patrick's Day will be a special one for individuals affiliated with the Anglican Church of North America.

In October the former First Presbyterian Church at 946 Market St. became St. Patrick's Priory Church. On Friday and Saturday eight new members of the order of the Company of Jesus will take their vows of lives of prayer and service.

The Rev. Gregory Myers, a priest in the Diocese of the Great Lakes, which is based in Akron, Ohio, said the purpose there is to establish a place where prayer is the main focus.

"We are the Company of Jesus, a religious order, a third order," he said. "It comes from St. Francis' ministry since there were not only singles interested in following a life of prayer, but married people as well.

"We have married and celibate people. We are committed to a life of prayer and our particular priory here is more of a Celtic flavor so we named it after St. Patrick."

Myers said while the order is Anglican they are more ecumenical in nature.

"You could be Baptist, Methodist or Charismatic," he said. "We have quite a few streams involved in the Company of Jesus."

Myers said they have a Sunday morning Eucharist which is Anglican in order and they have daily prayer which is out of the Book of Common Prayer.

"We also have the House of Prayer here that meets on Thursday nights," he said. "We have people from six different churches that come together for that. It's a prayer and praise gathering, and has been in existence for 17 years."

On Friday St. Patrick's Priory Church will be the site of a retreat where eight people will profess their vows to live a life of prayer and service.

"We will have an evening prayer on Friday night," said Myers, who is also the band director at Franklin Middle School. "On Saturday night we will have a profession service for eight people who have been going through on interim program and will take initial vows. The vows in the Celtic stream will be a life of simplicity, accountability and availability to the Holy Spirit."

Myers said the last is the most Celtic of the three.

"It's the idea of open to whatever or wherever the Lord would send us," he said.

Myers said the service on Saturday is open to the public.

"It's not an ordination in the sense of the priesthood or a deacon, but it is, in some ways, like a consecration of their lives to the Lord and serve however the local church needs them to serve," he said. "They will wear their habits like monastics and vow to serve a life of prayer within their local church.

Myers said some members of the order are serving others in varied places.

"A brother in New York state ministers to those recently released from prison," Myers said. "He's built a house for them and there is a monastic rhythm of prayer; morning, noon and night, or least two. In Indiana a brother works with drug addicts and has a rhythm of prayer and scripture study.

"Whatever their call, whatever their gifting, it's all based on the rhythm of prayer."

Myers said the first group, more of an inquiring group, came to Parkersburg in October. Myers said he would like to have retreats like these in the fall and around St. Patrick's Day.

Myers said at one time the Anglican Church had a number of orders like those in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. He said Anglican orders were closed down during the reformation.

"The Anglican Church has been slowly rebuilding the idea of religious orders and religious life," he said. "It is coming back and I think we are part of that."

Myers said the idea of St. Patrick's is not to build a new church but to be a place for prayer.

"We have two purposes, an actual church and the Mother House in the Celtic Stream within the Company of Jesus. We will have people come from different places to spend time in retreat or helping rebuild this place," he said. "We're more of a Monastic Center, or Monastic House. Priory means monastery under a prior. We are a little daughter congregation connected to the Company of Jesus."

Myers said someone will be physically in the building praying every day.

"We hope to have morning and evening prayer available to the community," he said. "It's more so a different paradigm than just the local church; we want it to be a monastic place and night and day prayer. One of the services we would offer would be Sunday morning. Sunday is a blend of new and old, called ancient future."

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