Saint Barnabas is both a new Catholic parish and a very old community with a history stretching back to 1869 when it was founded as a parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. It came to be as an offshoot of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral under the leadership of its former dean, the Very Rev. George C. Betts. The parish was officially chartered on May 3, 1869. The first church building was a small wooden structure at a location near present-day 9th and Douglas Streets. After this building was destroyed by a tornado, a second edifice was erected at 19th and California Streets. This building served the parish for the next 44 years. In 1915, under the leadership of the Rev. Lloyd B. Holsapple, the current property was purchased for the sum of $7,000. The architect for the new building was Charles M. Nye, who patterned the church after English Herefordshire architecture.
Saint Barnabas was founded as an "Oxford Movement" parish. The Oxford Movement was a 19th century effort to rediscover the ancient Catholic roots in the life of the Anglican Church and which called the Church back to fidelity to the call of Christ to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, care for the widows and orphans. Adherents of the Oxford Movement came to be known as Anglo-Catholics.
Saint Barnabas continued in the Anglo-Catholic tradition centering its mission around the worship of Almighty God and the service of His people, especially the poor. High Mass, celebrated with traditional music and ceremonial, was offered each Sunday, and Low Mass throughout the week. Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament were held monthly. Liturgies at Saint Barnabas used the traditional language of the historic Book of Common Prayer with supplemental material from the American Missal and the Anglican Service Book.
In July 2013, the clergy and people of Saint Barnabas were received into the Roman Catholic Church as a congregation of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. Father Robert Scheiblhofer, the 15th Rector of the parish, was ordained a Catholic priest shortly thereafter, and he continued to serve Saint Barnabas as parochial administrator. On January 1, 2017, he was succeeded by Father Jason Catania. On November 5, 2017, Saint Barnabas was the first Ordinariate church building to be formally consecrated by Bishop Steven J. Lopes. The bishop returned to Omaha on June 10, 2018 to canonically erect St. Barnabas as a Catholic parish, and to install Father Catania as its first pastor. On July 1, 2021, Father Stephen Hilgendorf was assigned by Bishop Lopes as the Parochial Administator. He is the third Catholic priest to serve the parish, and was installed as its second Pastor on September 18, 2022.
The Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is equivalent to a diocese, created by the Vatican in 2012 for people nurtured in the Anglican tradition who wish to become Catholic.
Parishes and communities in the Ordinariates are fully Roman Catholic, but retain elements of Anglican traditions in their liturgy, hospitality and ministries.
Called to be gracious instruments of Christian unity, members of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter are led by a bishop who is appointed by the Pope. Bishop Steven J. Lopes is the first bishop of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.
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