I am a parishioner at St James The Greater in Charles Town, WV. We dedicated the new church on July 25th, 2005. I was a part of the dedication ceremony, as a member of the Knights of Columbus 4th degree honor guard. The clergy, the choir, and the parishioners were all very excited to move into the new facility and to have a reverent church dedication. We moved from a church that seated about 250 people to one that seats about 900. We also still have the historic St Peters Catholic Church in downtown Harpers Ferry, WV, where mass is said every Sunday at 11AM.
Fr Brian Owens recently discerned a calling to monastic life and has joined the Benedictines at their abbey in Subiaco, AR. He is indeed a convert and a son of a Baptist minister. We will miss him greatly at St James, but are happy to have Fr John Ledford.
Fr Brian, Permanent Deacon David Galvin, and Music Director Gary Penkala (Cantica NOVA is based at St James) have all been dedicated to bringing back traditional music and chant within the NO and preparing for the changes to the mass.
The TLM has been off again/on again. Dom Daniel of the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem is a frequent visitor and holds holiday retreats with the seminarians of the order. The Bishop has had a number of different plans for the old St James, but none has been fully realized yet.
IS the Mass at St.Peters still in Latin ie the old rite?