Bro. Christopher, nOC

Bro. Christopher, originally from the metropolitan Detroit area, has lived and served in the Tampa Bay region since 1997.  He has sought to live out a deep and life-long call to consecrated intentional life since 1975 in two Roman Catholic communities (the Conventual Franciscan Friars and the Mercedarian Friars).  Paired with a vocation to an intentional religious community has been his ministry as a Roman Catholic priest for 12 years and continuing now for 23 years as an Old Catholic priest and bishop for his parish community of Holy Spirit Old Catholic Church in Safety Harbor, Florida and the Old Catholic Diocese of the Southeast.  He resides with his spouse, Rafael, in Clearwater, Florida.

In view of the twists and turns of Bro. Christopher’s vocational journey, the deep seeded longing to live religious community life has never left him even after more than twenty years.  Stumbling upon the Ecumenical Order of Charity through a social media comment from a seminary mate and voraciously delving into the Order’s Founding Document, Bro. Christopher was convinced that God was not yet finished with the journey he had embarked upon many years ago.  Seeking to become a vowed member of the Order is very much a part of his spiritual and religious traveling for more than thirty years, it has been as a “homecoming” fully re-embracing all that the deepest longings and hopes.  Gratefully receiving the Charitist habit and being welcomed as a novice by the Companions of the Order has been for Bro. Christopher a deep affirmation of Divine companionship and enduring Love who continuously guides us the pathway to Life.