4.HE FIRSW-Pranciscan Friar of the Atonement to be made a
priest in Britain was ordained by Bishop John Jukes, Auxiliary of Southwark, on Saturday.
Bishop Jukes, the only Franciscan bishop in England.
ordained Fr Robert Mercer at Sr Andrew's, Thornton Heath, Surrey.
The Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, a Community living in the Franciscan tradition, have as their principal work, the restoration of visible unity among all Christians.
Found in 1898 in Graymoor, New York the Community was formerly Anglican entering the Roman Catholic Church in 1909. Fr Robert, himself a former Anglican, was attracted to the ecumenical vision of the Community's Founders Fr Paul Wattson and Mother Lurana White.
Born in 1934 in Rawalpindi, India, of British parents. Fr Robert entered the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in 1968. After several years working for the British Council of Churches, Fr Robert pursued studies for the priesthood at the University of Lancaster and at the Franciscan Study Centre, Canterbury.
Fr Robert's diaconate year was spent in St Andrew's, Thorn ton Heath, and in Christ the Redeemer, Stirling, Virginia, a parish staffed by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement.
In England, the Atonement Friars, maintain the Catholic Central Library and Ecumenical Office near Westminster Cathedral, London. Fr Robert hopes to minister in the ecumenical field at parish level in the country.