A Visit to Christ the King Ordinariate community at the Chapel Royal, Tyendinaga Mohawk Reservation

Murray O'Coin, our friend and 
candidate to become an 
Instituted Acolyte 
for sub-diaconal ministry 
in the Ordinariate and soon, 
we pray, a Deacon, 
was our host this week 
on the Tyendinaga Reservation. 

Murray took us to the beautifully restored Chapel Royal of Christ Church where he worships every Sunday with a growing Ordinariate community. Mass according to Divine Worship: The Missal is currently celebrated monthly in the Chapel, thus preserving the Mohawk Anglican patrimony within the full communion of the Catholic Church.

The Ordinariate Catholic community of Christ the King has its home in one of the very few Chapels Royal outside of the U.K., marking, in a dramatic way, the unity which is the hope and promise of the Ordinariates around the world.

The community dates to the arrival in Canada of the Mohawk people who were loyal to the Crown during the  Revolutionary War in the USA.  Mohawks at the time were both Anglican and Catholic and sided with the British against the rebellion in 1776.  

Royal Arms over the west door of the Chapel Royal

By the 1800s they had built Her Majesty's Chapel Royal of the Mohawk and brought the Queen Anne silver which had been given to the Mohawk nation as a gift from Queen Anne when they still lived and worshipped along the Mohawk River in what is today New York State. 

The chancel and sanctuary of the Chapel Royal, Tyendinaga

The NY territory is near the site of the birth of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. Today the original Mohawk homeland is marked with  the U.S. Shrine commemorating St. Kateri who is the first aboriginal woman and Mohawk to be declared a saint.

Christ the King Ordinariate community  has been welcomed to use the Chapel on Sundays and Feast Days by the Chief and Council of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Reserve.  The current Chief is a Catholic convert and member of the Ordinariate community. Note the corpus of Christ added to the top of the rood screen.

Jane Hodgins looks at the beautifully restored Chapel Royal with
Murray O'Coin who oversees the growing Ordinariate community 
at Tyendinaga

Fr. John Hodgins with Murray O'Coin at Christ Church, Chapel Royal of the Mohawks

The Flags of Canada, the Mohawk First Nation and the Union Jack fly in front of the Chapel Royal and the cemetery of the Mohawk community.

Note the cross in the bottom
left panel. This replacement
glass depicts the
Queen Anne Silver
with the Ordinariate Cross
in the Chapel which is legally
the property of
the Mohawk community.

Our Lady of Guadaloupe, patroness of
the Americas, has a special place in
the hearts of her sister aboriginal people
in the north of the Americas. 

The beautiful altar cross given to
the Chapel Royal by the King in
the Georgian period features depictions
of the Our Lady as well as
the four Gospel writers. Notice the
Ten Commandments written in the
Mohawk language forms
part of the reredos.