Clergy Changes At Our Lady Of The Atonement

Following the news in my last post a month ago regarding Fr Lewis's departure as pastor, it was announced that a new pastor, Fr Gerald Sherbourne, will arrive on September 1. This is a little unusual, since a new senior priest in a diocesan parish often gets the title "administrator" for a year before being named pastor. An administrator typically makes fewer changes at a parish before becoming pastor, but Fr Sherbourne is going straight to pastor. Fr Joseph Reffner has been appointed parochial vicar (i.e. associate), replacing Fr Andrew Westerman.

Fr Sherboune had been an active-duty US Army chaplain, ordained into the North American ordinariate in 2013. Fr Reffner, also a former Army chaplain, had been serving the Research Triangle ordinatiate community in North Carolina prior to this assignment.

Until Fr Sherbourne's arrival in September, Fr Richard Kramer will continue to serve as parochial administrator. Fr Kramer has also been serving as the ordinariate's vicar general, and he will presumably return to Houston to serve in that capacity full time then. This is certainly an indication of the Atonement parish's importance in the ordinariate. Prior to Fr Lewis's departure, Fr Kramer had been at the parish for several months in a financial oversight capacity, which is also an indication of the problems facing the parish and the pressure Fr Lewis faced.

At the time Fr Lewis's departure from Our Lady of the Atonement was announced, Bp Lopes suggested he was pursuing diocesan opportunities for him that might be less demanding. On July 1, Fr Lewis's appointment as Parochial Vicar of St Joseph, Jacksonville, a parish of the Diocese of St Augustine, was announced.