This April Bishop Rocco Florenza was pleased to add two new priests to his diocese, to serve at the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection and to establish a new mission, Fathers Matthew Mirabile and Julius Powell.

On April 9th Matthew Mirabile was ordained "sub-conditione" in the Anglican Catholic church.  He was formerly a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church since 1995 and had started two mission parishes during those years.  Fr. Mirabile has spent several years as a missionary in Europe and Africa in the early and mid eighties, where he met his wife.  During his last mission his focus was on pastoral counseling and in the soul care of those struggling various addictions and life controlling problems.  He attended St. Michale's seminary, is a certified spiritual director, has certifications in addictions counseling, and is continuing studies in psychology at Liberty University.  He provides soul care through his ministry the "Center for the Cure of Souls".  Fr. Mirabile will remain at the Cathedral to assist the bishop in the care of that church.

On April 30th Julius Powell was ordained a priest by Bishop Florenza.  Julius had been a seminarian and was serving at the cathedral as an ordained deacon.  His ordination was a joyous occasion and was attended by family, friends, and clergy - one coming from as far as Virginia to celebrate.

Fr. Powell currently serves as Administrative Manager for the Lutheran Family Health Center’s Community Medicine Program.  As Project Director and Principal Investigator for St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York during 2006-2010, his duties included improving readiness to change in homeless persons with alcohol, other drug, mental health and or co-occurring disorders as well as coordinating and supervising program monitoring and evaluation efforts. He is a trained facilitator and Program Manager in two CDC Effective Behavioral Interventions (Healthy Relationships and Popular Opinion Leader) targeting HIV Prevention with positives.

Fr. Powell will be leaving his position at Church of the Resurrection and will establish a Mission among the Anglican Catholic Jamaican community in the Bronx, NY where there already exists a nucleus of people eager to participate in this new mission.

We wish both of these men God's blessing and are thankful that God has sent them to work in the harvest.