Centered in Glass City

Published: Saturday, 12/6/2014

BY TK BARGER BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

The Reformed Catholic Churchs (RCC) global headquarters in North Toledo is far removed from the Vatican in many ways.

A building that once was the home of Community Church of God, at the corner of Doyle Street and Ketcham Avenue, is now the Holy Cross Reformed Catholic Church, where the RCC is centered. That is also where Metropolitan Archbishop Marc Ignatius Stephen Heckman, who uses the first name Marcis, lives.

The RCC, incorporated in 2000, is a fifth pillar of Catholicism, Archbishop Heckman said. We consider ourselves different because were made up of the Old Catholic movement [centered in Utrecht, Netherlands], the independent Catholic movement, the Orthodox movement, even the Roman movement, so were separate in that aspect.

For the past eight months, Archbishop Jose Israel de la Trinidad also was there after he moved from Puerto Rico, but he recently established a new Toledo residence for his religious order, the Reformed Carmelites. Archbishop Heckman is a Reformed Jesuit; there are RCC versions of several religious orders with Roman Catholic traditions.

Archbishop Trinidad is also principal of the Academy for Educational Excellence, a public charter school on Heatherdowns Boulevard that is Christian oriented, although its not a Christian school, he said. The academy currently has students in kindergarten through grade 5. There, the principal is known as Israel Irizarry-Koppisch, or Mr. Koppisch. He took Trinidad as his religious name. Irizarry-Koppisch is his last name in Hispanic construction, with his fathers last name followed by a hyphen and his mothers last name.

Archbishop Trinidad, 61, moved to Toledo as part of the RCCs own reform. The Church recently consolidated its North American dioceses into one archdiocese, and Archbishop Heckman, 56, who had held the offices of both metropolitan (head of the Church) and U.S. presiding bishop since 2012, made Archbishop Trinidad the presiding bishop of the U.S. Archbishop Heckmans Church work is done as a volunteer, he said; I am disabled, so I dont get to do a whole lot of work, and as he considers himself semi-retired, he appointed Archbishop Trinidad to lead the U.S. Church while he focuses on the RCC around the world.

There are RCC congregations on the African continent, in the Philippines, in Europe, and in Central and South America. In the U.S., congregations are in about eight states and Puerto Rico, with parishes forming in other states.

Holy Cross, in Toledo, has 20 to 30 members, Archbishop Heckman said, but you dont get that many here. Were lucky to get 12 in the pews most of the time; I admit that. But the church is full on Christmas Eve, he said Holy Cross will have a lessons and carols service at 8 p.m. and a midnight Mass.

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Centered in Glass City