faith streams — EVANGELICAL, CHARISMATIC, SACRAMENTAL — unite in Father Randolph Sly

By

In his office at St. Therese Little Flower Parish [North], Father Randy Sly sipped his coffee and recalled more than six decades of his faith journey.

Raised Episcopalian, young Randy served Mass every chance he got, even earning a medal. By high school graduation, however, Randy’s faith had diminished. He played in a rock band and began working at a radio station. Off he went to college while beginning a career as a rock-and-roll radio disc-jockey, studying just enough to get by. At that time, the Vietnam War was in full swing. Randy chose to enlist in the Navy, avoiding the draft and Vietnam. His orders, however, sent him on a destroyer to Vietnam, awakening an awareness of his own mortality.

After Vietnam, while stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Randy heard a band playing rock music, but the musicians were singing about God. A couple of members of the group approached him and began talking about Jesus, while he talked about growing up in the church. “It dawned on me I was talking about the building; they were talking about the occupant. It was my Saint Paul on the Damascus road moment. I was completely changed.”

After his discharge, he settled in Battle Creek, Michigan, working in radio and TV. One day, he interviewed a young man and woman for a special radio program. They were leaders of a church youth group doing evangelization work on the city streets. “The woman, Sandy, later became my wife,” he said.

It was a time of upheaval in the Episcopal Church, and at Sandy’s invitation, he attended her Wesleyan Methodist Church. “They exhibited that same love for the Lord that I had,” he explained.

Randy returned to college, earning a degree in philosophy-religion, then completed his master’s degree in divinity in seminary. He began ministry as a Wesleyan Methodist pastor but increasingly became interested in studying the three streams of faith — evangelical, charismatic and liturgical/sacramental — which seemed to flow separately but needed to “converge to form the mighty river of God.”

His studies compelled Randy to return to his Episcopal roots, which he did in a small, rapidly growing, Anglican denomination. Soon, he was ordained a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. He was later ordained a bishop and eventually appointed archbishop.

During 14 years of Anglican ministry, Father Sly and Sandy were gradually drawn to the Catholic Faith. Together, they prayed about and discussed the Catechism’s teachings. Eventually, it all came together and made sense.

“From studying the Church Fathers and Catholic teaching, I slowly came to realize that one Church fully embodied all three faith streams — the Roman Catholic Church,” he said.

In November, 2006, Father Sly resigned his faculties and he and Sandy were received into the Roman Catholic Church. “All our children and grandchildren came into the Church with us, and about half my parish also decided to become Catholic.”

However, because of his married status, a Catholic priest warned him that ordination to the priesthood was unlikely but encouraged him not to give up. “If Holy Mother Church wants you to be a priest,” he said, “she will make a way for you.”

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated Anglicanorum Coetibus, calling Anglican traditions “a precious gift; a treasure to be shared.” In 2012, he erected the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in the United States, also authorizing further theological formation for former Anglican clerics to prepare for ordination to the Catholic priesthood.

“In 2011, I submitted a massive dossier to the [then] Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, including transcripts, everything I’d done in ministry, psychiatric examinations, psychological inventories and a letter of permission from my wife, as ‘the two sacraments have to flow together.’”

When he received the letter from Pope Benedict permitting ordination, he also was given a dispensation from celibacy.

He was ordained a deacon at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Then, on June 23, 2012, Father Sly was ordained a priest by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Potomac Falls, where he celebrated his first Catholic Mass. He was one of the first 10 priests ordained in North America for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

Father Sly has served in parishes

Day by Day Father Randy Sly

Father Sly’s Day by Day video podcast, with more than 1,000 episodes, has streamed out each day for more than two and a half years. Each episode features the daily Gospel reading and short reflection. Parishioner Jeff Samborski says, “There are many of us who look forward to this encouraging daily encounter and Father Sly’s steadfast commitment to the Day by Day program. [It helps] illustrate how a progressive parish can remain firmly in touch with their community in a rapidly changing culture.”

To watch

in Northern Virginia and across the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. He also served four years as president of St. Michael the Archangel High School in Lee’s Summit. Currently, he is Associate Pastor/Parochial Vicar of St. Therese North Parish in Parkville.

Smiling, Father Sly said, “It’s wonderful to see God at work through the beauty of the sacraments. They are the foundation of our worship, made possible through the grace of God.”