✠ A Place of Prayer
The Manse serves as both residence and spiritual center of the ministry. Private chapel seating approximately 5 persons
The Manse Chapel was first created as a prayer corner for the Revd. Mary and I. As our volunteer staff grew, we expanded the chapel to occupy the entire living room. We added an Altar to what was once just a Shrine, then a prayer corner and a Chromebook for Zoom meetings. The chapel seats five comfortably but can hold up to twelve, not counting me.
As a Marian movement, the chapel is dedicated to the Holy Mary, and, as our theology developed, the board of Elders decided to add two other Marys, so the name changed in 2025 to the Chapel of the Three Marys. Mary of Nazareth, Mary of Magdala and Mary Salome, to name them.
✠ A clergy house
A clergy house (in French, Presbytère) is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for their ministry. Residences of this type may be called a manse, parsonage, presbytery, rectory, or vicarage. The word presbytery comes from the Latin presbyterium, from the Greek πρεσβύτερος (presbuteros), meaning “order or priesthood,” hence the residence of priests. It is often located near parish churches; in some localities, its architectural qualities or historical importance have led to its being listed as a historical monument. A manse is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and other Christian traditions, such as the Independent Catholic. Ultimately derived from the Latin mansus, “dwelling”, from manere, “to remain”, by the 16th century, the term meant both a dwelling and, in ecclesiastical contexts, the amount of land needed to support a single family.
✠ The Chapel
A house church, or home church, is a label for a group of Christians who regularly gather for worship in private homes. The group may be part of a larger Christian body, such as a parish, but some have been independent groups that see the house church as the primary form of Christian community.
Some recent Christian writers, such as Francis Chan, have supported the view that the Christian Church should meet in homes (House) and have based their communities’ operations on multiple small home meetings. Other Christian groups choose to meet in houses when they are in the early phases of church growth or when membership is small, because a house is the most affordable option for the small group to meet until the number of people attending the group is sufficient to warrant moving to a commercial location such as a church building. (as in the beginning phase of the British New Church Movement). Sometimes this meeting style is advantageous because the group is a member of a Christian congregation which is otherwise banned from meeting, as is the case in China and Iran. House church organizations claim that this approach is preferable to public meetings in dedicated buildings because it is a more effective way to build community and personal relationships and to engage in outreach more naturally. Some believe small churches were a deliberate apostolic pattern in the first century, and they were intended by Christ.
In the early church, Christian fellowship, prayer, and service took place mainly in private homes, as described in the book of Acts of the Apostles. The Latin term often used is domus ecclesiae.
Several passages in the New Testament specifically mention churches meeting in houses. The first house church is recorded in Acts 1:13, where the disciples of Jesus met together in the “Upper Room” of a house, traditionally believed to be the site of the Cenacle today. “The churches of Asia greet you, especially Aquila and Prisca greet you much in the Lord, along with the church that is in their house.” I Corinthians 16:19. The church meeting in the house of Priscilla and Aquila is again mentioned in Romans 16:3, 5. The church that meets in the house of Nymphas is also cited in the Bible: “Greet the brethren in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in her house.” Colossians 4:15. There is another reference to the church meeting in Philemon’s home (“To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker—also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:….” Philemon 1:2), but scholars recognize this as simply the meeting place of the Corinthian church—not a separately-meeting house church.
For the first 300 years of Early Christianity, until Constantine legalized Christianity and churches moved into larger buildings, Christians typically met in homes, if only because intermittent persecution (before the Edict of Milan in 313) did not allow the erection of public church buildings. Clement of Alexandria, an early church father, wrote of worshipping in a house. The Dura-Europos church, a private house in Dura-Europos, Syria, was excavated in the 1930s and found to have been used as a Christian meeting place in AD 232, with one small room serving as a baptistry, creating the current style of church seen today.
As mentioned in a previous post in 2025, chaplains do not have to purchase chasubles to celebrate the Eucharist. As guests in places we visit, such as senior residences, hospitals, and similar settings, they keep a few; we just have to borrow one for the mass time. But due to Revd. Mary, who is nailed to bed cause by her illness. It has been mandatory for me to celebrate in our chapel since the end of January, as we are undergoing further modifications and adding furniture. We have a Vestry and a Sacristy that will be appearing soon. Because it is a small apartment, really, it is a wardrobe called a vestry and a dresser called a sacristy. The idea came from the real sacristy of the ex-St. Joseph church in Carillon, where, under a counter, there are drawers containing all the Holy Dishes and altar linens.
Can you come and pray with us at the Manse Chapel? The answer is yes and no; the reason is that Marie’s bedroom is set up like a hospital room, and medical staff and care providers work here 7 days a week. We have to control access, so no, you cannot, but if you are a volunteer or someone who has already come to us for help and developed a chaplaincy relationship as a parishioner, well, the answer is yes, no problem.
✠ Prayer Request
12 Be joyful in your hope. Be patient in times of affliction. Persevere in prayer.
Romans 12:12
New Catholic Bible
If you have a special intention that you would like us to pray for, please tell us below. Your intentions will be placed in the Manse Chapel before Our Lord Jesus, who is present in the Most Holy and Blessed Sacrament and Holy Mary. Also, the Intercessory Prayer team at Eric Michel Ministries International New Life Catholic will keep these intentions in their prayers. Prayer request emmio@ericmichelministries.org
From the Manse, a small domestic chapel where intimate liturgical celebrations are held, to online gatherings, we foster a living community united in prayer.
Regular Cenacles of Prayer are offered both in person (limited capacity) and via Zoom, welcoming all who seek spiritual communion.
The Kitchen
The Chapel
