The reverend father Christopher Thomas Cantrell Ssc

The Rev'd Father Christopher Thomas Cantrell, SSC, aged 64, died 7th March 2024. He was born, one of nine children, in Bisbee, Arizona on 21st May 1959, to his parents, Richard and Jeanine Cantrell, his father himself a priest of the Anglican Church.
After graduating from Lake Highlands High School, he pursued studies in sculpture and painting at the University of Georgia, graduating in 1981. Realizing a vocation to the priesthood, he obtained his Master in Sacred Theology from Nashotah House Seminary in Wisconsin and was ordained to the priesthood of the Anglican Church in 1987, his father ministering as preacher at the ordination Mass. His ordained ministry began at St Michael's Church (Episcopal) in Savannah, Georgia, numbering thirty-seven years by the time of his death.
In 1991, during his tenure on the staff of All Souls Church (Episcopal) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Fr Cantrell met Karen. They married, uniting with Karen's two daughters, Sarah and Lauren, and later welcoming into their family two more daughters, Hannah and Lydia. Within a few years, he was called to the rectorship of St John's Church, Brownwood, Texas, marking the beginning of his ministry within the Diocese of Fort Worth, ended only by his death. Some years later, he was called to the rectorship of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Fort Worth and then eventually, in 2012, to the rectorship of St Matthias' Church, Dallas.
But his ministry was not confined just to his parishes. Within the Diocese of Fort Worth, he served at various times on the Standing Committee of the diocese, as one of its delegates to several General Conventions of The Episcopal Church, as Dean of the diocese's Fort Worth West deanery, and, still at his death, as Secretary of the Diocesan Convention. He is the founder of the St Michael's Conference Southwest, an annual week-long event which forms young people in their understanding and living of what it means to be a faithful disciple of Christ. But perhaps he is most renowned for his commitment to the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC), a society of bishops and priests within the Anglican Communion which lives under a common rule directed to sanctifying their priesthood and assisting them in promulgating and defending Catholic Faith, Order and Practice.
At the time of his death, he was the Master (the head) of the American province of the Society, the Province of Our Lady of Sorrows. And he will also be remembered for his numerous pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago, Spain and his passion for sailing.
Preceded in death by his parents and sisters, Clare and Elizabeth, Fr Cantrell is survived by his wife, Karen, and their four daughters and husbands: Sarah and Joe and their son Jackson; Lauren and Kurt; Hannah; and Lydia and Douglas.
A Requiem Low Mass will be celebrated at St Matthias Church (Anglican), 3460 Forest Lane, Dallas, on Saturday, 16th March, at 11 o'clock in the morning. Then, the following Saturday, 23rd March, a Solemn High Pontifical Requiem Mass will be celebrated at St Vincent's Cathedral, 1300 Forest Ridge, Bedford, Texas.