"The greatest, most ancient Church"

Anglicanism's debt to the See of Rome is profound.  Cranmer's majestic collects are, for the most part, translations and revisions of those from ancient Roman sacramentaries.  The Apostles' Creed used at Matins and Evensong is the Roman church's ancient baptismal profession of faith.  And, despite the controversy over Anglican orders and the Holy See's definitive judgment, The Preface to the Ordinal accepted the need to preserve the orders received from the Latin church - "that these Orders may be continued". 

The 1662 revision of the Book of Common Prayer implicitly acknowledged this debt when, for the first time since the Reformation, it restored the commemoration of Pope Gregory the Great to the liturgical calendar.  St Gregory, of course, initiated the missionary effort that resulted in the creation of the See of Canterbury.

Imperfectly, hesitatingly, the Anglican tradition - despite the rupture of the Reformation - has been shaped by the faith and tradition of the ancient and apostolic Roman church.  It is this historical reality which allowed the Holy See to proclaim Anglicanorum Coetibus, providing a means for Anglicans to be reconciled to the See of Peter and to thereby recover the fullness of our heritage as Latin Catholics.

Which brings us to today's commemoration of the Holy Proto-martyrs of the Roman Church.  This commemoration reminds the Universal Church that the primacy of the Roman church is built on the witness of its martyrs.  In his Epistle to the Corinthians, Clement I points to the witness of the proto-martyrs alongside the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul:

To these men who spent their lives in the practice of holiness, there is to be added a great multitude of the elect, who, having through envy endured many indignities and tortures, furnished us with a most excellent example.

To acknowledge the primacy of the Roman church is to accept the witness of Peter, Paul and the holy proto-martyrs.  It is to share in the confession of St Irenaeus - "the greatest, most ancient Church, the Church known to all, the Church founded and established in Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul ... With this Church, because of its more excellent origin, every Church must agree" (Adversus Haereses III 3, 1-3).  Anglicanorum Coetibus is a gift which allows Anglicans to share this confession.

"He stood for the Church's universality and unity"

St Augustine's sermon on the feast of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul reminds us that the Petrine ministry is one which serves communion and unity.  Peter, Augustine proclaims, "stood for the Church's universality and unity":

Before his passion the Lord Jesus, as you know, chose those disciples of his whom he called apostles. Among these it was only Peter who almost everywhere was given the privilege of representing the whole Church. It was in the person of the whole Church, which he alone represented, that he was privileged to hear, "To you will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." After all, it is not just one man that received these keys, but the Church in its unity. So this is the reason for Peter’s acknowledged pre-eminence, that he stood for the Church’s universality and unity, when he was told, "To you I am entrusting," what has in fact been entrusted to all. To show you that it is the Church which has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, listen to what the Lord says in another place to all his apostles: "Receive the Holy Spirit; and immediately afterwards, Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven them; whose sins you retain, they will be retained" (John 20:22-23).

Quite rightly, too, did the Lord after his resurrection entrust his sheep to Peter to be fed (Jn. 21: 15-19). It is not, you see, that he alone among the disciples was fit to feed the Lord’s sheep; but when Christ speaks to one man, unity is being commended to us. And he first speaks to Peter, because Peter is the first among the apostles.

Augustine's understanding of the Petrine ministry provides an insight into the crisis of contemporary Anglicanism.  Without the Petrine ministry, Anglicanism vocation to universality and unity is fundamentally flawed.  The ARCIC agreements on 'Authority in the Church' have at least implicitly recognised this, urging Anglicanism to undergo a "recovery and re-reception" of the "universal primacy by the Bishop of Rome" (The Gift of Authority III, 62).

It is in this context that the authentically ecumenical promise of Anglicanorum Coetibus can be seen.  To quote from Fr Aidan Nichols' homily at the first Mass of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham:

It is nothing less than the reconfiguring of Anglicanism by union with the Petrine centre and its criteria of orthodoxy. 

For universality and unity, we need Peter.  This is what Anglicanorum Coetibus offers the Anglican tradition.  For Anglican pilgrims on the path of reconciliation with the See of Peter, this is what we can celebrate on today's feast.

Peter - "bearing witness to the truth, he serves unity"

In the week in which we celebrate the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, it is appropriate to reflect on words from Blessed John Paul II's encyclical Ut unum sint on the Petrine primacy:

The Bishop of Rome is the Bishop of the Church which preserves the mark of the martyrdom of Peter and of Paul: "By a mysterious design of Providence it is at Rome that [Peter] concludes his journey in following Jesus, and it is at Rome that he gives his greatest proof of love and fidelity. Likewise Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, gives his supreme witness at Rome. In this way the Church of Rome became the Church of Peter and of Paul" (90) ...

With the power and the authority without which such an office would be illusory, the Bishop of Rome must ensure the communion of all the Churches. For this reason, he is the first servant of unity. This primacy is exercised on various levels, including vigilance over the handing down of the Word, the celebration of the Liturgy and the Sacraments, the Church's mission, discipline and the Christian life. It is the responsibility of the Successor of Peter to recall the requirements of the common good of the Church, should anyone be tempted to overlook it in the pursuit of personal interests. He has the duty to admonish, to caution and to declare at times that this or that opinion being circulated is irreconcilable with the unity of faith. When circumstances require it, he speaks in the name of all the Pastors in communion with him. He can also—under very specific conditions clearly laid down by the First Vatican Council— declare ex cathedra that a certain doctrine belongs to the deposit of faith. By thus bearing witness to the truth, he serves unity (94).

Mindful of the crisis of orthodoxy and orthopraxis within contemporary Anglicanism, we can see with a renewed vision the evangelical vocation of the Petrine ministry to build up the Church's unity and communion.  It is precisely the absence of this Petrine ministry within Anglicanism which has created the circumstances which have given rise to a succession of ecclesiological crises, led to impaired communion and resulted in significant divisions (Continuing, AMiA, CANA, GAFCON, and now AMiE). We have cut ourselves off from Peter and his vocation to build up the Church's unity and communion.

Those Anglicans prayerfully reflecting on Anglicanorum Coetibus can then re-receive the truth that, as Ut unum sint proclaims, the Petrine primacy has its foundation in the Gospel:

In the New Testament, the person of Peter has an eminent place. In the first part of the Acts of the Apostles, he appears as the leader and spokesman of the Apostolic College described as "Peter ... and the Eleven" (2:14; cf. 2:37, 5:29). The place assigned to Peter is based on the words of Christ himself, as they are recorded in the Gospel traditions.

This Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, I continue my journey towards reconciliation with the See of Peter, mindful of the commission given to Peter and his successors by the Incarnate Word, the Crucified and Risen Lord.

The Ordinariates and the Psalter

In the catechesis at his general audience on Wednesday of this week, the Holy Father spoke of the Psalms as "the book of prayer par excellence".  His comments emphasise the significance of the Psalter to the daily office:

The Psalms teach us to pray ... In them, the Word of God becomes the word of prayer. ... People who pray the Psalms speak to God with the words of God, addressing Him with the words He Himself taught us. ... Through these words it is also possible to know and accept the criteria of His actions, to approach the mystery of His thoughts and His ways, so as to grow and develop in faith and love.

And it is in the Paschal Mystery that the Psalms are provided with their "ultimate interpretation" - it is in light of the Cross and Resurrection that the Church prays the psalms in its daily prayer:

Equally important and significant are the manner and frequency in which the words of the Psalms appear in the New Testament, where they assume and underline that prophetic significance suggested by the link of the Book of Psalms with the messianic figure of David. In His earthly life the Lord Jesus prayed with the Psalms, and in Him they reach definitive fulfilment and reveal their fullest and deepest meaning. The prayers of the Book of Psalms, with which we speak to God, speak to us of Him, they speak of the Son, image of the invisible God Who fully reveals the Father's face to us. Thus Christians, by praying the Psalms, pray to the Father in Christ and with Christ, seeing those songs in a new perspective which has its ultimate interpretation in the Paschal Mystery.

Benedict's words should recall us to pray the Psalms in Christ and with the Church in the daily office.  Restoring such a patristic use of the Psalter was the intention of Cranmer in his reform of the daily office.  In his preface to the Book of Common Prayer, "Concerning the Service of the Church", he noted of the Psalms, "now of late time a few of them have been daily said, and the rest utterly omitted".  Perhaps the Ordinariates and Anglican-Use communities in the Catholic Church, reflecting the Anglican tradition of  Evensong and of the whole people of God joining in the Office, have a vocation to exemplify such a praying of the Psalms outside of a monastic context.

The voice and the Word

I live close to a major town in Northern Ireland with numerous Anglican parishes (at least 8 between my home and the far end of the town).  Not one will be celebrating the Holy Eucharist on this Feast of the birth of St John the Baptist.  Thankfully a small handful of Anglican parishes in Belfast have a Eucharist on this day.  It is another, however, illustration of the failure of the Church of Ireland to live out key patristic, catholic practices - it is clear from St Augustine that the Church celebrated this feast in his day. 

Today we celebrate the Forerunner, the voice who pointed to the Word.

The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John’s, as we celebrate Christ’s. This point cannot be passed over in silence, and if I may not perhaps be able to explain it in the way that such an important matter deserves, it is still worth thinking about it a little more deeply and fruitfully than usual.

John is born of an old woman who is barren; Christ is born of a young woman who is a virgin. That John will be born is not believed, and his father is struck dumb; that Christ will be born is believed, and he is conceived by faith ...

Zachary is struck dumb and loses his voice, until John, the Lord’s forerunner, is born and releases his voice for him. What does Zachary’s silence mean, but that prophecy was obscure and, before the proclamation of Christ, somehow concealed and shut up? It is released and opened up by his arrival, it becomes clear when the one who was being prophesied is about to come ... The tongue is released because a voice is being born ...

John is the voice, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John is a voice for a time, but Christ is the eternal Word from the beginning.

From St Augustine's sermon on the Feast of the birth of St John the Baptist.

Corpus Christi - 'be what you see and receive what you are'

Only a small handful of Irish Anglican parishes will be celebrating Corpus Christi - a sobering reminder of the reality of Irish Anglicanism and its distance from an authentically catholic understanding of the Holy Eucharist.  For those of us who value the richness of the Anglican tradition but who also seek its completion and fullness in catholic communion with the See of Peter, today's feast can be another step on our pilgrimage.

May the words of St Augustine of Hippo encourage us on our journey:

You see on God's altar bread and a cup.  That is what the evidence of your eyes tells you but your faith requires you to believe that the bread is the body of Christ, and the cup the blood of Christ ...

It is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the Lord's Table, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you are receiving.  You reply 'Amen' to what you are, and thereby agree that such you are.  You hear the words 'The body of Christ' and you reply 'Amen'.  Be, then, a member of Christ's body, so that your 'Amen' may accord with the truth ...

Be, then, what you see, and receive what you are.

The Ordinariates and the Body of Christ

On the eve of the feast of Corpus Christi, thoughts from The Anglo-Catholic blog on those among the cloud of witnesses praying for the Ordinariates:

On this week when we recognize the feast of Corpus Christi, it is quite fitting for us to think of those with whom we have communion in Heaven. It is important to remember that everything we are doing in entering the Ordinariates is for the sake of communion. The preservation of our Anglican heritage is not for our sake alone, but for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Why are we going through these struggles? It is for the sake of that most blessed of gifts; the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. It is for the glory of Christ and for the conversion of the lost that they too make partake of His very body and blood. This is what the "witnesses in Heaven" are praying for and it is what we should be praying for also ...

Whether it be Blessed John Henry Newman, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, or Our Lady of the Atonement, they are members of that very same cloud of witnesses. They long to see the growth of the Anglican heritage within the Catholic Church, and it is their voices that are being lifted up onto the altar of God along with ours as a sweet incense. They are the "spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb 12:23) whose presence we enter during every liturgy. Let us take heart in knowing that whatever challenges lie in our path, whatever delays may occur, and whatever confusion we may have, that there is an innumerable company of the "souls of the faithful departed" who continually behold the face of our Lord Jesus Christ and are petitioning Him for our good, both today and forever.

To which this Irish Anglican prayerfully reflecting on Anglicanorum Coetibus adds, St Augustine of Hippo and St Augustine of Canterbury ora pro nobis.

Canada and little acorns

The website of The Ordinariate Group of Our Lady and St John - Calgary is worth browsing.  The Group was created following the decision of St John's Anglican parish in Calgary to respond to Anglicanorum Coetibus.  The site explains the background to the Group:

The Ordinariate Group of Our Lady and St John is made up of those who are currently Anglicans, as well as Catholics who were formerly Anglican, and a number of Catholics who are married to Anglicans. With the loving care of our appointed Priest Mentor, the Catholic parish priest of Brooks, Alberta, Fr Michael Storey, we are together praying for, and looking forward to, the establishment of a Personal Ordinariate in Canada.

The majority of us belong to the Parish of St John the Evangelist, Calgary, a parish founded in 1905 as part of what was then the Church of England in Canada (since 1955, the Anglican Church of Canada). Our Group meets at different locations on a monthly basis for fellowship, prayer and study, but we also gather on Sundays and throughout the week as part of the regular worshipping life of St John’s, under the pastoral care and leadership of its Priest-in-Charge, Fr Lee Kenyon, who was a priest of the Church of England until he came to St John’s in April 2009.

Similarly, the pilgrimage of the Toronto Ordinariate Group can be explored here:

We are a group of Anglicans and Roman Catholics in Toronto, who welcome with joy the publication of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, and express our gratitude for the Holy Father’s generosity in providing a means for some Anglicans to be received into full communion with the See of Rome, while acknowledging and retaining the aspects of Anglican patrimony that conform to the Catholic faith and have inspired this desire for communion with the Successor of Peter.

We are convinced of the importance of being in communion with the See of Peter and the essential fullness of Catholic doctrine as interpreted through the Petrine Ministry for the organic unity and health of Body of Christ.

We are exploring the possibility of forming a Catholic parish in Toronto under the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution.

Of some significance for those of us in Ireland is the view expressed by the mentor priest to the Toronto Group:

Fr Foote stated that very few are needed to constitute a viable worshipping community. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt 18.20). The 14 people we had gathered to hear Fr Foote on Sunday would be enough to provide the basis for building a parish.  (With reference to numbers, Fr Phillips has provided a reflection on little acorns.) Accordingly, an Ordinariate parish in Toronto will be established.

Irish Anglicans and the mission of the Ordinariate: a Community of St Augustine of Canterbury?

One of the newly-ordained priests in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham - Fr. Ian Hellyer - celebrated his first mass as a Catholic priest on Sunday past, the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.  In his homily he emphasised the vocation of the Ordinariate to participate in the new evangelisation:

I am not alone amongst the clergy of the ordinariate to think that I did not give up my position in the C of E to form some sort of catholic holy club ; a place to feel comfortable in, within the Catholic church. I believe a very significant part of the establishment of the ordinariate is missionary. We have work to do in the new evangelisation of the people of England. And as clergy we have been struggling to make sure we have time to go out there, to meet people, to field their questions, to allay their fears, to teach… Our time could very easily have been taken up with diocesan work, very easily. But we haven’t joined the ordinariate for that. We are very happy to help the parishes of the diocese but that is not our main work. The ordinariate has been set up to reconcile the English people with the Catholic Faith, the Catholic Church. We have a mission.

Our situation in Ireland - both Northern Ireland and the Republic - is very different.  There will be no Church of Ireland parishes petitioning to become part of an Ordinariate, as has happened in England and the United States.  There are, I am sure, no Irish Anglican clergy seeking to serve in the Ordinariate.  And because of the absence of a St Stephen's House, Oxford or a Nashotah House, there has been no tradition of Irish Anglican clergy receiving a catholic formation for ordination.  This being so, the provisions of Anglicanorum Coetibus would not apply in Ireland as they have done in England and will do in the United States.

But this does not mean that a small grouping of Irish Anglicans could not respond to the call of Anglicanorum Coetibus, form a Community of (let us say) St Augustine of Canterbury, be catechised according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, be received into the Catholic Church, and as a community assemble on a regular basis for the Anglican-Use Daily Office and for extra-liturgical devotions.  Perhaps a priest from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham could act as an occasional chaplain, to celebrate Mass according to the Anglican-Use, or a priest from a Catholic diocese in Ireland could be authorised to celebrate Mass according to the Anglican-Use. 

Such a Community of St Augustine of Canterbury would indeed be small and, in the eyes of the world, rather insignificant.  But is would be a sign of the hope and promise of Anglicanorum Coetibus on an island in which the legacy of the Reformation has left bitter divisions.  What is more, it could also contribute to the new evangelisation, ensuring that what Anglicanorum Coetibus described as "the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion" find their place in the mission of the Catholic Church "as a precious gift ... and as a treasure to be shared".

Tracey Rowland on Benedict and the Anglican Patrimony

Tracey Rowland - Dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage & Family in Melbourne, Australia - sought to give definition to the 'Anglican patrimony' in an Australian conference on the Ordinariate.  (The full text of the address can be found at the Ordinariate Portal.)  Two particular aspects of the Anglican tradition emphasised by Rowland indicate why Benedict XVI has offered Anglicanorum Coetibus as a means of both enriching the Universal Church and healing Anglicanism's rupture with the See of Peter.

Firstly, there is liturgical theology and practice:

Although the Pope has not made any public statements about what he thinks might be the ‘gifts’ Anglicans could bring to their full membership of the Catholic Church, many commentators have observed an affinity between the Anglo-Catholic approaches to liturgy and Pope Benedict’s own liturgical theology ...

I think that Anglicans do have an appreciation of the importance of beauty and an understanding of ritual and that those who join the Ordinariate can bring with them a great liturgical tradition which many Roman-Rite Catholics will find attractive.  Aidan Nichols OP calls this particular gift of the Anglican communion ‘a high sacral register of liturgical language’.  The Evensong liturgy is perhaps the best example of this particular gift, but there are many others.

Secondly, under the influence of the Caroline Divines Anglicanism re-received the Christological and Trinitarian theologies of patristic catholicism:

I would suggest that there is much treasure to be retrieved from the works of the Caroline Divines ... The Anglo-Catholic theologians retained a strong interest in Patristic theology and thus avoided the extremes of baroque-era scholasticism, while their aversion to Calvinism inoculated them against anything like Jansenism.  Blessed John Henry Newman was the heir to this heritage and is perhaps the paradigm example of someone who has appropriated its better elements ... in the works of the Caroline Divines one finds some of the most beautiful reflections upon Patristic thought to be found in the English language.

Rowland goes as far as to suggest that Benedict "would have felt more at home with Lancelot Andrewes" than he would with the Neo-Scholasticism which the young Ratzinger strongly critiqued.

What unites these two aspects of the Anglican patrimony - liturgical theology and the Caroline's re-reception of patristic theologies - is what Rowland terms "the transcendental of beauty", the very transcendental which Benedict XVI regards as primary:

I therefore believe that now is a time in the life of the Church when we have a pope who is temperamentally suited to appropriating the Anglican patrimony which in so many ways is strongest on the transcendental of beauty.

Rowland's address provides a theological and historical context in which to understand the significance of Anglicanorum Coetibus and the dignity of the vocation it gives to those Anglicans who take the step of faith and re-enter communion with the See of Peter.  The Ordinariates and Anglican-Use communities in the Catholic Church are called to contribute to the new evangelisation their rich heritage of liturgical and theological beauty in the flattened and disenchanted world of postmodernity.

"A sense of continuity and change"

In his homily at the ordination of priests for the Ordinariate in Birmingham earlier this week, Mgr Keith Newton addressed the issue of Anglican orders and the calling of the Ordinariate to bring to wholeness and completion the Anglican tradition:

This afternoon the eight of you will be ordained to the priesthood in the Catholic Church.  You have been called by Christ – a truth you must never forget – and that calling has been ratified by the Church. There is for you all both a sense of continuity and of change. There is continuity because that call to Christian ministry first came to you some years ago, in some cases many years ago.  You have many years of faithful service and experience to bring with you but you will also be aware that your ministry in the future will be set in a totally new context as priest of the Catholic Church.  Your ordination today will be a fulfillment and completion of all that has gone before but it will also be radically different as you will exercise that ministry of word and sacrament from the heart of the Church in communion with the successor of Peter, whom Pope Benedict reminded us in his homily at Westminster Abbey ‘is charged with a particular care for the Unity of Christ’s flock’.

More US Ordinariate developments

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington - responsible for the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus in the United States - has reported to the US Catholic bishops on progress towards an Ordinariate in the US.  According to one report, Cardinal Wuerl has stated that "as many as 100 U.S. Anglican priests and 2,000 laypeople could be the first members of a U.S. personal ordinariate".  This includes, of course, the Episcopal parishes of St. Luke's in Bladensburg and Mount Calvary in Baltimore.

In his report (which can be read here), Cardinal Wuerl noted that "the Holy See has indicated its wish to establish an Ordinariate in the United States this Fall".

(The picture is of Mass at Mount Cavalry Episcopal parish.)

Healing the rupture and enriching continuity

From Monsignor Andrew Burnham's sermon at the Solemn Evensong and Benediction at Oxford yesterday:

Those of us who have already become Catholics, under the ægis of Anglicanorum cœtibus,  have recognised, and are attempting to be agents of healing of, the undoubted rupture and discontinuity to be found in the history of the theological idea of ‘a kingdom of priests’ ...

A proper understanding of ‘a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ is possible only within the particular Israelite Covenant context or, within the New Covenant, in the Catholic doctrine of the Church.  Only in the Catholic doctrine of the Church is the Holy Eucharist, the Eucharist offered within the Sacrifice of the Mass, and as worshipped in Benediction, inevitably and indubitably the focus of our devotion.  Only within the Catholic doctrine of the Church is a eucharistic people fully and indubitably empowered to embark on living out the Covenant as handed down on Sinai and expounded at the Sermon on the Mount.  The kingdom of priests is not a bunch of priests, still less a bunch of lay folk who have no need of a ministerial priesthood, but a holy people, chosen to ‘declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light’.  This holy people, as prophetically recognised by Anglicanorum cœtibus, is enriched – ever so slightly, for there are not many of us and may never be many of us – by the liturgical forms and musical expressions that have developed their own life within Anglicanism and which, whenever they speak of continuity and not rupture, are now usefully and beautifully restored to their ancient roots.  

The Catholic Church and the Anglican patrimony

More from Bishop Elliott's recent address on the Ordinariate, pointing to the gifts the Anglican tradition brings to the Catholic Church:

We also see what the Ordinariate brings to the wider Church. The liturgical use in the Ordinariates will contribute to the deeper and more spiritual renewal of liturgy that has quietly emerged in recent years, the fruit of the Eucharistic project of Blessed John Paul II and the liturgical wisdom of Pope Benedict XVI.

(The picture is of Mass being celebrated in an Anglican Use parish in the United States.)

Benediction in Oxford

Tomorrow, 15th June, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham will be celebrating Solemn Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the Blackfriars Priory Church, Oxford. 

The location is, of course, of immense significance.  Anglicanism's 19th century Catholic Revival started in Oxford.  Now the hopes of the Oxford Movement are finding their fruition.

Let us pray that the members of the Ordinariate will be renewed in their mission through adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

A positive journey towards unity

As noted yesterday, last week St Luke's Episcopal Church in Bladenburg, Maryland announced that it would seek entry into the Catholic Church as part of the Ordinariate in the United States.  The Episcopal Bishop of Washington, John Bryson Chane, has supported St Luke's in its pilgrimage and has generously allowed the parish to retain use of the parish church. 

St Luke's Rector, Fr Mark Lewis, has emphasised that the move is not merely a reaction to recent innovations in the Episcopal Church.  It is, rather, a positive journey towards unity:

Prayer and study, not any controversies, led the congregation toward unity with the Catholic Church, Rev. Lewis said, when asked whether Episcopal doctrine on the priesthood or sexual issues had precipitated the move.

Over the past several years, the Episcopal Church, the U.S. member of the Anglican Communion, has approved ordaining women priests and bishops, ordaining homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions."Those issues on the priesthood and sexuality have been around. The real issue that drove us was our study of the Catholic faith," he said. "The more we looked at it and compared it to Anglicanism, we were drawn to the Church of Rome. It was a natural progression."

Pilgrims to unity and communion

Bishop Peter Elliott, a former Anglican and now Auxiliary  Bishop in the Catholic Diocese of Melbourne, spoke an at Ordinariate Information Day in Victoria, Melbourne on 11th June.  The full text of his speech can read at the Ordinariate Portal.  He ended by encouraging all of us on the pilgrimage to unity and communion to emulate the Apostles by joining our Lady in prayer:

On the pilgrimage of the Ordinariate, whether we are walking the pilgrim way ourselves or joining others as companions or sponsors, we all pray as the apostles did in the upper room at Pentecost “with Mary the Mother of Jesus”. With her we ask the Holy Spirit the Paraclete to achieve through our lives the unity that is so dear the Heart of Christ our Lord.

Ordinariate developments in the United States

Welcome

The recognition of the riches of the Anglican tradition by Pope Benedict XVI in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus has offered the hope of the reconciliation of the Anglican tradition to the See of Peter after centuries of separation.

The creation of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and preparations for Ordinariates in the United States, Canada and Australia demonstrate how many Anglicans across the globe are responding to the promise of Anglicanorum Coetibus.

The burden of a painful and divisive past has meant that there is little, if any, expectation of an Ordinariate in Ireland. This, however, does not have to be case. The ARCIC process, initiated by Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey in 1967, has shown the significant agreement between Anglicans and Roman Catholics with regard to the Eucharist, Ministry, Authority, the Church, Justification and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

For those Anglicans in Ireland who believe that Anglicanorum Coetibus should be prayerfully explored, this blog is offered as an arena for discussion.