The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort...St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Homily on the Occasion of his Formal Institution as Ordinary

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Catholicism: What is an Anglican-use Parish or Community?

While I have been happy to report on news about the Anglican Use, the Ordinariates and associated happenings in the Church, one thing we have all no doubt noted is how almost all such stories are found in the religious press or on blogs whose focus is on Catholicism or the Ordinariates in particular. In a sense, we are talking to ourselves.

So it is always a pleasure to run across an article in a medium that is not specifically religious; it gives hope that a wider public will learn about the riches available through the Anglican Use liturgy and the Ordinariates. Such as the one below:

Ask any former Anglican or Episcopalian convert to Catholicism what he or she misses most. The answer almost always includes music. As former Anglicans--members of the Episcopal Church in the United States--my husband and I usually give the same response. We also miss the beautiful "thee's" and "thou's" of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, which for many years was the basis of the liturgy used in the Episcopal Church, and the enthusiasm with which many parishioners embraced singing in church.

Many Anglican-to-Catholic converts are thrilled when they discover the possibility of becoming a member of what is known as an Anglican-use parish or community...

Read the rest of Vonda Sines' reflection at Associated Content on Yahoo.

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