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

Monday, January 16, 2012

Oxford University’s Latin Sermon

16 January 2012
by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. John Hunwicke apparently received permission from Msgr. Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham to preach Oxford University’s Latin Sermon from Newman’s pulpit.

The text (I received along with it the paraphrase, which is not my rendering):

Sunt autem, Oxonienses, et alii pro quibus Omnipotentem deprecari possimus. Mensis enim Ianuarii dies iam quintus decimus lucescit; qui dies quamquam non omnibus candidus laetitiam tamen nonnullis haud minimam adferre debet...

Read the full sermon in Latin (with an English "paraphrase") at the incomparable Fr. Z's blog What Does the Prayer Really Say?.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting. I guess Fr. Hunwicke is still an Anglican priest, having been rejected for entry into the Ordinariate and allowed to enter the Catholic priesthood. perhaps Msgr. Newton feels he owes Fr. H. a favor for all his years of defending the Orthodoxy and Catholicity of Anglicanism and in defense of Rome. Fr. H. handles rejection honorably and with graciousness.

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  3. John Hunwicke is a lay Catholic and an Ordinariate member. He left the CofE at the same time as everyone else last Easter. People still refer to him as Fr. Hunwicke out of custom and affection (myself included), not because he is still a CofE priest. He has not been rejected for the Catholic priesthood either, his ordination has, in his own words, been deferred. He has not disclosed the circumstances as to why, and unless and until it becomes publicly known to the contrary he will at some stage be ordained.

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