Japanese congregation of the Australian Ordinariate

Posted on February 5, 2015by Ordinariate Support Group for Expats in Europe

Is this Raphael Kajiwara?

We have been made aware of an amendment to the website of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross indicating that it now includes a Japanese congregation in Tokyo under the leadership of “Father” Raphael Kajiwara.

It has long been mooted that members of the Traditional Anglican Church of Japan (TAC) – the Nippon Kirisuto Sei Ko Kai – around their former suffragan bishop, the Right Revd. Raphael Kajiwara, retired bishop of Yokohama, would be or have been received into the Catholic Church and that they would in fact join the Australian Ordinariate...

Read the rest of David Murphy's report at Ordinariate Expats

Anglican Ordinariate Priestly Ordination and Mass of Thanksgiving

Recently, in Melbourne, Australia, Bishop Elliott ordained another priest for the Anglican Ordinariate. Congratulations to the Rev. Richard Waddell, who was ordained. He will now be leaving to study Canon Law in Rome. There are pictures of both the ordination at St Patrick's Mentone, as well as his Mass of Thanksgiving, which he celebrated at the Community of Bl. John Henry Newman.

I am also told that this was a historic  situation: while the Mass of Ordination was celebrated according to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the Mass of thanksgiving was the very first use of the Interim Liturgy of the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia...


Read the rest of the article and view the many photos on The New Liturgical Movement.

Questions answered in new little Ordinariate catechism

by Robert Hiini

A great deal of natural curiosity surrounding the Anglican ordinariate has been answered with the publication of A little Catechism on the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans authored by Melbourne Bishop Peter Elliott, a former Anglican. Not only does the small tome answer the question of what the ordinariate is and can do, but also questions about who is able to join, whether ordinariate priests must be celibates and how ordinariate worship might be different to that in Western and Eastern Catholic churches.

Australia’s Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross came into being on June 15, 2012 and is one of three ordinariates established for former Anglicans throughout the world, along with those in England and the United States...

Read the full story at the web site of The Record.

Ordinariate head wants group to grow, evangelise

By Damir Govorcin
1 July, 2012

Fr Harry Entwistle says his conversion from Anglican to the Catholic faith can’t be explained by anything other than the Holy Spirit’s “wicked sense of humour”.

As the inaugural head of the personal ordinariate of Our Lady of the South­ern Cross, a jurisdiction for former Anglicans in Australia, he said it’s “an awesome responsibility because it means that I have to lay the foundations of the Ordinariate to enable it to grow and flourish and be an evangelistic tool for the Church”.

“Apart from the legalities of erecting the Ordinariate, we’re getting enormous help from the Catholic Bishops Conference to set that up, it does mean with a shortage of few clergy we will have initially we have got to get the message out to others that we exist,” he said...

Read the full story in The Catholic Weekly.

Hat tip to Fr. Stephen Smuts.

Ordination of the Very Reverend Fr Harry Entwistle

16 Jun 2012

Article and Photo by Fr R Cross

The Most Reverend Timothy Costelloe SDB, Archbishop of Perth, ordained to the Priesthood on Friday 15 June in St Mary's Cathedral Perth the Very Reverend Harry Entwistle.

 

Above: Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett, Bishop Peter Elliott, Fr Harry Entwistle, 

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe and Bishop Donald Sproxton

 

Also present at the ordination were Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett of the Lismore Diocese, Bishop Peter Elliot, Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, Bishop Donald Sproxton, many clergy of the Archdiocese of Perth as well as family and friends of the newly ordained Fr Entwistle. Traditional Anglican Community Archbishop, the Most Reverend John Hepworth, was also present in the congregation and later expressed his goodwill and support and said he looked forward to the day when the Church would be without division and speak with the one voice of Christ...

Read the rest at the web site of the Perth Archdiocese.

Hat tip to Fr. Smuts.

Ordinariate established for Australia / Biography of Rev. Harry Entwistle

It was announced on Friday Pope Benedict XVI has erected the third personal ordinariate according to the norms established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorun coetibus. The Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross will conform to the area of the Australian Bishop’s Conference. The former Western Regional Bishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion, the Reverend Harry Entwistle, was appointed the Ordinariate’s first Ordinary.


Biography of Rev. Harry Entwistle

Reverend Harry Entwistle was born on May 31, 1940 at Chorley, Lancashire, England and baptised an Anglican in the Parish Church on July 7, 1940. After studies at St. Chad's Theological College in the University of Durham, he was ordained priest on September 20, 1964 for the Anglican Diocese of Blackburn, Lancashire. After priestly service in Fleetwood, Hardwick, Weedon, Aston Abbotts and Cubligton, he was Chaplain in Her Majesty's Prison Service from 1974 to 1981 and from 1981 to 1988, Senior Chaplain at HM Prison Wansworth.
He migrated to Australia in 1988 where he was the Senior Chaplain for the Department of Corrective Services in the Anglican Diocese of Perth, Western Australia.
From 1992 to 1999 he was Archdeacon and Parish Priest of Northam; from 1999 to 2006 Parish Priest of Mt Lawley. In 2006 he joined the Traditional Anglican Communion and was appointed Western Regional Bishop and Parish Priest of Maylands in Perth.
After reception into the Church and ordination as a deacon, he was ordained to the priesthood in St. Mary's Cathedral, Perth on June 15, 2012.


from the Vatican News web site

Australian Ordinariate Erected; Fr. Harry Entwistle named Ordinary

Fr. Harry Entwhistle was ordained to the Catholic priesthood today in Australia, and was named as Ordinary of the newly erected Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. The principal church was also named. The decree of erection from the CDF is reposted below. Hat tip to Fr. Stephen Smuts
Decree of Erection of
the Personal Ordinarlate of
Our Lady of the Southern Cross
The supreme law of the Church is the salvation of souls. As such, throughout its history, the Church has always found the pastoral and juridical means to care for the good of the faithful.
With the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, promulgated on 4 November 2009, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, provided for the establishment of Personal Ordinariates through which Anglican faithful may enter, even in a corporate manner, into full communion with the Catholic Church¹. On that same date. the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published Complementary Norms relating to such Ordinariates².
In conformity with what is established in Art. I § 1 and § 2 of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, having received requests from a considerable number of Anglican faithful, and having consulted with the AustralianCatholic Bishops Conference, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

ERECTS
the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross within the territory of the Episcopal Conference of Australia.
1. The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross ipso iure possesses juridic personality and is juridically equivalent to a diocese³. It includes those faithful, of every category and state of life, who, originally having belonged to the Anglican Communion, are now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or who have received the sacraments of initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate itself⁴, or who are received into it because they are part of a family belonging to the Ordinariate⁵.
2. The faithful of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross are entrusted to the pastoral care of the Personal Ordinary who, once named by the Roman Pontiff⁶, possesses all the faculties, and is held to all the obligations, specified in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus and the Complementary Norms⁷ as well as in those matters determined subsequently by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on request both of the Ordinary, having heard the Governing Council of the Ordinariate, and of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
3. The Anglican faithful who wish to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate must manifest this desire in writing⁸. There is to be a program of catechetical formation for these faithful, lasting for a congruent time, and with content established by the Ordinary in agreement with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith so that the faithful are able to adhere fully to the doctrinal content of the Catechism of the Catholic church⁹, and therefore, make the profession of faith.
4. For candidates for ordination who previously were ministers in the Anglican Communion, there is to be a specific program of theological formation, as well as spiritual and pastoral preparation, prior to ordination in the Catholic Church, according to what will be established by the Ordinary in agreement with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
5. For a cleric not incardinated in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross to assist at a marriage of the faithful belonging to the Ordinariate, he must receive the faculty from the Ordinary or the pastor of the personal parish to which the faithful belong¹⁰.
6. The Ordinary is a member by right of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, with deliberative vote in those cases in which this is required in law¹¹.
7. A cleric, having come originally from the Anglican Communion, who has already been ordained in the Catholic Church and incardinated in a Diocese, is able to be incardinated in the Ordinariate in accord with the norm of can. 267 CIC.
8. Until the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross may have established its own Tribunal, the judicial cases of its faithful are referred to the Tribunal of the Diocese in which one of the parties has a domicile, while taking into account, however, the different titles of competence established in cann. 1408-1414 and 1673 CIC¹².
9. The faithful of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross who are, temporarily or permanently, outside the territory of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, while remaining members of the Ordinariate, are bound by universal law and those particular laws of the territory where they find themselves¹³.
10. If a member of the faithful moves permanently into a place where another Personal Ordinariate has been erected, he is able, on his own request, to be received into it. The new Ordinary is bound to inform the original Personal Ordinariate of the reception. If a member of the faithful wishes to leave the Ordinariate, he must make such a decision known to his own Ordinary. He automatically becomes a member of the Diocese where he resides. In this case, the Ordinary will ensure that the Diocesan Bishop is informed.
11. The Ordinary, keeping in mind the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis and the Program of Priestly Formation of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, is to prepare a Program of Priestly Formation for the seminarians of the Ordinariate which must be approved by the Apostolic See¹⁴.
12, The Ordinary will ensure that the Statutes of the Governing Council and the Pastoral Council, which are subject to his approval, are drawn up¹⁵.
13. The principal Church of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross will be the Church of St. Ninian and St. Chad, Maylands, Perth. The Seat of the Ordinariate, where the register referred to in Art. 5 § 1 of the Complementary Norms will be kept, will be determined by the Ordinary in agreement with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
14. The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross has as its patron St. Augustine of Canterbury.
Everything to the contrary notwithstanding.
Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for tho Doctrine of the Faith, 15 June 2012, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
William Cardinal Levada
Prefect
+ Luis F.Ladaria, S.J. Titular Archbishop of Thibica
Secretary

---

¹ Cf.AAS 101 (2009). 985-990.
² Cf, L'Osservatore Romano (9-10 November 2009), p. 7; Weekly Edition In English (11 November 2009), p. 4.
³ Cf. can. 372 § 2 CIC; Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, Art. I § 3.
⁴ Cf. Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, Art. I 8 4.
⁵ Cf. Complementary Norms, Art. 5 § 1.
⁶ Cf. Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, Art. IV, Complementary Norms, Art. 4 § 1.
⁷ Cf. Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, Art. VI § 4; Complementary Norms, Art. 5 § 2; Art. 9.
⁸ Cf. Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, Art. IX.
⁹ Cf. Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, Art. I § 5.
¹⁰ Cf. cann. 1110-1111 CIC.
¹¹ Cf. Complementary Norms, Art. 2 § 2. >12 Cf. Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, Art. XII.
¹³ Cf. can. 13 § 3 CIC.
¹⁴ Cf. Complementary Norms, Art 10 § 3; see also Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, Art. VI § 2.
¹⁵ Cf. Complementary Norms, Art. 12 § 1; Art. 13 § 2.

Erection of the Personal Ordinariate in Australia expected today

Today is the official launch of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, which i under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury.

And it officially gets underway with the priestly ordination of former Anglican Bishop Harry Entwhistle, and reception into the Church of around 70 members of his congregation, in Perth tonight at the Cathedral at 7pm.

So if you are in Perth, do go along and show your support.

Regardless, please keep all those preparing to enter the Church, and those being ordained, in your prayers.

Please pray also for those who have so far rejected the invitation to enter or return to the Church, that their hearts might yet soften.

And please do especially remember Bishop Peter Eliot, who has been the lead on this for the Church in Australia, and whose anniversary of consecration as a bishop it is today.

From Australia Icognita

Hat tip to Fr. Stephen Smuts

-------

See also this run-up story with a few more details in Clerical Whispers.

More News on the Soon-to-be Erected Personal Ordinariate in Australia

From Melbourne, Australia comes the news:

POPE Benedict XVI will officially name Australia’s Personal Ordinariate Our Lady of the Southern Cross, under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury, on 15 June.

Bishop Peter Elliott, project delegate for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the name of the Ordinary, the person who will lead the Ordinariate, would also be announced that day.

“The Ordinariate is a national diocese for former Anglicans who will enter full communion with the Catholic Church and yet retain their own heritage and traditions,” Bishop Elliott said.

“Many requests had come from groups to Rome in recent years, that is from Anglicans in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, who were deeply distressed at the ordination of women as priests and bishops and also most unhappy about other liberalising trends in the Anglican Communion.

“They requested that rather than being reconciled to the Church individually they might come to some corporate style of arrangement.

“I would encourage all the Catholics in Melbourne to take an interest in this new venture. It is an historical moment, of course it is small but from small things bigthings grow and I think this will have a remarkable future.”

Two main sources will make up the Ordinariate in Australia: members of the Anglican Church in Australia, the official Anglican denomination; and members of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, which is part of the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion—people who left mainstream Anglicanism for the same reasons that they are now seeking ull communion with the Church.

...

“The Ordinariate is part of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church; it’s not a distinct rite. It will have the privilege of a liturgy of its own.

“I am a member of the international commission preparing that liturgy. We are preparing a liturgy which draws upon the Roman Rite, the new rite and the old, plus various books of Common Prayer. This liturgy won’t be obligatory but it will be an option.”

Read the entire article at the web site of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Upcoming Ordinariate Ordinations in Australia

You may recall that Archbishop Hart announced that the Australian Ordinariate for former Anglicans would commence on June 15.

Well here is something to make that a bit more concrete. I've been told that Bishop Harry Entwistle of the Traditional Anglican Communion will be ordained to the Catholic Priesthood at 7.00 pm on Friday 15 June 2012 at St Mary’s Cathedral Perth – ie the “start date” of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. Also, members of his TAC flock will be received into the Catholic Church.

So Perthites, please do make a note in your diaries, and show them your support!

And if you know of upcoming ordinations/receptions into the Church elsewhere, please do let me know and I'll publicize them too!

Please keep all concerned in your prayers.

From Australia Incognita.

Hat tip to Fr. Stephen Smuts

Personal Ordinariate to be established in Australia on June 15

Media Release 11 May, 2012
The President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Denis Hart, announced today that Pope Benedict XVI intends to announce the establishment in Australia of a Personal Ordinariate for Former Anglicans to commence on 15th June 2012.
A Personal Ordinariate is a church structure for particular groups of people who wish to enter into communion with the Catholic Church.
In 2009 Pope Benedict announced special arrangements to cater for groups of Anglicans who wished to join the Catholic Church. This provision allows them to maintain some of the traditions of prayer and worship of Anglicanism...

Read the full press release here.

Hat tip to Fr. Phillips posting at the Anglo Catholic blog.

THE ORDINARIATE - ALIVE AND GROWING IN ENGLAND

A Report from London

Most Rev Peter J. Elliott

The first birthday of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was celebrated fittingly on Sunday January 15^th 2012 at St James, Spanish Place, with Solemn Evensong, Sermon, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Te Deum and Benediction. Together with other clergy, I assisted in choir at this act of thanksgiving on the last night of a fascinating two week visit to London.

The Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton presided and preached. What I found most encouraging was not only his “upbeat” message, full of his own warmth and pastoral confidence, but the sense of achievement and joy among the large congregation who had gathered for the celebration.

The choir of St James brought forth the best of the Anglican Patrimony, wedded to the English Catholic heritage, We entered to Parry “I was glad when they said unto me” (vivid memories of the coronation in 1953). Stanford provided the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus!” accompanied the Eucharistic procession, while the canopy over the Sacrament was borne by four robed Knights of Malta. Stanford again gave us his Te Deum, while Elgar provided a limpid O Salutaris, not forgetting the traditional translation of Benediction used across three centuries by the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament.

What I discerned in London is an Ordinariate that is growing steadily, facing challenges, especially church sharing, yet moving ahead. Nevertheless, some Catholic journalists have claimed that undue control is being exercised over the Ordinariate by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. Frankly I do not share that concern.

The Bishops I talked to want the Ordinariate to flourish and are not overprotective. But, to be realistic, at this stage the Ordinariate is very young, a “nursling in arms”. It needs much support, care and encouragement as it gradually finds its place in the wider Church. It will not be absorbed and it will not be turned into an ecclesiastical nature reserve. Nor should we heed mischievous rumors that some people are reverting to Anglicanism out of disappointment. Long ago, that tale was spread about Blessed John Henry Newman himself. It is a standard fantasy, the gossip of those who feel insecure about other people’s choices. In fact, new groups are forming and emerging and individuals are quietly making their choice for unity...

Read the rest of Bishop Elliot's report at the web site of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (UK).

Resignation of Archbishop John Hepworth of TAC

Please keep all our brethren in the Traditional Anglican Communion, those seeking full communion via the Ordinariates and those who are not, in your prayers. As Fr. Jeffrey Steenson says, all of us who care about the Ordinariates owe an immense debt of gratitude to the TAC for its efforts which were a major element in the petitions that were responded to by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in Anglicanorum coetibus.

Traditional Anglican Communion

Office of the Primate

Archbishop John Hepworth

28th January 2012

To the Bishops, clergy and people of the Traditional Anglican Communion

My Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,

In June of 2003, I was elected as the second Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion. At the Plenary Meeting of our College of Bishops, held in Australia in conjunction with the inauguration of my Primacy, it was made strongly clear – without dissent – that I was to further the ambition of this Communion since its beginnings to discover a means by which Anglican ecclesial communities might come into the fullness of Catholic Communion in a corporate manner, without loss of the treasures of the Anglican tradition.

I prosecuted that mandate of the College in National and Diocesan Synods, in meetings and discussions with anyone whom I thought might assist in both Anglican and Roman Catholic circles, having made clear to the Holy See that I would not allow my own circumstances to become an impediment to unity.

With the promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus, the mandate given to me by the College is now complete.

I have been deeply concerned that most of our Communion has been marginalised by the process of implementing the Apostolic Constitution. My correspondence and personal representations have not been as effective as I would have wished.

I have been equally concerned that several of the Bishops of our College continue to set aside the provisions of the Concordat that regulates our life as a College. The Concordat is a deeply Anglican document. It cannot be changed or disregarded by bishops alone. The clergy and laity meeting as the National Synods of our Member Provinces must confirm changes before they become effective. Neither bishops nor anyone else can be expelled from Communion at the whim of the bishops. Several bishops have started to exercise prelacy of this most disturbing kind.

I have also been concerned at the lightness with which the most solemn decisions of the College are being set aside.
I indicated last December that I would spend some weeks discerning the moment when my retirement might best be accomplished. Some of the bishops have expressed impatience; others have dissented from their actions.

I have today forwarded to the Secretary to the College (an elected position of the College, not an appointment of the Primate) a deed of resignation to be effective on Easter Day of this year, and I have instructed the Secretary to conduct an election for the next Primate, in strict accordance with the procedure laid down by the Concordat, and according to the detailed process determined by the College prior to the resignation of Archbishop Falk, my predecessor.

I remain the Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia.

I ask the prayers of the whole Communion for their bishops at this time, as once again they seek the Divine Will.

+John Hepworth

reposted from the blog English Catholic.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Anglican Ordinariate developments

Things appear to be moving forward at last on the Australian Anglican Ordinariate front, with Adelaide Now reporting that some 31 Traditional Anglican Communion priests were "recently approved for ordination back into the Catholic Church after high-level meetings at the Vatican".

I'm taking that to mean that their reception as Catholics and ordination as Catholic priests has been given approval - and perhaps even a definite timeline - following discussions at the recent Ad Limina visit to Rome...

read more at the blog Australia Incognita.

Hat tip to Tito Edwards, blogging at the National Catholic Register.

Australian bishop: Have no illusions about classical Anglo-Catholics

By Anthony Barich
Catholic News Service

PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- Traditionalist Anglicans who remain in the Anglican Church rather than taking up Pope Benedict XVI's offer of an Anglican ordinariate are wasting their time and spiritual energy clinging to a dangerous illusion, said the Vatican's delegate for the Australian ordinariate.

Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott, a former Anglican, urged Anglicans at a Feb. 26 festival in Perth to take up the pope's offer of "peace."

"I would caution people who still claim to be Anglo-Catholics and yet are holding back," he told The Record, Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Perth, Feb. 26. "I'd say 'When are you going to face realities?' because there's no place for a classical Anglo-Catholic in the Anglican Communion anymore."

In November 2009, Pope Benedict announced his decision to erect personal ordinariates for former Anglicans who wanted to enter into full communion with Rome while preserving liturgical and other elements of their Anglican heritage, including a certain amount of governing by consensus.

Those coming into the ordinariates are the "last fruits" of the Anglicans' Oxford Movement started in 1833 by Blessed John Henry Newman to restore Catholic identity in the Anglican Church, Bishop Elliott said...

Read the rest at Catholic News Service.

Hat tip to Rev. Kendall Harmon at Titus 1:9.

Address of Bishop Elliott to Australian Investigators of the Ordinariate

Ordinariate Festival, Holy Family Parish, Como,
Perth, Western Australia, February 26, 2011


UNITY IN FAITH


Receiving Gifts and Bringing Gifts to the Ordinariate


Bishop Peter J. Elliott
Auxiliary Bishop, Melbourne

Anglicans on the way to full communion in an ordinariate are already discovering that they are part of a surprising adventure of faith. I refer not only to the step of personal commitment, but to a wider and deeper corporate experience of unity in the Faith that comes to us from the Apostles. This Faith of the Church is secured by being “in communion” with the Successor of St Peter.

What some nervous Anglo Catholic may imagine as coming under tighter control, with a narrower vision, is in reality quite the opposite. Catholic unity in faith is a broadening experience – entering a wider domain with endless vistas, yet knowing all the while that here there is always a secure parameter which Chesterton once compared to a garden wall giving children the security to play and be happy. While that is true, I would prefer to emphasize the authoritative point of reference at the centre of the Faith of millions.

This point of reference was identified and celebrated in a magnificent gesture of commitment, when the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church in Fr Dolling’s historic church at Portsmouth in October 2007. Their action was prophetic, anticipating what would appear two years later in Pope Benedict’s apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, where we read “The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith professed by members of the Ordinariate...”

Read the rest of Bishop Elliott's address at The Anglo-Catholic blog.

Ordinariate Festival Australia - a participant reports to The Messenger.Journal

THOSE interested in the Ordinariate for Australia met at St. Stephen’s College at Coomera on the Gold Coast, a school affiliated with the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, on the invitation of the hosts Bishop Peter Elliott, Delegate of the Holy See for the Australian Ordinariate and Archbishop John Hepworth, Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion. While I was there only for the first two days it was a wonderful time of discovery, talking and listening, to each other and to the Bp. Elliott. There were people from the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Anglican Catholic Church, Church of the Torres Strait, and the Ukrainian Catholic Church, as well as others.

The festival started with a Mass of the Holy Spirit according to the usage of the ACCA of which Archbishop Hepworth was the celebrant. Perhaps the unique aspect of this was the two Catholic Bishops seated in the front pew, Bp. Elliott, Apostolic Delegate and Bp. Jarrett, Bishop of Lismore, as well as Fr John Fleming, and several catholic laymen and women. The next day was Candlemass and this was a Catholic concelebration by Bp. Jarrett (the celebrant), Bp. Elliott, and Fr. Fleming. The singing was wonderful on both occasions and one could feel the movement of the Holy Spirit over each and every one that was there. Yet there was brokenness and isolation as we are not yet one, but the festival such as this, is the necessary step in healing the divisions of the past, and taking seriously Our Lord command, that the Church become one.

Sharing our stories, listening to each other, and being there as the unfolding the Ordinariate takes place, was a central theme of the conference. Perhaps the most eloquent was Bp. Elliott who spoke, on day two, of the way that the Ordinariate may unfold in Australia...

Read the rest of this report on the Traditional Anglican Communion's official The Messenger web site.

Hat tip to Br. Stephen Treat at the Anglo-Catholic blog.

Australian Ordinariate Encourages Peace and Unity

By Genevieve Pollock

MELBOURNE, Australia, JAN. 26, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The forthcoming establishment of an ordinariate for Australian Anglicans wishing to enter the Catholic Church has ignited hope for greater peace and unity, says Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne. Bishop Elliott, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference episcopal delegate for the ordinariate, and himself a former Anglican, told ZENIT that there is a sense of enthusiasm and anticipation among those who seek to join the ordinariate, as stipulated in "Anglicanorum Coetibus."

The Australian Ordinariate Implementation Committee was formed only last month. Next month, a national gathering will take place for those interested in learning more about it. The hope was expressed that the ordinariate will be established this year. In this interview with ZENIT, Bishop Elliott spoke about the challenges and hopes surrounding this ordinariate, its impact on ecumenism, and how it can encourage all Catholics to grow in their faith.

ZENIT: Could you tell us more about plans for the establishment of the new ordinariate in Australia?

Bishop Elliott: The plans are moving more slowly than in the United Kingdom. But the situation is more complex. First there is the challenge of geography -- Australia is the same size as mainland United States. We have to bring together groups that are scattered, even isolated. As episcopal delegate for the bishops' conference, my frequent flyer points are rising fast! Then, two somewhat diverse groups have to come together: Some Anglican clergy and laity in the official Anglican Church of Australia (ACA) and most members of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia (Traditional Anglican Communion: TAC). Both groups share an Anglo-Catholic heritage, but their history is different. One of the fruits of the ordinariate will be their coming together in one community.

ZENIT: How will the community of former Anglicans in Japan be included into this ordinariate?

Bishop Elliott: This possibility is only in its earliest stages, so I cannot provide more details.

ZENIT: What has the general environment been like among those who seek to be part of the ordinariate?

Bishop Elliott: There is a sense of enthusiasm and anticipation among these Australian Anglicans. Over the past 20 years they have suffered for their Catholic principles, confronted and torn apart by serious doctrinal and moral issues. In this country, no pastoral provision was made for these good people in the official Church. They had to accept the new order or fend for themselves. They are still unfairly labeled as "disaffected Anglicans." At the same time, those who set up independent Anglican dioceses and parishes (TAC) suffered rejection and ridicule, and they have made great sacrifices to follow their consciences. In both circles, they are coming to see that the Holy Father's generous offer means peace and unity. They are diligently studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church -- a good example to us all.

ZENIT: Could you say something about the interreligious relations with the Anglican Church in Australia? What kind of response have you heard from the Anglicans who have no desire to become Catholics?

Bishop Elliott: On a broad level, relations between Catholics and Anglicans in Australia are good. The ordinariate will not harm ecumenism. Last year I had the opportunity to address the official dialogue circles of Anglicans and Catholics. When I explained the ordinariate there was a friendly and gracious response. An interesting theological conversation followed, but no negativity. We need to make distinctions among Anglicans who have no desire to become Catholics. The evangelicals have sent messages of good will. They rightly see that all Anglo-Catholics should return to unity with Rome. Most liberal Anglicans seem indifferent, knowing that the ordinariate will be small, at least initially. One Anglican bishop expressed anger about the papal offer, but he was promptly contradicted by an evangelical bishop. Here we detect the "elephant in the front room" in the world of Anglicanism, the large numbers of evangelicals, particularly in Sydney and Nigeria, but also elsewhere. What these committed Bible-believing Christians plan to do is mysterious. After the ordinariates take shape, these evangelicals may well determine the future of the Anglican Communion.

ZENIT: What does this mean for you personally as a former Anglican?

Bishop Elliott: I have a much stronger sense of what Blessed John Henry Newman called a "particular providence" in my own life. My reception into the Church in Oxford back in 1968 makes more sense than ever. My task now is to help Anglicans of the Catholic tradition to take the same path to unity and peace in Christ. But my episcopal motto is "Parare vias eius" -- To Prepare His Ways. Those words from the Benedictus now have a deeper, more focused meaning for me. There is a touch of human sorrow too -- if only my dear parents, Reverend Leslie Llewelyn Elliott and June Elliott, had lived to see these days. Yet I know that now they are praying for the ordinariates. There are no suburbs in Heaven.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

The Church in Australia in 2011

From the pages of The Australian, a long article on the Catholic Church in that country and events that will be occurring in 2011, including the launching of the U.S.-conceived "Catholics Come Home" and the introduction of the new English translation of the Roman Missal of 2002. At the end of the article we read the following:

One group that is happy with the new translation is the Traditional Anglican Communion, which will become part of the Catholic Church in Australia at Easter or Pentecost through the new Anglican Ordinariate. But while the translation is closer to the traditional Anglican liturgies favoured by the TAC, Anglican parishes joining the ordinariate will be keeping their own liturgies and pastoral traditions.

World TAC primate archbishop John Hepworth is one of four Australian bishops who will be joining the ordinariate, along with about 20 priests. He said that after years of the TAC serving as a "field hospital for those damaged in the Anglican wars" over women priests and church doctrines, it was ironic that "the new protector of classical Anglicanism was the Pope" who had allowed the ordinariate to be established within the Catholic Church.

"His vision, after almost 500 years' separation of the churches is extraordinary. The ordinariate will change the course of church history."

Visit the site of The Australian to read the full article "Church calls the unfaithful home".

AUSTRALIAN ORDINARIATE: GIANT STEP FORWARD

At a recent meeting in Melbourne convened by Catholic Bishop Peter Elliott, Episcopal Delegate for the Ordinariate, and Traditional Anglican Archbishop and Primate John Hepworth, the Australian Ordinariate Implementation Committee was formed.
This ground breaking and historic initiative was unanimously agreed to by a working party including clergy of the Anglican Church of Australia and official representatives of the Traditional Anglican Communion in Australia.
They resolved to work closely together to bring to fruition their shared desire to be in full communion with the Catholic Church through the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus of Pope Benedict XVI. "I was heartened and moved by the spirit of good will and cooperation at the meeting which represented the major Anglican groups." said Bishop Elliott. "This convergence of heart and mind opens the way for establishing an Ordinariate in Australia next year.
There is every reason to be optimistic that our goal for unity will soon be achieved."
Archbishop Hepworth said, "The long years in which we have had conversations with the Holy See and with other Anglican groups, which the Holy Father recognized in creating Anglican Ordinariates, will now become a reality. The Australian Ordinariate will exist in a matter of months.
I urge Anglican clergy and people to consider with seriousness this unique offer of the Holy Father."
A national gathering open to interested Anglicans and Catholics will be held in St Stephen's College, Coomera, Queensland, 1-3 February next year.
Details of the gathering may be found on this site soon
and
www.themessenger.com.au
CONTACTS Bishop Peter Elliott: 03 9576 9145
Archbishop John Hepworth: 08 8278 3832

There is an invitation to the meeting at St. Stephens hosted on The Messenger, the online newspaper of the Traditional Anglican Communion.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller