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

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics: this is the moment of truth

By Damian Thompson Religion
Last updated: October 24th, 2009

Be careful what you ask the Pope for, because he might just give it to you. That’s the truth slowly sinking in to attendees at the annual conference of Forward in Faith, held in London today. For ages, many Anglo-Catholics have said they would come over to Rome, but on their own terms (not unreasonable ones, in my opinion). And now the Vatican has said: OK, you can have your own church-within-a-church, only for form’s sake we can’t call it that...

Read the rest on Mr. Thompson's blog Holy Smoke.
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