Interview with Fr. Keith Newton and Bishop Alan Hopes

Edwing Barnes, over at the Anglo-Catholic blog, has uploaded two posts (see part 1 and part 2) of a press conference with new Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham Fr. Keith Newton and Bishop Alan Hopes, auxiliary of Westminster and CDF delegate for the Ordinariate in England & Wales. Below a short excerpt:

Do you have any income?

Absolutely none at present, but we’ll discuss that. I think this is a step of faith. People have said that you’ve to step forward and jump and you’ll be caught and I believe that. I’m putting my hands into the Church--not just my hands, my feet and everything.

What is your relationship with Walsingham? And the liturgy?

Walsingham is a very special place for Anglo-Catholics. But of course it does not belong to Anglicans. It is a place of pilgrimage and there are two shrines. I know the authorities at the Shrine want to examine ways in which members of the Ordinariate can continue to worship at the Anglican shrine. There will have to be conversations with the Guardians. Certainly one Guardian I’ve spoken to wants to see the Ordinariate as a bridge; we should be building bridges, not burning them down. I don’t look back at the Church of England with anger or bitterness. This move is part of my ongoing pilgrimage. I want to keep doors open between those who are still in the C of E and ourselves. Any way the Ordinariate can foster unity must be God’s work.

Liturgy?

I’m very honest: I am not a liturgist. My colleague Andrew Burnham is a liturgist and he is looking with others around the world at what an Anglican liturgy might be for the Ordinariate. The CDF are fairly keen that there should be one liturgy for the Ordinariates wherever they are, not lots of different ones. There’s obviously the Book of Divine Worship which was produced in the USA for those who became Catholics under the Pastoral Provision in the '70s and '80s. I don’t know whether you’ve seen that book, it is an enormous tome; have you seen it? It wouldn’t fit on the shelf of the pew. That’s got quite a lot of material, and we’ll be looking at that. But we need something that will be acceptable throughout the world. In England it will be used by some but not certainly by everyone in England — not, at least, for the Eucharistic rite. Some of the priests in the Anglo-Catholic world and who will join the Ordinariate already use the Roman Rite and will continue to do so. Some will want to use an Anglican rite which has been ratified by the Congregation for Divine Worship, but that’s a process that’s going on but that’s not my department and I am glad to leave it to Bishop Andrew — sorry, Father Andrew. Old habits die hard.