Anglican priest, flock cross a welcoming bridge

The Rev. Jurgen Liias leads a Catholic parish
that is an alternative for former Anglicans.

August 26, 2013
by Lisa Wangsness
BEVERLY — Before Mass on a recent Sunday, the Rev. Jurgen Liias stood in a cramped sacristy of a Catholic church with an acolyte and cantor and began a call-and-response prayer of preparation.

Incense smoldered. The men thumped their chests in a gesture of contrition.

The elaborate ritual would seem unusual to most Catholic priests, who pray silently before Mass as they don their vestments, or quietly focus on the sacred work ahead. But Liias, who is 65, is different. He entered the church through a new doorway that lets members of the Anglican Communion return to the mother church in Rome while retaining their congregational communities — and, if they wish, much of their ornate ritual, including old Catholic traditions that Rome changed or left behind.

Pope John Paul II extended to Anglicans, including married priests, the opportunity to become Catholic in 1980. During the next 30 years, 100 or so Anglican priests entered the Catholic Church and were incorporated into local dioceses.

But some in the worldwide Anglican Communion — particularly the Episcopal Church, the religious body’s US province — wanted to make it easier for whole congregations to come in, and to be part of a group of like-minded churches.

At their request, Pope Benedict XVI established special “ordinariates” — basically superdioceses — especially for Anglican priests and congregations. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, which spans the United States and Canada, was created last year. It includes more than 30 congregations, including Liias’s St. Gregory the Great, which held its first Mass in April...

Read the rest in The Boston Globe.

Hat tip to Kevin McDermott

Fr. Aidan Nichols' published book on the UK Ordinariate

From the prolific pen/word processor of Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP comes a new book:
Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham: Catholics of the Anglican Patrimony

The description from Amazon.co.uk

When in 1993 Aidan Nichols revived the long-dormant idea of an Anglican Uniate Church, united with the See of Peter but not absorbed, the reaction of many was incredulity. The ideal of modern Ecumenism was, surely, the corporate reunification of entire Communions. This he roundly declared to be unrealistic, for the Protestant and Liberal elements in Anglican history (and Anglicanism's present reality) could never be digested by Roman stomachs. What was feasible was, rather, the reconciliation of a select body Catholic enough to be united, and Anglican enough not to be absorbed. Just over a dozen years later Pope Benedict XVI, responding to the petitions of various Anglican bishops, promulgated the Apostolic Constitution Apostolorum coetibus and the deed was done. The three 'Ordinariates' now established for 'Catholics of the Anglican Patrimony' in Britain, Australia and North America have been described as the first tangible fruit of Catholic Ecumenism. In this short book Nichols reflects on the historical, theological, and liturgical issues involved. He also shows the congruence of the new development with Benedict's wider thinking, and outlines a specific missionary vocation for reconciled Anglicans in England.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0852448171/

Pastoral Letter to the TAC from Abp. Hepworth

PASTORAL LETTER

Archbishop Hepworth

In recent months, a deep division has been created in the Traditional Anglican Communion. Bishops and Vicars General have threatened others with expulsion. Clergy and laity have been bullied and threatened. A minority of the bishops plan to meet shortly in South Africa with the openly published agenda of expelling all those who are at the various stages of discernment of the offer of the “fullness of Catholic Communion” contained in the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Benedict XVI.

This bullying reached new levels with the publication of letters from Canon Gray in England and Bishop Marsh in the United States, cancelling arrangements into which they entered that created a tolerant environment during this process. In the past few days, these events among others have greatly concerned me:

• A priest of many years standing in the United States who is licensed to the Patrimony (created to protect those discerning their future in the light of the Ordinariate) has been refused permission to conduct the funeral of a long-standing friend because “he has applied to become a Roman Catholic”.

• Father Brian Gill, a founding member of the TAC and our leader for many sacrificial years in England, who has been on holiday, wrote “On arrival back I found the disgusting circular letter from Fr. Ian Gray in which he wrote: Those of you who have submitted personal dossiers and may now wish to reconsider your position to return to the TTAC/TAC should do so by contacting me directly in writing by February 3rd 2012. “

• Bishop Marsh of the United States has circulated a letter to clergy who have been transferred to Bishops Moyer and Campese assuming that neither they nor their bishops still belong to the TAC.

• Bishop Garcia of Puerto Rico has been told by Bishop Marsh that he is no longer considered a member of the TAC because of his positive attitude to the Ordinariates.

• Meanwhile, it has emerged that Bishop Marsh is a high-ranking member of a virulently anti-catholic Lodge of Freemasons, and claims to have successfully influenced Roman Catholic authorities to reject the TAC and its bishops as a credible ecclesial communion.

• Obviously in collusion, several Bishops and Vicars General are moving to attempt the illegal and uncanonical expulsion of their fellow bishops and clergy who are considering the Ordinariates on the grounds that they are “seeking to become Roman Catholic”. In so doing, they effectively remove themselves from our Communion

Neither I nor those under attack can any longer allow this conduct to continue unchallenged.

Anglicanism has always aspired to tolerance. Even the persecution of Catholics in England was balanced by tolerance and respect in missionary regions. Anglo-Catholics and Evangelical Anglicans sustained a mutual respect and restraint in spite of vigorously asserting their positions. Opponents found this a weakness. Those of us who experienced it found it a strength.

Whether the destructive forces of the past fifty years have ended the possibility of tolerance in the wider Anglican world is a matter for prayer now and the judgement of history in the future. We seek the truth that is in Christ Jesus, knowing that we must live in the moment of time in which we have been created. For us that is a fractured church, a turmoil of conflicting theology, and the power of resurgent hostile creeds. Science has created new boundaries of sinfulness that test us – power over life, the abundant access to information and entertainment, the global competition for the necessities of life, and the battles between scientific leaders and the idea of God. It is not an easy time to be a good Christian.

I make clear the basis of conflicts within our own Communion:

• Continuing Churches have a long history. Some have been glorious, others are better forgotten. They can never be permanent. They must continue to relate to the Church from which they withdrew, to influence it for good, to make clear the reasons for their withdrawal “into the desert”. To permanently split from the Church is schism. To go into the desert to heal the Church is heroic.

• There is only one Church, one Body of Christ, one Vine. Every ecclesial group must be able to show evidence of its oneness with the Body of Christ, the Church. As soon as a group becomes permanently and comfortably alone, unacknowledged by any other part of the Church, believing itself to be the only perfect form of Christianity, and accepts and even welcomes that isolation, it has slipped into the schism of the sect.

• There is only one truth given once and for all by Christ. The Church seeks to expound that truth in every age and to apply it to problems that are new, and to those things that have been challenges in every age. It is not what the individual thinks; it is what the Church teaches. The great ecumenical conversations of the past century acknowledged this fact and sought to define both the teaching authority of the Church and the truth that is taught.

• The past century has been a time of massive expansion of human conflict and of the instruments that undergird human conflict. The permanent expansion of the instruments of conflict has created a world that is tolerant of conflict and human destruction. Anglican Churches have adopted too readily the destruction of human dignity in all its manifestations – family, livelihood, vocation, community – to achieve ideological victory. The far more difficult pathway of tolerance and love has been lost.

• The Apostolic Letter of the Pope to Anglicans has reignited dormant bigotry and anti-Catholicism, has forced people (even bishops) to examine the true nature of their faith and to assess the importance of the Catholic teachings that they cannot accept.

The present attempts to expel those who are working (often with exquisite difficulties) to test a vocation to fuse Anglican heritage with Catholic Communion, newly available and still in infancy, is not to be tolerated.

The minority of our leaders (Bishops and Vicars General) who intend to meet in South Africa have announced their intention to expel and depose others in our Communion, actions we have not experienced for many years, but which have been a tragic hallmark of Continuing Anglicanism. They intend to change the Concordat that has ordered our common life from the beginning, abandoning the requirement to submit changes to the clergy and laity in the Synods of our Provinces. And they propose to interfere in the affairs of member Provinces, creating spiritual, canonical and legal havoc that will only have one result – the diminution of our apostolate and the betrayal of those who have trusted us.

Even more significantly, they propose for the first time in our common life to expound doctrine according to their personal beliefs, abandoning the tests of common faith whether Anglican or Catholic. I note that the two leaders of this minority in the United States have never attended a meeting of the College of Bishops and have never experienced our corporate life.

The majority remain loyal to the ideals that have sustained us to this point. They remain true to their oaths and promises on doctrine and discipline. They are determined to protect their people and minister to them as they make decisions and undergo processes that cannot be hurried any more than outcomes can be foreseen.

These bishops and senior clergy, in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Torres Strait, Australia, Africa and India are determined to continue their ministry, to respect the ecclesial bonds that exist between them, to sustain their Christian friendship even as some of them succeed (with their clergy and people) in being pioneers of Ordinariates that will grow, if they are of God. They intend to deepen their bonds that are already solid with the mutual support of decades of working together. They reject in advance any attempts to interfere with their jurisdiction, their ministries and the people committed to their care. They too will shortly meet to celebrate their bonds of Christian commitment, and will take steps to protect their ecclesial identity.

The basis of that collegial identity will be:

• The Concordat of the Traditional Anglican Communion which, with its disciplined commitment to good order, has served us well.

• New structures to enable close bonds of friendship, scholarship and spiritual support between those who have joined an Ordinariate and those who aspire to join.

• A commitment to foster and develop the Anglican tradition within the doctrinal framework of Catholic teaching, as set forth in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the doctrinal standard of the Ordinariates.

• A commitment to each of the processes that have been established to heal the schism between Canterbury and Rome.

• A commitment to the theological education of laity and clergy as a primary preparation for reconciliation between the churches.

Each of us has had moments of deep frustration and disappointment with the implementation of the Apostolic Constitution. There are very valuable lessons to be learned for the ecumenical future of the Church. It faces a world that will only become more hostile.

In the meantime, the loyal majority of TAC bishops wish to assure the Roman Catholic authorities with whom they are working of our collegial respect for the Holy Father, our belief in the teachings contained within the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that is one of the foundations of Anglicanorum Coetibus, and therefore our reaffirmation of the Portsmouth Petition to the Holy Father.

+John Hepworth

Primate

Source: http://catholicusanglicanus.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/pastoral-letter-from-archbishop-hepworth/

Hat tip to The Cavalier's Commonplace Book for pointing out this Pastoral Letter.

HOUSTON, TEXAS: Fr. Jeffrey Steenson Retakes Miter and Crosier

Former Episcopal bishop becomes Catholic monsignor

By Mary Ann Mueller in Houston

Feb. 13, 2012

An excited crowd was already starting to form at Sacred Heart Co-cathedral before Sunday's early afternoon Vietnamese Mass was even completed. People were gathering from points near and far to witness and participate in a unique moment in Catholic ecclesial history - the formal installation of the first Ordinary of the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States.

Pope Benedict XVI's much-anticipated Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus was finally becoming a reality in America. All the prayers that have gone into this moment were about to be fulfilled and brought to full fruition. In moments, the written words would be spoken. Leaping off the page, these words would become a reality and the Rev. Jeffrey Steenson would be officially installed as the reigning cleric with jurisdiction.

The occasional light whiff of incense that drifted past the nostrils of the multitude, as they found their seats in the massive 27,800 square foot cathedral, was the first hint that something special was about to happen.

The air crackled with anticipation and excitement. The clock kept ticking toward Feb. 12th's appointed three pm hour.

From somewhere in the back of the immense cathedral, an organ started to play softly helping to create a contemplative atmosphere. Pews were filling up as the finishing touches were being put on the solemn ceremony that would begin momentarily.

As quickly as the organ had started to play, the lilting musical notes ended. A deep hush descended on the assembled congregation. The strong aroma of incense filled the church. The Opus XIX 5,499 pipe organ pealed out the first notes of "Firmly I Believe", bringing the congregation to its feet. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman penned the 19th Century hymn with the 20th Century melody being written by Joseph Kucharski, the professor of church music at Nashotah House. The entrance procession had begun.

First to process in were the Catholic bishops and archbishops -- eight in all - who were dressed in their fuchsia-colored choir dress. The next splash of color came when the two cardinals came in attired in brilliant vivid red.

The processional cross was flanked by two torch bearers, followed by the thurifer who with a practiced swing could twirl the thurible a full 360 degrees sending great clouds of aromatic blue-gray white smoke drifting towards the 72-foot-high vaulted ceiling.

Emerging from the smoke screen of incense came eight torch bearers leading the way for those who were carrying the humeral-veil draped crosier and miter - which would become Fr. Steenson's symbols of spiritual authority and temporal power in the recently created personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.

The new Anglican ordinariate was erected on New Year's Day by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the behest of Pope Benedict XVI. This came in response to the many Anglicans who, for years and even decades, have pounded on the Vatican's door seeking to be reunified with the Church of Rome following the original splintering off of Anglicanism in the 16th Century. The Pope made a special provision for Anglicans to become fully Roman Catholic while maintaining some of their unique cherished ways in patrimony and ethos...

Read the rest of the story on Virtue Online.

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.

All former Anglicans can join ordinariate, says bishop

An English bishop has confirmed that Anglicans who were received into the Catholic Church years ago can join the personal ordinariate created by Benedict XVI last year.

The Pope established the world’s first personal ordinariate for groups of former Anglicans that wished to enter into full communion with Rome in January 2011. There was discussion at the time about whether Anglicans received before 2011 could also join the structure under the terms of Anglicanorum coetibus, the apostolic constitution describing the nature of personal ordinariates...

Read the full article on The Catholic Herald.

Hat tip to Fr. Chadwick at The English Catholic.

New ordinariate and 1980 pastoral provision: An analysis

Jan. 23, 2012
By Jerry Filteau


WASHINGTON -- How are the new U.S. Catholic ordinariate for former Anglican groups and the 1980 U.S. pastoral provision for Episcopal (Anglican) priests who become Catholics different? What do they have in common? What does the presence of Catholics in the new ordinariate mean for other Catholics?
The pastoral, canonical, ecclesiastical and other questions posed by the new developments are numerous and challenging, but here is an attempt to sort out a few of the bigger ones.
To take the third question first, other Catholics -- Eastern or Latin rite -- who were baptized or confirmed into the church as Latin or Eastern Catholics can legitimately participate in the life and worship of an Anglican-use Catholic community, but ordinarily, they may not become a formal member of that community.
An exception is marriage, for which church laws similar to those applying to Latin-Eastern rite Catholic marriages would come into play: An Eastern or Latin Catholic marrying a Catholic in the new Anglican-use ordinariate could become a member of that ordinariate if the couple agrees on that decision.
Going back to differences and similarities between the 1980 pastoral provision and the new ordinariate, the 1980 provision was aimed chiefly at meeting requests of individual Anglican clergy. It allowed exemptions from celibacy for those who were married and sought to enter into full Communion with the Catholic Church but also wanted to continue their life commitment to ordained ministry, only now as Catholic priests...

Please read the rest of this analysis (Mr. Filteau seems to have a good grasp of the facts, although there are a couple of points that are open to interpretation and not settled) on the web site of the National Catholic Reporter.

Hat tip to Ordinariate Portal

The long Anglican road to Rome

January 11, 2012
By TERRY MATTINGLY - Scripps Howard News Service

In the fall of 1979, a cluster of Episcopalians made another trip to Rome seeking a haven for Anglo-Catholic believers anxious to exit their increasingly divided church.

Vatican officials agreed that it was time to petition their new leader, the young Pope John Paul II. The document was prepared and then signed on the altar of the North American Martyrs at Rome's North American College. In it, members of the Society of St. Augustine of Canterbury and other like-minded clergy made a blunt request.

"We pray and beseech your Holiness to receive and accept us into the Roman Catholic Church," they wrote, "for we are sheep not having a shepherd and would return to the care of that Holy Apostle singularly commissioned by the Divine Lord to feed his sheep."

The pope soon said "yes." But that simply opened another chapter in a long, long, story, one that continues decades later.

There is certainly more to this story than headlines about a sudden decision by Pope Benedict XVI to commence sheep stealing in the wake of his "Anglicanorum Coetibus ("groups of Anglicans") pronouncement in 2009. This document allowed Anglican priests and congregations to join new "personal ordinariates," the equivalent of national dioceses, while retaining key elements of their liturgy, music and other traditions. The plan allows for married men to become priests, but not bishops -- as in Eastern Rite Catholicism.

In England, The Times knocked this 2009 plan, saying, "Rome has parked its tanks on the Archbishop of Canterbury's lawn." Today, tensions remain high on both sides of the Atlantic after a Jan. 1 announcement that the ordinariates are set to open.

It's almost laughable to call these developments "sudden" or the result of unilateral actions by the pope, said the Rev. Allan Hawkins of St. Mary the Virgin Catholic Church in Arlington, Texas, a priest in the Church of England before coming to America. The roots of these events even predate the Episcopal Church's 1976 vote to ordain women as priests and later to the episcopate...

Read the rest of Mr. Mattingly's story at the web site of The Republic newspaper.

Fr. Catania of Mt Calvary, Baltimore on the Ordinariate

from the December newsletter Crux Fidelis of Mt. Calvary Church in Baltimore, Maryland

Dear Friends in Christ,

As we begin our second Advent since Mount Calvary’s watershed decision to enter full communion with the See of Peter, I had hoped I might at last be able to report both an agreement on a final property settlement with the Diocese of Maryland, and the date of our reception into the Catholic Church. Alas, I am not yet able to so, delayed as we are by factors beyond our control, mostly having to do with our protracted negotiations with the diocese. Sadly, it appears that there are some who would have this process extended indefinitely, perhaps with the hope that the people of Mount Calvary would simply disperse. But fortunately, there is also evidence there are those of goodwill amongst the leadership of the diocese who remain desirous of a gracious, amicable parting of ways, and I am cautiously optimistic that that mindset will prevail. Though we did not agree to a final settlement after six hours of mediation with Judge Joseph Kaplan on November 10, considerable progress was made, and I think it would be fair to say that the outlines of an agreement did emerge. I am hopeful that in the coming weeks, the details of that outline will be filled in, and a consensus will be reached. Then, once a settlement has been signed, a date can be set for our long-awaited reconciliation with Holy Mother Church.

Whatever the contents of that forthcoming settlement, it will inevitably entail sacrifice; after all, sacrifice is an inescapable component of the Christian life, as demonstrated by Our Lord Himself. Mount Calvary’s sacrifice for the sake of fulfilling the Holy Spirit’s call into full communion with the Catholic Church will undoubtedly be painful. But we mustn’t let that pain dissuade us from following the path which God has prepared for us. We must not allow an inordinate concern with secondary matters to cloud our vision of what Mount Calvary has the potential to become. It must be acknowledged, however, that there are serious financial factors which must be addressed. For far too long, we as a congregation have relied on the generosity of past generations to fund our ministry in the present. Regardless of the cost associated with a final property settlement, we will need to carefully consider our priorities as we look ahead. Furthermore, each of us must search within our hearts and determine whether our own personal stewardship adequately reflects both the needs of the parish and our own ability to give. Only by prayerfully reflecting on both our expenditures and our income will Mount Calvary be able to face the future on a sure fiscal footing.

And what of that future? For what has seemed like an eternity, the future has been shrouded in mystery, particularly with regard to the new structure within the Catholic Church which Pope Benedict has created for us, namely the Ordinariate. At last, that picture is becoming clearer. On November 15, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Holy See’s delegate for the implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus in the United States, announced that an American Ordinariate will be canonically established on January 1, 2012. You can read about the details of the Cardinal’s report in Fr. John Huntington’s fine summary on page 6. Suffice it say, this is very exciting news, for not only will the Ordinariate at last come into existence at that time, but the Ordinary (the priest or bishop who will be its leader) will also be named, and so we will finally know the identity of our soon-to-be Father in God. One of the most frustrating aspects of our common life since October 24, 2010 has been that our parish has effectively been without any pastoral oversight. This is, of course, contrary to the very nature of the Church, necessitated by unique circumstance though it has been. As soon as the Ordinary’s name is made known, I intend to contact him and seek his direction regarding the many questions which face us as an incoming parish of the Ordinariate. I am confident that whomever the Holy Father chooses to be our Ordinary, he will be a godly and wise pastor whom we can trust to lead us and all the members of the American Ordinariate to the fulfillment of Pope Benedict’s vision for this historic project.

Once again, I conclude by asking for your continued prayers for the clergy and people of Mount Calvary, as well as for all those preparing to enter the Ordinariate and for our future Ordinary. To be sure, many challenges remain before us, but in the words of Blessed John Henry Newman, “amidst the encircling gloom,” God will assuredly lead us into His “kindly Light.”

Your pastor and friend,

The Rev’d Jason Catania, Rector

Episcopal parish in Bladensburg converts to Roman Catholic Church

(Bill O’Leary/WASHINGTON POST) - Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl,
left, greets Adaeze M. Okafor after formally receiving her
and fellow church members into the Catholic church.

The Rev. Mark Lewis awoke early on the last morning of his life as an Anglican priest and dressed in a suit and tie instead of his usual priestly regalia. That’s different, he thought, for the first of many times on a day when so much was different for St. Luke’s, the small Episcopal church in Maryland where Lewis had been rector since 2006.

On Sunday — with Lewis wearing lay clothing and sitting with St. Luke’s parishioners inside the Crypt Church at Washington’s Basilica of the National Shine of the Immaculate Conception — most of the parish from Bladensburg converted to Catholicism.

In doing so, St. Luke’s became the first Episcopal church in the United States to convert under new Vatican rules meant to attract curious Protestants.

“This truly is a historic moment,” said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, who led Sunday’s conversion Mass, which he called “a joyful moment of completion.”

Read the rest in The Washington Post

---

See also this story posted on October 18th in The Living Church: "St. Luke's Finds its Way Home".

SUCCESSFUL GATHERING

FR. ANDREW BARTUS
Last night's Evensong and Benediction was wonderful! Father Baca gave a wonderful presentation of where we are with regards to the Ordinariate in the United States, and we had a great discussion of what it means for Orange County.



We are off to a great start too, as seventeen current/former Anglicans have signed up to create the Anglican Use Society of Orange County and to petition for an Ordinariate parish when the time comes, and we have thirteen others who plan to worship with us. We are starting off small, but steadfast!

Read the rest of this newest Anglican Use Society chapter at the website of the new Anglican Use Society of Orange County.

Will Traditional Anglicans [in the Torres Strait] enter Catholic Church?

The Bishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Torres Strait Diocese, Church of the Torres Strait, The Right Reverend Tolowa Nona, has described Pope Benedict’s offer to Anglicans of full communion with the Catholic Church as “very generous”.

“It is perhaps the most-important development in the Christian history of the Torres Strait since the Coming of the Light,” Bishop Nona said.

For years, traditional Anglicans around the world have been asking the Holy See to consider whether they may be able to enter the Catholic Church, while retaining their liturgical forms and disciplines.

And it seems this may soon come to pass in the Torres Strait.

Bishop Nona recently wrote to his diocese describing the Pope Benedict XVI’s offer as a “wonderful provision”.

However he told the Torres News the Church of the Torres Strait had yet to make a decision on whether to enter into Communion with the Holy See.

“Every individual must first be consulted before any decision can be made,” Bishop Nona said.

“The Church of the Torres Strait will remain - retaining its autonomy, and continuing to preserve the Anglican heritage.

“I am very confident that the Vatican will respect that.”

“The kind of unity we sought with the Holy See was an ‘organic unity’, which means united but not absorbed.”

He said the delegate of the Pope, Bishop Peter Elliot, would be invited to the the Torres Strait along with his party at the Diocesan Conference on June 3-5 this year...

Read the rest at Torres News Online.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

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.

Keynote Address at "Becoming One" Conference in Kansas City

The Keynote Address by Bishop David Moyer of the Anglican Church in America's Patrimony of the Primate has been posted on the Anglo-Catholic blog. The "money quote" for me was the following:

For me, as someone who has the Anglican patrimony deep within my very bones, I rejoice that it can be now be safeguarded and nurtured for my children and my children’s children.

Without our accession to the role of Peter’s leadership and primacy (which is very biblical), there is the assurance for the survival and growth of what we hold dear. I truly believe that outside of arms of the Catholic Church, the Anglican patrimony will simply be a chapter in books of Church history.

And beyond this is the gift of the affirmation of the integrity of “all we do and are, all we done and have been” as Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P. stated it in his sermon at Fr. Andrew Burnham’s first mass as a Catholic priest in Oxford on January 16th. Fr. Nichols stated that day: “In the Eucharistic sacrifice, we bring ourselves – all we do and are, all we have done and have been – to be, through purification and transformation, united with the Lamb, Jesus Christ, in his self-offering to the Father. All we did and do, all we have been and are, our life and labour, we should put (as the spiritual writers advise) onto the paten, into the chalice… What is said of the life and labour of any Christian is said with special force of the apostolic life and labour of an ordained person. ‘What we did and do, what we have been and are’: all Andrew’s former ministerial activity, inevitably, is signaled in these words and so it is now taken up into union with the Lamb’s oblation of himself, taken up in a new way as the sacrificial offering of a Catholic priest in the full, unclouded, indisputable, sense of those words.”

For you and me, whether we be ordained or not, it is the giving of “what we did and do, what we have been and are” into the hands of God for our good and for the common good of the Catholic Church of which Jesus is Head and the Successor of Peter Its Vicar. It is the placing of ourselves within the Catholic Church where Christian teaching, faith, and order have a firm foundation; where through the Magisterium clear guidance is found for moral and ethical issues that confuse and confound the world, without which people wander into darkness and/or slain by it.

Visit the Anglo-Catholic blog to read this fine address in full.

The End of a Filipino Schism? Catholics and Aglipayans together

From the Anglo Catholic blog, we read that the Anglo-Lutherans have decided to petition to join the Ordinariate. This is indeed a surprise since the Lutherans are not historically Anglican (even if they have close relationships with the Anglican Communion). The petition is also significant since it surprisingly shows the flexibility of a Roman Apostolic Constitution. It is of immense significance for the Filipino Church since it paves a possible way to resolve a more than a century old schism between the Roman Church and the Philippine Independent Church or the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) more popularly known as the Aglipayan Church.

The history of the IFI is well narrated in the church's website. The church is the only living link with the Philippine Revolution of 1896. One reason for the Philippine Revolution is that ecclesiastical appointments were dominated by foreign clergy. The revolutionists demanded that all church appointments especially in parishes be given to Filipino priests. Filipino priests have been ordained since the 1700s and many had proven to be good pastors but they never been appointed as parish priests but just coadjutors. Notable among them is Fr Jose Burgos who had doctorates in theology and canon law but never was raised to the episcopate. In the Revolution Fr Gregorio Aglipay became Military Vicar general. He later became the first Supreme Bishop of the IFI...

Read the rest at the Anglican Use in the Philippines blog.

Our Family is Growing

Fr. Phillips at the Anglo-Catholic blog writes:

"I received an email today from the Most Reverend Irl A. Gladfelter, Metropolitan of the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, with the very good news that the clergy and parishes of the ALCC will be entering the Ordinariate with us. The following is a synopsis of what led to this marvellous development, which was sent to me by Most Rev. Edward J. Steele, the ALCC Bishop of Florida, and who is one of our regular commenters."

On May 13, 2009, The Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church (ALCC) mailed a letter to Walter Cardinal Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, stating the ALCC “desires to undo the mistakes of Father Martin Luther, and return to the One, Holy, and True Catholic Church established by our Lord Jesus Christ through the Blessed Saint Peter.” That letter was in turn forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) for consideration, and the CDF in June 2009 sent the ALCC a reply acknowledging receipt of the petition, with the assurance the request for full membership was being given serious attention...

Surprisingly, in October 2010 the ALCC received a letter from Archbishop Luis Ladaria, Secretary of the CDF, informing the ALCC that an Episcopal Delegate, Donald Cardinal Wuerl, had been appointed in the United States to assist the CDF with the implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus (Cardinal Wuerl was still an Archbishop at the time however). The letter further stated, “As we proceed toward the erection of Ordinariates we would invite you, therefore, to make contact directly with Archbishop Wuerl at the following address…” Humbly, the ALCC responded with a resounding “YES”, mailing a letter to Cardinal Wuerl in compliance with the correspondence received from the CDF, requesting to be a part of this wonderful reunification within the Body of Christ...

Read the full account at the Anglo-Catholic blog.

Statement from Louis Campese, Bishop Ordinary Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family

14 February, 2011

Laudetur Jesus Christus!

Until a few days ago, when the web site of the Anglican Church in America was severely pruned to eliminate virtually every positive reference to the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus and the engagement of the Province in the discernment process toward acceptance of full visible unity with the Catholic Church, the following notice appeared under the title "House of Bishops Update":

At a meeting on 1 June 2010, the House of Bishops and the Executive Council of the Anglican Church in America approved a unified approach designed to provide full support for parishes and clergy who have indicated their desire to enter the proposed Ordinariate, once established, while simultaneously providing for the ongoing pastoral care of all members of the ACA. The meetings were conducted and concluded in the spirit of mutual harmony and Christian love.

This short notice seemed to reflect what I, at the time, believed was a genuine and charitable unanimity on the acceptance of the notion that the House of Bishops would continue to act generously in accommodating the needs of those groups and individuals, both clerical and lay, who desired to transition to the anticipated Personal Ordinariate to be erected by the Catholic authorities in the United States of America. The idea that groups and individuals could remain canonically resident within their present circumstances whilst, at the same time, affiliating themselves with each other under the personal jurisdiction of the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, all the while remaining welcome members of the Anglican Church in America, seemed to be a creative compromise welcome on the part of the entire House of Bishops. Bishop David Moyer, Archbishop Hepworth's "vicar" to organize the Patrimony of the Primate in the USA Province of the TAC, subsequently set about his mission, and I remained Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Eastern United States, with further work to accomplish before any of my parishes, missions, or myself could contemplate a move into the Patrimony.

In the last month, having reached an amicable and unanimous arrangement with my own diocesan Standing Committee, which of course represented interests within the Diocese hostile to the Apostolic Constitution, I stepped aside, allowing those parishes which did not desire to pursue the Traditional Anglican Communion's foundational goal of full communion with the Catholic Church to begin to reorganize the Diocese in accordance with their own perceived pastoral needs, and, with the blessing of the Primate and the majority of the ACA House of Bishops, I assumed jurisdiction of the newly-created Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family, an entity established (temporarily) for the express purpose of gathering those parishes, missions, and other groups and individuals which had declared for the Ordinariate (or were in the process of doing so). The new Pro-Diocese was conceived of — and recognized (albeit briefly) — by all parties involved as being both under the umbrella of the Patrimony of the Primate and the ACA.

Now, the ACA House of Bishops, through several of its chancellors, has released a statement denying the Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family any place in the ACA and rejecting entirely the notion of the Primate's jurisdiction and the legal concept of his Patrimony, despite general agreement on this provision in the past.

I regard this statement as grievously unfortunate...

Read the rest of Bishop Campese's statement on the blog The Anglo-Catholic.

Six ACA bishops headed to Ordinariate

TAC Archbishop: Six bishops, 61 priests and 29 congregations will join up

A VOL EXCLUSIVE

By Mary Ann Mueller
Feb. 14, 2011

Archbishop John Hepworth, the Primate of the Australian-based Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), and its American branch -- the Anglican Church in America (ACA) -- has announced that six ACA bishops are strongly considering joining the Anglican Ordinariate once it becomes established on this side of the Atlantic.

"We have six bishops and 61 ACA priests who have put in dossiers applying to be clergy of the Ordinariate, and 29 parishes have voted and indicated to Cardinal Donald Wuerl that they have voted from the ACA into the Ordinariate," said Hepworth.

The ACA House of Bishops has a census of 10 including Bishop Juan Garcia of Puerto Rico...

read the rest of the post at Virtue Online.

Former TEC Anglo-Catholic Bishop Explains Why Traditionalists are not Accepting Ordinariate

By David W. Virtue
February 11, 2011

The Pope's offer of a Personal Ordinariate for Anglo-Catholics around the world is now open for business. In January, an Ordinariate was set up in England and Wales. VOL spoke with Bishop Keith Ackerman, VIIIth, Bishop of Quincy (Episcopal Church) (ret), and President of Forward in Faith-North America. He is a member of the College of Bishops in the Province of the Southern Cone and ACNA and Episcopal Vicar of the Diocese of Quincy.

VOL spoke with him about this situation and asked him what the implications are for Anglo-Catholic bishops like himself and what he would do if an Ordinariate were set up in the US and Canada.

VOL: The recent announcement by Pope Benedict XVI of a Personal Ordinariate in the form of an Apostolic Constitution (Anglicanorum Coetibus) for Anglo-Catholics around the world raises serious issues for Anglo-Catholics in North America. Did this take you by surprise?

ACKERMAN: No, not at all. Just a clarification, David, the Personal Ordinariate is not in the form of the Apostolic Constitution, but rather is provided for as a general normative structure for those Anglican faithful who desire to enter into the full communion of the Roman Catholic Church in a corporate manner. This is another pastoral response of the Roman Church to the request of certain Anglicans that has been evolving for many years due to the requests from bishops, priests, deacons and the laity of the Anglican Communion. Pope John Paul II instituted what is called the "Pastoral provision", and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Since 1980 the "Pastoral Provision" has provided a means for Anglican Clergy, married or celibate, seeking to come into the full communion of the Roman Catholic Church, to be considered for Ordination in the Roman Catholic Church, retaining elements of the Anglican Liturgical tradition. As a person who has been aware of these conversations ecumenically, this evolution is not surprising.

Read the rest of Bishop Ackerman's thoughtful and thorough responses in his interview posted on Virtue Online.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Anglicans, the Ordinariate, and the Unopened Gift

Feb 8, 2011
Jordan Hylden
It is hard to remember now, but it is true: for the better part of the last hundred years, Anglicans were at the forefront of the ecumenical movement for Christian unity, with the Episcopalians in the lead. In 1886, the Episcopal bishops proposed the Chicago Quadrilateral as a means for “the restoration of the organic unity of the Church” in the face of its “sad divisions.” In 1888, the rest of the world’s Anglican bishops lent their voices to the proposal at Lambeth, and in 1920 extended it into a heartfelt “Appeal to All Christian People” for church reunion.

The Lambeth appeal in large part set the agenda for the Faith and Order movement of the twentieth century, which itself was spearheaded by the Episcopal missionary bishop Charles Henry Brent. Anglicans and Episcopalians were not the whole story, of course, but it is without question that they played an outsized and crucial role.

It is a proud history, but it all seems part of the past now. Today, it is probably closer to the truth to say that Anglicans are at the forefront of our “sad divisions,” with the Episcopalians once again at the helm. Two weeks ago, the Anglican primates met in Ireland, but key archbishops representing a majority of the Anglican faithful did not attend. The same was true for the last Lambeth conference, from which hundreds of bishops absented themselves, and which opted for open-ended discussion groups in place of its historic practice of issuing common resolutions.

The Anglican Consultative Council, which the 1968 Lambeth conference envisioned as a means to foster greater unity and communication among Anglicans worldwide, is in wide disrepute and deep disarray, with key members having resigned and its present form in constitutional question. And the Archbishop of Canterbury, the historic see that has long held it all together, is regarded by many on both the right and the left as either irrelevant or feckless. As Ephraim Radner not long ago concluded, each of the instruments of Anglican communion is broken, and it is not clear how, when or if they will ever be mended.

It is into this context that three Church of England bishops were received into the Roman Catholic Church last month as priests, as the first fruits of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus issued by Pope Benedict XVI not much more than a year ago...

Read the rest on the First Things: On the Square blog.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller