In celebration of the Holy See's vision for Christian Unity

On February 1st, Septuagesima, the chancery building for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter will be dedicated. The new ordinariate missal Divine Worship is also due to be presented at that time.

And a mere week later, on Sexegesima, all three ordinaries of the Personal Ordinariates will gather in London to celebrate a solemn Evensong & Benediction in celebration of the Holy See's vision for Christian Unity, of which the Ordinariates are a key part.

Please pray for the Ordinaries and all the people of the Ordinariate and the unity of all Christians.

ROME: Ordinariate leaders conclude first meeting together

INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS February 19, 2014

The leaders of the three Ordinariates established around the world have met together for the first time to forge closer ties and discuss their growth and development. Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England, Mgr Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter in the United States and Mgr Harry Entwistle, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia, met on 17 and 18 February in Rome, where they also visited senior officials in both the Catholic and Anglican churches. Mgr Newton said: "Each ordinariate is different, but we share a common goal and a lot of the challenges we face are common ones, so this was a good opportunity to meet and discuss where we all are and how we might help each other and learn from each other's experiences in the future. The idea is that we should meet perhaps once a year from now on"... To read the rest, visit ICN at www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=24194.

Msgr Keith Newton on the state of the Ordinariate in the UK

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Next Tuesday, 24 September, the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, is an opportune moment to be invited to write to you about the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, established two and a half years ago. I am grateful to your bishop for giving me this opportunity to tell you about the contribution the Ordinariate makes to the life and mission of the Catholic Church in our country.

Pope Benedict XVI established this new structure in 2011. He wanted to help groups of Anglicans, who wished to bring with them some of the traditions and beauty of the Anglican heritage in which they were nurtu-red, the ability to enter into full communion of the Catholic Church.

Since then more than 80 former Anglican clergy have been ordained as Catholic priests of the Ordinariate in England and Wales. They lead about 40 groups of former Anglican lay people, as well as serving the wider Catholic Church as chaplains in hospitals, prisons or schools or as diocesan priests. In London two churches have been entrusted to us. Elsewhere, our groups celebrate Ordinariate Masses in diocesan Catholic churches. We now have our own Ordinariate rite, which draws on those elements of the Anglican tradition which are consistent with Catholic teaching. As it is gradually introduced, it will add to the distinctive character of our worship. Already, one of the jewels of the Anglican tradition, choral Evensong, is beingregularly celebrated by the Ordinariate in some Catholic churches.

The Ordinariate adds to the rich diversity of the Catholic Church. Any Catholic is free to take part in the life and liturgy of the Ordinariate and receive the Sacraments from its clergy. Our priests are just like any other Catholic priests. By attending an Ordinariate Mass, you are fulfilling your obligation, just as you would by going to any Catholic church in the world. Members of the Ordinariate are likewise free to attend Mass in any Catholic church, being truly and fully members of the Catholic Church.

People coming to our Masses have spoken positively about the conviction of our preaching, our strong musical tradition and hymn singing, our pastoral outreach and the welcoming nature of our gatherings afterwards. This puts us in a strong position to play a full part, with the whole Church, in the urgent task of the New Evangelisation.

Like many members of the Church of England, in which I was ordained for over 35 years, I longed and prayed for union with the Catholic Church and the Ordinariate was a personal fulfilment of those prayers. It has been an incredible and uplifting journey for us all, full of grace, joy and blessings. Of course, we have experienced hardship and sacrifice as well. For many, especially those of our priests who are married with families, there has been great financial uncertainty; for us all it has meant leaving friends and familiar places of worship in the Church of England. We ask for your encouragement, your support and your prayers.

You may ask why we did not become Catholics in the usual way. It is a reasonable question but misses the most important point about the Ordinariate, that it is 'a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to the developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics' and 'It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to us all' (Benedict XVI, Address to the Bishops, Oscott College, September 2010).

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has begun in a small way but it is a concrete expression of the Church's desire to fulfil our Lord's command that 'they may all be one'. It is a small step towards healing one of the most damaging wounds of our history: the dividing of Christ's Body, the Church in this land.

With the assurance of my prayers for the whole Church as we all seek to be faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary

from The Tablet, September 20, 2013

hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

The Ordinariate has finally arrived

By Damian Thompson  
Last updated: April 2nd, 2013

Here's a photo, taken by Lorna Muffat for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, that shows Mgr Keith Newton celebrating Easter Sunday Mass in the organisation's magnificent new London home, Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street. And here's Mgr Newton with the priests and servers:

There's plenty of scepticism about the Ordinariate – especially since the careful circulation of a quote attributed to former Cardinal Bergoglio saying he didn't see the need for it. Well, we shall see. Pope Francis – who would never have encountered Anglicans in the Catholic tradition in Latin America – now finds himself head of the Ordinariate in three continents; his spokesman has said that this will be a permanent structure of the Catholic Church.

Will it be? That's up to the Ordinariate. Its leader in this country, Mgr Newton, has the jurisdiction if not the sacramental powers of a bishop – hence the mitre. The Warwick Street congregation is still small – the group didn't move into the church until Palm Sunday (and hasn't yet started using its own liturgy).
But there's an energy and sense of imagination here that promises great things. Essentially, the Ordinariate finds itself in the same position as most of the great orders and religious communities of the Church in their early days...

Read the rest of Mr. Thompson's post at The Telegraph's blogsite

The Prefect of the CDF & the Ordinaries

Here is the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Müller, flanked by Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and Mgr Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, celebrating Holy Mass in St Peter's basilica on the morning of the Holy Father's resignation.

Hat tip to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on Facebook.

Former Anglican bishop ordained a Catholic deacon

By Catholic Herald Staff Reporter

Thursday, 22 March 2012


From left: James Bradley; Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary; Robert Mercer; Bishop Alan Hopes; Daniel Lloyd

A former Anglican bishop has been ordained a deacon for the ordinariate.

Robert Mercer, who was received into the Catholic Church in January, was ordained by Auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster at Allen Hall seminary in London. He will be ordained a priest on Monday.

Mr Mercer, 77, was Bishop of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, in the Anglican Province of Central Africa. He was bishop for 11 years before leaving the Anglican Communion to join the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, part of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion. He served as metropolitan bishop from 1988 to 2005, when he retired to England.

He is one of three former Anglican clergy to be ordained priests for the ordinariate. More than 200 former Anglicans are also expecting to be received into the Catholic Church in Holy Week.

Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, presented Robert Mercer for ordination. Other members of the Ordinariate, together with staff and seminarians from Allen Hall, were present for the celebration.

During his homily, Bishop Hopes said: “Robert, your life has been one of profound commitment and witness. Your formation and ministry within the Anglican tradition have provided you with a solid spiritual bedrock on which your life has been built … You have been a bold witness to Christ and to the truths of Catholic Christianity – often at great cost to yourself”.

“Coming into communion with the Catholic Church through the ordinariate, you bring with you some of the spiritual riches that are to be found in the Anglican church. You take on a new mission in your ministry of bridge building – that of building bridges between the Catholic Church and the ecclesial communities of the Anglican tradition”.

Mgr Newton, speaking after the ordination, said: “It is a great joy to be here today to celebrate Robert’s ordination. We hope and pray that it will be an encouragement to members of the Traditional Anglican Communion – an assurance of the respect and warmth of welcome, which the Ordinariate offers to them and to all Anglicans who are faithful to the vision of Christian Unity”.

Mr Mercer will be ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on March 26 in Portsmouth Cathedral.

from the Catholic Herald.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

Anglican Catholics and the experience of the Ordinariate

More than two years ago, Pope Benedict XVI published the apostolic exhortation Anglicanorum Coetibus, that allows groups of Anglicans to collectively convert to the Catholic Church while still keeping their Anglican identity.

It envisaged the creation of structures called 'Ordinariates' for returning Anglicans.

The first such Ordinariate was established last January in the United Kingdom.

One year after its creation, about a hundred of its members have come to Rome for a week, to celebrate the anniversary.

To date, fifty seven priests and three deacons have joined the Ordinariate, together with over one thousand lay people.

Two hundred more faithful will be received this year.

Twenty of the Ordinariate's priests are still being trained.

Mgr. Keith Newton, a married Anglican priests and father of three takes stock of this unprecedented experience in the relationship between Christian Churches in the West...

Read the rest of this interview with Msgr. Newton, originally published last week, on the web site Clerical Whispers.

Hat tip to Fr. Chadwick's "English 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).

Oxford University’s Latin Sermon

16 January 2012
by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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

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

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

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

Ordinary welcomes appointment of US counterpart

Monsignor Keith Newton has enthusiastically welcomed the appointment of the Reverend Dr Jeffrey Steenson as the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of The Chair of St Peter, erected today in the United States.

On hearing the news of the appointment by Pope Benedict XVI, Mgr Newton said, 'Fr Steenson is a warm and compassionate priest with a wealth of experience, and I am delighted by his appointment'.

The appointment of Fr Steenson marks the official establishment of the second Personal Ordinariate for those from the Anglican tradition who wish to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church, whilst retaining those elements of Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony consonant with Catholic faith and practice. Dr Steenson formerly served as a bishop of the Episcopal Church before being received into the Catholic Church, and ordained under the Pastoral Provision.

Speaking of the erection of the US Ordinariate, Mgr Newton said, 'The Holy Father's vision for the visible reunion of Anglicans with the Holy See continues apace. As we enter in 2012, we pray that many more will take up Christ's call - ut unum sint - and fulfil the prayer of generations for an Anglicanism united but not absorbed'

From the web site of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

Hundreds more Church of England defections expected

At least 20 clergy and several hundred of their parishioners are already lined up to join the Ordinariate, the new structure set up by the Pope a year ago that allows them to remain some of their Anglican heritage while entering into full communion with the Holy See.
But many more members of the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England are likely to defect following a critical meeting of its governing body, the General Synod, if traditionalists who cannot accept the ordination of women are denied special provision.
The head of the Ordinariate, Mgr Keith Newton, told The Daily Telegraph: “There are in the region of 15 to 20 people who I think will be coming over this year. These are ordained Anglicans who wish to petition the Holy See for ordination.”
He said they are likely to bring a “couple of hundred” worshippers with them in a second wave of defections, following the 60 clergy and about 1,000 lay people who crossed the Tiber last year...

Read the rest at The Telegraph.

2011 Anglican Use Conference to Be Live Streamed

June 30, 2011
by Fr. Christopher Phillips

The 2011 Conference of the Anglican Use Society will be taking place on July 7th – 9th at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Arlington, Texas. The general theme of the conference will be “Our Patrimony,” and speakers will include Fr. David Jaeger, OFM, of the Antonianum Pontifical University in Rome; Msgr. Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England & Wales; John Hunwicke, formerly parish priest of St. Thomas the Martyr in Oxford and now a member of the Ordinariate in England; Fr. Larry Covington, Pastor of St. Louis the King Church in Austin, Texas; and Dr. William Tighe, Associate Professor of History at Muhlenberg College. The Most Reverend Kevin W. Vann, Bishop of Fort Worth (and adviser to Cardinal Wuerl on the erection of the Ordinariate in the U.S.) will be the principal celebrant and preacher at the conference Solemn Mass on July 8.
The conference talks and events will be live streamed at this web address: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/anglicanorum, where you may watch it live, or (since it will remain archived) you can view it at a later time.

The ordinariate is really happening

Tuesday, 19 April 2011
By ANNA ARCO
Last night saw the first receptions of groups into the ordinariate

Mgr Keith Newton annoints a candidate's
head with chrism (Photo: James D Bradley)

The ordinariate is really happening. It really is. After a year and a half since the publication of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus which made establishing an ordinariate possible, and many earlier years of gestation, it is finally becoming real. Sure, it was established in January but until last night, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham numbered fewer than 20 people.

Today its numbers have already more than doubled and by Easter morning its numbers will have swelled to close to a thousand members. These will not only include more than 60 members of clergy, but also very importantly, the committed lay people who have followed their pastors into full Communion with the Catholic Church...

Read the rest at The Catholic Herald.

Hat tip to George, commenting at The Anglo-Catholic blog.

Pope makes former Anglican bishops monsignori

Thursday, 17 March 2011
By ANNA ARCO

The three former Anglican bishops at their ordination to the priesthood in January (Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk)

The Pope has honoured three former Anglican bishops, the first members of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, with the title of monsignor.

Fr Keith Newton, the leader of the Ordinariate who has most of the functions of a bishop, and Fr John Broadhurst, the former Bishop of Fulham, have been granted the papal award of Apostolic Pronotary, the highest ecclesial title for non-bishops. Fr Andrew Burnham, the former Bishop of Ebbsfleet, has been granted the papal award of Prelate of Honour, and is therefore also a monsignor...

Read the rest of the article at The Catholic Herald.

Hat tip to Fr. Zuhlsdorf.

Gathering in the TTAC in England

Father Anthony Chadwick in Normandy reports:

A meeting...took place yesterday in London with the Ordinary Fr Keith Newton and Bishop Alan Hopes. This meeting on Saturday 12th March at Vaughan House is reported to have gone very well, and was well attended by some 18 TTAC clergy. There would have been two more, but they were not able to travel due to illness.

The meeting was about being introduced to Bishop Alan Hopes and the Ordinary Fr Keith Newton. Bishop Alan warmly welcomed each of the English priests individually, and as a group saying that they had had not been overlooked in the process of application, just that everything had happened so fast and that had been dealt with in due process. He did say however, that he had met with Bishop Robert Mercer CR on two previous occasions in preparation for the meeting on Saturday. He also went through the procedure in providing the correct form of dossier to be presented to the CDF in Rome.

The Ordinary Fr Keith Newton talked about his role and responsibilities, and he and Bishop Hopes outlined the importance of the Holy Father’s prophetic gift in the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus in bringing the English clergy together in Christ...

Read the rest of his account at English Catholic

Announcing the new web site of

The Personal Ordinariate of

Our Lady of Walsingham

under the patronage of

Blessed John Henry Newman

http://www.ordinariate.org.uk/

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Anna Arco interviews Fr Keith Newton

The Catholic Herald‘s Anna Arco interviewed the Ordinary, Fr Keith Newton, in last week’s paper: We want to be outward-looking

Shortly after the Second Vatican Council Cardinal Johannes Willebrands preached at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Protesters, including Ian Paisley, tried to disrupt the service. A teenage Keith Newton and his future wife, Gill, were among those who had come out to see the historic event. Police eventually had to move the protesters. From that day on, the young Liverpudlian longed for Christian unity.

The 17-year-old could never have imagined that he would one day end up leading an entirely new structure within the Catholic Church. Today he is, of course, the ordinary, or head, of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham...

Read the rest of the interview at The Ordinariate Portal .

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.

The Ordinariate has got off to an impressive start – but now it needs a London church

January 18th, 2011
By Damian Thompson Religion

At the first Mass of Fr Andrew Burnham at the Oxford Oratory on Sunday, the great Dominican theologian Fr Aidan Nichols described the Ordinariate as “nothing less than the reconfiguring of Anglicanism by union with the Petrine centre and its criteria of orthodoxy”.
That is a sweepingly ambitious statement of the Ordinariate’s purpose – and it might have seemed over the top had it not been for the extraordinary scenes at Westminster Cathedral the day before, when Archbishop Vincent Nichols ordained the former Anglican bishops of Fulham, Ebbsfleet and Richborough. Rather to the surprise of some commentators, the Bishops of England and Wales really seem to have lined up behind the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham...

Read the rest of Mr. Thompson's reflections at his Telegraph blog Holy Smoke.

On January 15th

January 15, 1559	January 15, 2011
Elizabeth I is crowned Queen regnant in Westminster Abbey,1 and begins to separate the Church of England from the communion of the Catholic Church, and begin decades of persecution of Catholics.	Former Anglican bishops John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton are ordained to the Catholic priesthood in Westminster Cathedral, the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is erected to receive communities from the Church of England and of Wales and other Anglicans into communion with the Catholic Church.
1see Wikipedia Deo Gratias!