Heirs of Newman's 'Oxford Movement'

Lead, Kindly Light

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,--
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene,--one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on:
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead thou me on!
I loved the garish days, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on;
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

John Henry Newman

Historic Community of Anglican Nuns to Join Ordinariate

A group of Anglican nuns from the Community of St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) in Wantage, Oxfordshire, are to be received into the full communion of the Catholic Church in January 2013.

Eleven sisters from the historic Anglican community will join the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, the structure established by Pope Benedict XVI to enable groups of Anglicans to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church whilst retaining elements of their liturgical, spiritual, and pastoral heritage. The group includes the Superior of the community, Mother Winsome CSMV. 

As a Catholic, the Church of England’s Troubles Sadden Me

And we should not think we are immune from such problems

From the Catholic Herald (UK)

By Francis Phillips

Whatever a Catholic’s views on the matter, it has been a sad spectacle watching the Church of England falling into increasing disunity, this time over the question of women bishops. Once you allow the principle of female ordination, you can’t, as someone remarked, then try to impose a stained-glass ceiling. I feel sorry for those women priests who, with sincerity, see the problem as one of continued inequality with men; I feel sorry for those who voted against women bishops on the grounds that this development is unscriptural; I also feel sorry for those who voted against the motion because they believe provision for conscientious objectors is not good enough; and I feel sorry for Justin Welby, future Archbishop of Canterbury, who is soon to enter this minefield. It is all a mess and does not serve the vigorous Christian witness that this country desperately needs.

Personal Ordinariate for Former Anglicans to be Established in Australia

Our Lady of the Southern Cross by Paul Newton

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.

Pope Benedict Donates $250,000 to Anglican Ordinariate in England and Wales

Pope Benedict XVI has donated $250,000 to support the work of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The gift will help establish the Ordinariate as a vibrant part of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

The news from Rome came to Monsignor Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate, and read “The Holy Father has benevolently permitted a donation of $250,000”.

Over 3,500 Adults Received into the Church in England and Wales

From The Catholic Herald (UK)

By David V. Barrett

Members of the Croydon ordinariate group with Mgr John Broadhurst (Photo: Personal Ordinariate)

More than 3,500 adults were received into the Catholic Church in England and Wales last week.

They included 1,397 catechumens, who had prepared to be baptised, and 1,843 candidates, who had already baptised in another Christian tradition.

The largest numbers were in the dioceses of Westminster (734), Southwark (481), Brentwood (333), Birmingham (255) and Portsmouth (206). The total of 3,695 also included those who had joined the ordinariate. Easter is the traditional time for reception of new members of the Church through the Rite of the Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), the liturgical and catechetical process for adults joining the Church.

New Questions, Challenges Confront Episcopal-Turned-Catholic Leader

Fr. Jeffrey N. Steenson

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service
 
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Father Jeffrey N. Steenson is finding that there are a lot of new roads to travel and new questions to resolve since his Jan. 1 appointment as head of the Houston-based Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for former Anglicans who want to become Catholics.

The former Episcopal bishop of the Rio Grande, who was ordained a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., in February 2009, was to be installed in his new post Feb. 12. Also in February, a class of about 40 former Episcopal priests will begin an intensive, Internet-based course of studies to become Catholic priests within the ordinariate.

Pope Benedict Establishes US Ordinariate for Former Anglicans

In response to numerous requests, Pope Benedict XVI has established an ordinariate for Anglican groups and clergy across the United States who wish to become Catholic. This is only the second structure like this in the world. The Pope also has named a Houston professor and former Episcopal bishop, Reverend Jeffrey N. Steenson, to lead the ordinariate. 

The Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter will be based in Houston, Texas. The only other ordinariate is Our Lady of Walsingham, established in January 2011 to serve England and Wales.

Former Episcopal Bishop Jeffrey Steenson to Head American Anglican Ordinariate

Rome will formally announce appointment on New Year's Day

From VirtueOnline

By By Mary Ann Mueller

Former Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande, Jeffrey Steenson, is to be named the Ordinary when the Anglican Ordinariate is erected on January 1, 2012, sources tell VOL.

Word seeped out from the Vatican late last week that Steenson -- who left The Episcopal Church in 2007 over TEC's polity - has been tapped for the new post as the Ordinariate gets its first foothold in the United States.

US Ordinariate to be Created on January 1, Says Cardinal

From the Catholic Herald (UK)

By Patricia Zapor

A new ordinariate will be created on January 1 to bring Anglicans into the US Catholic Church, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington has announced at an annual meeting of the country’s bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Wuerl also said 67 Anglican priests had submitted their dossiers seeking ordination in the Catholic Church, and 35 of those had received initial approval from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

There Are Still Many People (Mostly Anglicans) Who Preach the Catholic Faith but Who Aren’t Yet Catholics. We Need to Respect Their Beliefs

Anglo-Catholics have one important pastoral opportunity that Roman Catholics don’t

Ordinariate clergy being ordained earlier this year. CNS photo/Marcin Mazur, Bishops' Conference of England and Wales)

From the Catholic Herald (UK)

By William Oddie

From time to time, one blog leads on to another. Here’s one which leads on from two of my recent efforts. Firstly, from my recent post pointing out that the secular press, in their obituaries of Sir Jimmy Savile, totally ignored what he himself would have said was one of the most important features of his life, his Catholic faith. I mentioned in some sorrow among these a paper I first came across some 50 years ago, the Irish Independent. Back in those days, it was a very definitely Catholic paper, and would certainly have mentioned Jimmy Savile’s regular attendance at Mass during the week. “Truly”, I commented, “since the long-ago days when the Irish Independent published a series of booklets on the Catholic faith for children (my favourite — one of which I remember vividly since I much later based a children’s sermon on it in my days as a clergyman, to the fury of a very Protestant churchwarden—was entitled “Tales of the Blessed Sacrament”) there has been a great falling away from that faith, which makes me very sad indeed.”

Cardinal Wuerl: Ordinariate in the US is Imminent

From the Catholic Herald (UK)
By Liz Leydon

 

Cardinal Wuerl yesterday received an Episcopalian parish into the Catholic Church in anticipation of the ordinariate (Photo: CNS)

An ordinariate is close to being established in America, Cardinal Donald Wuerl said during his visit to Scotland last week.

As Vatican delegate for the US ordinariate Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, said he had been watching developments in Britain with great interest and was confident that the establishment of the US ordinariate was imminent this autumn.

Cardinal Reports on Progress Toward US Ordinariate for Ex-Anglicans

From CNS

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien

As many as 100 U.S. Anglican priests and 2,000 laypeople could be the first members of a U.S. personal ordinariate for former Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington reported to his fellow bishops June 15.

Maryland Parish to Spearhead Anglican Ordinariate in US

Cardinal Donald Wuerl is overseeing the creation of a Personal Ordinariate in America

Saint Luke's Parish in Bladensburg, Maryland has announced its intention to be the first Episcopalian parish in the United States to come into communion with the Catholic Church since Pope Benedict permitted the establishment of national Anglican Ordinariates to acomodate former Anglican parishes seeking to enter the Catholic Church as a congregation.

The Saint Luke's community has obtained the permission of Episcopal Bishop John Chane of Washington to continue worshiping in their current church under a lease with an option to buy.  They are also working closely with the Catholic Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wuerl, who is overseeing the establishment of the Ordinariate in the United States.

In England, three bishops, sixty priests, and nearly one thousand lay people have already been received into the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate established in that country.  Ordinariates are also being formed in Canada and Australia.

Saint Luke's parish announced its historic decision on the parish website:

We Are Ordinariate Bound!

+Welcome to St. Luke's Ordinariate Catholic Community website! It is with great joy St. Luke's announces its intention to join the Personal Ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. We have been discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit since the Holy Father's announcement of Anglicanorum coetibus in October of 2009. Since that time we have been in close dialogue with both the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and the Archdiocese Washington.

Over the next few months the people of St. Luke's Ordinariate Catholic Community will undergo formal preparation to become Roman Catholics. This formal preparation will take place at St. Luke's primarily on Sunday's at 9:00am, and on Thursday evenings at 7:00pm. If you are interested in joining the people of St. Luke's on this journey you are encouraged and welcomed to attend.

We are deeply grateful to Cardinal Wuerl and to Bishop Chane for their support throughout this discernment. We look forward to continuing to worship in the Anglican tradition, while at the same time being in full communion with the Holy See of Peter.

These are exciting times! We will endeavor to keep you up to date with any information concerning our community and with the Ordinariate. Please browse through our website for the latest information.

A New Bridge Across the Tiber

From Crisis Magazine

By Father Dwight Longenecker

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has now been established in England. By Easter this year, three bishops, sixty priests, and nearly one thousand lay people had left the Church of England to be received into the Catholic Church. Archbishop Donald Wuerl is working with interested parties to establish the ordinariate in the United States, and progress is being made in Canada and Australia for ordinariates to be erected there later this year.

What will be the future of this new ordinariate? It could be that it will simply bring into full communion with the Catholic Church a small number of conservative Anglo-Catholics. They were an eccentric church within a church in the Anglican Communion, and some predict that they will continue to be an eccentric church within the Catholic Church. Around the world, there will be small groups of traditionalist Anglicans who will differ from all the other tiny Anglican schismatic churches, in that they will actually be in full communion with Rome. They will keep to themselves and be viewed by mainstream Catholics as an eccentric rump of dissident Anglicans who like incense and lace, old-fashioned language and splendid old hymns, who somehow managed to worm their way into the Catholic Church. They will be regarded with bemusement and some bewilderment. Anglicans will shake their heads and wish them well and wonder why they didn’t become “proper Catholics” if they wanted to swim the Tiber. Eventually, the theory goes, they will die out. Their descendants will be absorbed into the mainstream of the Catholic Church, and the whole thing will be a footnote in the history of ecumenism.

A second possibility is that the Anglican Church herself will eventually disintegrate or morph into something unrecognizably Anglican, and the ordinariate will be all that is left of historic Anglicanism. In this scenario, an increasing number of Anglicans worldwide will see that, if they want to be historic Christians within the Anglican tradition, the only place to do that will be within the ordinariate, and they will flee the sinking ship of Anglicanism to join it.

This is almost certainly not going to happen, for several reasons: First of all, the Evangelical Anglicans are Protestants. After they have made the polite ecumenical noises, they do not really understand or appreciate the Catholic Faith. Secondly, many Anglo-Catholics also do not really want to be Catholic: They want to be Anglican. They honestly do not see the importance of being in full visible communion with the Catholic Church. They have serious misgivings about some of the Catholic dogmas, and they continue to believe that they are “Catholic within the Anglican Church.” Thirdly, the liberal wing of the Anglican church certainly has no wish to be in full communion with Rome. They dislike Roman authority, dogma, and moral teachings and are increasingly anti-Catholic.

However, there is a third way. The ordinariate could develop in a very different and exciting direction. The way to understand this more dynamic possibility is to see the ordinariate as a new bridge across the Tiber for a whole range of Protestant Christians. Already, conservative, liturgically minded Lutherans are asking why there isn’t a Lutheran ordinariate, while some of them point to the formal intercommunion that already exists between Lutherans and Anglicans and argue that the Anglican ordinariate should naturally be open to Lutherans as well. 

Woldwide Day of Prayer for Anglicans Entering Ordinariates

The Anglo-Catholic has called for a day of prayer today for Anglicans seeking to enter personal ordinariates around the world.  Their message follows:

Several days ago we posted a request for your prayers on Thursday, April 14th. The general intentions for this Day of Prayer are:

1. The Holy Father
2. Anglican Clergy and postulants, for encouragement and strengthening of their faith, particularly when faced with uncertainty about what their future roles in The Church may be.
3. The laity for their encouragement and increase of faith.

An Ordinariate has been erected for England and Wales; however, we are waiting (with varying degrees of patience) for the establishment of Ordinariates in the United States, Canada and Australia. Also, there are Anglicans in many parts of the world who desire this, but who have not yet had a formal notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the process is beginning for them.

All this should be included in our prayers — and this really needs to be a world-wide effort. Send a notice to Sean Reed at 6@societyofstmichael.org, telling him during what hour you will be praying. And get the word out! Tweet this, or Facebook it. Send this link out to your email list. Do whatever you can to get as many people as possible praying about this on April 14th.

The Anglican Catholic Patrimony Which the Ordinariate Will Bring Has Been Enriching Us for Years

 Think of all those great translations of Latin hymns

From The Catholic Herald (UK)

By William Oddie

 High altar reredos by Sir Ninian Comper at St Mark's church in Primrose Hill, north-west London

There is an interesting Telegraph blog by the pianist Stephen Hough this week, about his conversion to the Catholic Church as a boy of 16. He and his mother were staying in a guesthouse, down the road from Buckfast Abbey:

“We went to Mass there, mainly because it was within walking distance, and immediately I had this feeling of entering an enormous, strange, fascinating new world.

“It wasn’t just the unfamiliar sight of sun streaming through stained glass windows and the sound of Latin chant. I felt I was in a forbidden place, an enclave of papism – really quite an exciting sensation for an awkward, rebellious teenager. I was about to leave all Christian faith behind when this window to a bigger truth opened: that beauty can be a path to God, and that a fixed, “impersonal” liturgy can seem less man-made than extemporary prayers"

His conversion was from an evangelical form of Protestantism, and as he puts it, “it might have caused less offence if I’d taken up smoking hashish”. Now, he says, “I no longer feel so separated from the tradition in which I grew up. If I want to attend Anglican evensong or sing Methodist hymns I can – and do, with pleasure. Our communities understand each other better. There’s room for a two-way exchange, and I hope the ordinariate will make that exchange even warmer.”

I also hope it will: all the same, it has to be said that in the case of mainstream broad church Anglicanism I really don’t think that our communities do understand each other better: what has happened is that Roman Catholics have begun to understand Catholic-minded Anglicans a lot better (it isn’t just that Anglo-Catholics have realised that any kind of understanding with Anglicanism as it has developed is now impossible for them): and the “Anglican patrimony” they bring with them is of a kind entirely compatible with the Roman patrimony of the mainstream English Catholic Church.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols' Homily for the Ordination of Three Former Anglican Bishops

Ordination to the Priesthood of Reverend John Broadhurst, Reverend Andrew Burnham, Reverend Keith Newton 

Westminster Cathedral, Saturday, January 15, 2011

Archbishop Vincent Nichols

Many ordinations have taken place in this Cathedral during the 100 years of its history. But none quite like this. Today is a unique occasion marking a new step in the life and history of the Catholic Church. This morning the establishment of the first Personal Ordinariate under the provision of the Apostolic Constitution ‘Anglicanorum Coetibus’ has been announced in our hearing. So I too salute John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton who are to be the first priests of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. In particular I offer my prayers and best wishes to Keith, chosen by the Holy Father to be its first Ordinary. 

This is indeed an historic moment. In these opening words I welcome you warmly, Keith, Andrew and John. You have distinguished pasts, full of real achievements. Now, ahead of you, you have an important and demanding future! In welcoming you I recognise fully the demands of the journey you have made together with your families, with its many years of thought and prayer, painful misunderstandings, conflict and uncertainty. I want, in particular, to recognise your dedication as priests and bishops of the Church of England and affirm the fruitfulness of your ministry.

I thank so many in the Church of England who have recognised your sincerity and integrity in making this journey and who have assured you of their prayers and good wishes. First among these is Rowan, Archbishop of Canterbury, with his characteristic insight, and generosity of heart and spirit.

First Anglican Ordinariate Established in Britain

From Catholic World News

Former Anglican bishops (L-R) John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton stand during their ordination as Roman Catholic priests at Westminster Cathedral in central London, January 15, 2011. Three former Anglican bishops were ordained as Catholic priests on Saturday, to become the first priests of the Ordinariate of former Anglicans to join the Catholic Church, local media reported.  REUTERS/Andrew Winning (BRITAIN - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION)

The Vatican has established the first personal ordinariate for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church. 

On January 15, as 3 former Anglican bishops were ordained to the Catholic priesthood, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a statement establishing an ordinariate for England and Wales. 

Rev. Keith Newton, one of the three former Anglican bishops, was named by Pope Benedict XVI as the first ordinary. The Vatican statement said that he, along with the other former Anglican bishops, “will oversee the catechetical preparation of the first groups of Anglicans in England and Wales who will be received into the Catholic Church together with their pastors at Easter, and will accompany the clergy preparing for ordination to the Catholic priesthood around Pentecost.” 

Rev. Newton said that the appointment was “not an honor that I have sought or expected but I pray that God will give me the wisdom and grace to live up to the trust the Holy Father has placed in me.” 

The personal ordinariate is a new ecclesiastical structure, established by Pope Benedict with his apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus as a means of welcoming those Anglicans who wish to enter the Catholic Church. The ordinariate will allow Anglican communities to maintain their distinct liturgical and pastoral traditions, while being fully in communion with the Holy See.The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explained:

A Personal Ordinariate is a canonical structure that provides for corporate reunion in such a way that allows former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their distinctive Anglican patrimony. With this structure, the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be fully integrated into the Catholic Church.

The ordinariate will provide pastoral care for former Anglicans entering the Catholic Church in England and Wales, stretching across the lines of existing dioceses. The new structure will be known as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman. 

The ordinary exercises many of the administrative powers of a bishop. However Rev. Newton, who is married, will not be consecrated as a bishop. The Vatican statement pointed out that while married men can sometimes be ordained to the Catholic priesthood, and the ordinariate allows for married priests, the Catholic Church never consecrates married men to episcopal office. All three of the former Anglican bishops who were ordained as Catholic priests on January 15 are married. 

During the ordination, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, who presided at the ceremony, said: “We offer a warm welcome to these three former bishops of the Church of England. We welcome those who wish to join them in full communion with the Pope in the visible unity of the Catholic Church.” 

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Erection of a Personal Ordinariate for England and Wales (VIS)
• Pope Benedict establishes world’s first ordinariate (Catholic Herald)
• Press Statement from Keith Newton - First Ordinary (Total Catholic)