Gaudeamus!

On Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent 2017, members of the Deal Mission of the Ordinariate welcomed new member the Rev. Ian Shackleton.

After many years ministering to our separated brothers and sisters, Ian decided that it was time to seek the fullness of communion in the Catholic Church, through the auspices of the Ordinariate in East Kent.

Ian was received and confirmed by Mission Pastor Fr Christopher Lindlar and sponsored by Deal Mission member Paul Harrison.

The Profession of Faith

Confirmation and anointing with the Oil of Chrism

Safely gathered in!

New Ordinariate member Ian Shackleton with Paul his sponsor and Fr Christopher, all under the maternal gaze of Our Lady.

 

Why join the Ordinariate? Part 4

A fourth and final reason for not joining the Ordinariate that our correspondent offers comes in two parts, connected with the clergy.   On the one hand, ‘Anglo-Catholicism has its own martyrology, a source of huge pride.   Men such as Fr Mackonochie, Fr Arthur Tooth and Fr Pelham Dale fought heroically for their vision of the catholicity of the Church of England’.    On the other, ‘any priest going to Rome has to sign up to Apostolicae Curae, admitting the invalidity of their previous ministry’.

It is of course undeniably true that these Anglican men fought heroically for that vision of catholic Anglicanism.    It is also undeniably true that the Church of England has decisively and irrevocably repudiated that self same vision.   The real question is rather whether men like these would not in truth have been good shepherds and led their flocks into unity with the See of Peter in the Ordinariate.

It is not true to suggest that any Anglican minister ‘going to Rome’ is required to deny the value of their previous ministry.   On the contrary, it seems to be the invariable custom  –  certainly at ordinations for the Ordinariate  –  for a specific and generous prayer of thanksgiving to be offered for that prevous Anglican ministry which has led the ordinand to seek that fullness of communion that subsists in the Catholic Church.

 

Why join the Ordinariate? Part 3

A third reason for not joining the Ordinariate that our correspondent offers is that, ‘CofE clergy are allowed a certain latitude to run their parishes as they see fit. Many of the more Anglo-Papalist parishes use the Roman Rite, entirely unadapted. A few others still use the English Missal ** . . .  This is all almost certainly against [Anglican] canon law, but the bishops generally look the other way.   [T]he Catholic Church in England and Wales, from the outsider’s perspective, seems rather more controlling of its priests and parishes’.

Our correspondent might be surprised to learn that there seems to be a similar degree of latitude in the Catholic Church in this country!   Liturgical practice, within the Roman Rite, is surprisingly diverse.

However, it is perhaps slightly perverse to cite rigid adherence to the Roman Rite and even the English Missal as a reason for remaining in the CofE, in defiance of its law and of bishops with whom one claims to be in impaired communion at best.

One of the great joys of being part of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is precisely the liturgical provision given to us by the Holy See.   The Ordinariate’s Missal, Divine Worship – the Missal, is fully in accordance with the Roman Rite and derived from the BCP tradition of which the English Missal is a part.   Why would one illicitly use resources of the Latin Rite as a sign of contradiction, when one can use that same strand of tradition as a defining sign of unity and communion?

In a recent post for the Catholic Herald, Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith commented on the beauty of the Ordinariate’s Missal, saying that it is ‘a gift to the whole Church’.

**   It is of course a great irony that the only liturgical-ecclesial space in which the English Missal tradition finds completely legal expression today is the Ortdinariate itself,  in the Ordinariate Missal Divine Worship – the Missal which is clarly an organic and Catholic development of the English Missal and Prayer Book tradition.

Why join the Ordinariate? Part 2

A second reason for not joining the Ordinariate that our correspondent offers is that, ‘it is an open secret that the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales has never been keen on the Ordinariate, which has become something of a disfavoured ghetto.’   And therefore, ‘even if [an Anglican] priest or parish has a dubious relationship with the C of E hierarchy, crossing the Tiber is unlikely to improve matters’.

Alas, there may be a grain of truth in the suggestion that some of the bishops of the Catholic Church in England and Wales seem not to be overly keen on the Ordinariate; although to say that the Ordinariate has become a disfavoured ghetto is not true.

Nevertheless, it must surely be better have an uncomfortable relationship with bishops with whom one is undoubtedly in full communion than to have an uncomfortable relationship with bishops with whom one insists one has impaired communion at best.

We are all made uncomfortable by the new and unexpected, even Catholic bishops.   Current and passing discomfort is as nothing, given the prize of full and visible communion – the very thing for which Jesus Christ himself prayed.

 

The Solemnity of Our Lady of Walsingham

This year, 2017, is a Golden Year for the Ordinariate in the UK because our Feast of Title fell on a Sunday.   It was marked with special joy for the Deal mission because Patricia was confirmed as a member of the Ordinariate, having been baptised as a Catholic but then not having completed the rites of initiation until now  –  a blessing (pray God) for her and certainly a blessing for us.

The Entrance Procession, followed by censing the Altar at the Introit

Patricia leads us in the Creed and is anointed with the Oil of Chrism, supported by her sponsor.

After Mass, Our Lady approves and then we all enjoy a glass of something cool and refreshing  –  an essential part of Anglican Patrimony!

Why Join the Ordinariate? Part1.

Back in August 2017, in a piece for the Catholic Herald website titled ‘Let’s show High Church Anglicans they’re welcome in the Ordinariate’, Francis Phillips commented on a visit to a ‘High Church’ Anglican church and wondered why, given all the evidence of an outwardly firm Catholic faith, the folk there did not join the Ordinariate.

The following week, also on the Catholic Herald website, Andrew Sabisky proposed that aside from theological reasons there were ‘practical and immediate reasons’ why he and other Anglo-Catholics might not join the Ordinariate;  he gave four such reasons.

First, he cites “flying bishops” operating “church within a church” structures as ‘growing and flourishing’, offering shelter and likely to ‘become even more powerful over time’.

This is a superficially attractive proposition but it must fail the test of communion.   This particular “church within a church” comprises folk who are in communion with each other but not in communion with the organisation of which they are a part.   Essentially, the smaller group is defined by dis-unity, the absence of that unity for which Jesus prayed  –  diversity in disunity.

The Ordinariate provides the fix to that problem:  diversity in unity. The Ordinariate is a distinct part of the multifaceted thing called the Catholic Church.   The Ordinariate brings into the Catholic Church those elements of the Anglican tradition that are consistent with the faith once given to the saints, as a ‘treasure to be shared’, and holds them with and for the Church within which members of the Ordinariate find unity and communion, the very thing for which Jesus prayed.

The Ordinariate visits Ramsgate

On a perfect day in June 2017, folk from the Ordinariate Missions in Deal, Folkestone, Maidstone, Pembury and Sevenoaks  –  together with friends from London and North of the River  –  travelled to Ramsgate and to the National Shrine of St Augustine.   Solemn Mass was celebrated according to the Ordinariate Use, in the beautifully restored Shrine Church  –  the masterpiece of AW Pugin.   The photo shows pilgrims, concelebrating clergy and Fr Holden the Shrine Rector (2nd from right).   After Mass, a Big Picnic Lunch was taken over the road in the former Abbey grounds, now the Divine Retreat Centre.   The day ended with an Address from Fr Holden about St Augustine, the New Evangelisation and the Ordinariate, followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.   A good day was had by all;  friendships made and renewed, the Faith proclaimed and re-affirmed.

The Ordinariate – a gift to be shared.

 The Holy Father stated, when he published Anglicanorum coetibus, that as ‘the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches, [he] could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realization’.

This was in response to groups of Anglicans ‘repeatedly and insistently’ petitioning ‘to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately’.

What is the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham?

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is a specific ecclesiastical jurisdiction which juridically equivalent to a diocese and is overseen by its own Ordinary (see below) who may be a priest or bishop.

Unlike a diocese, whose membership is on a territorial basis, the membership of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is on a ‘personal’ basis. In other words, no matter where a member of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham lives, within the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales, they will in the first instance be under the ordinary ecclesial jurisdiction of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and not the diocese where they are territorially based.

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is made up of laity, clergy and religious who were nurtured within the Anglican tradition. Following reception into the full communion of the Catholic Church, laity and religious become members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham by enrolment in a register; with the ordination of priests and deacons, clergy are directly incardinated into (placed under the jurisdiction of) the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Are members of the Ordinariate still Anglicans?

Members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham are Catholics of the Latin Rite, within the full communion of the Catholic Church. By civil law they are known, as all Catholics in England and Wales are known, as ‘Roman Catholics’. However, their heritage and traditions mean that they are Catholics from the Anglican Tradition.

Members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham are no longer part of any other communion (such as the Anglican Communion).

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is not a distinct Ritual Church within the Catholic Church, but a diocese-like structure within the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales.

One of the principal aims of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus is “to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared”. Members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham bring with them, into the full communion of the Catholic Church in all its diversity and richness of liturgical rites and traditions, aspects of their own Anglican patrimony and culture which are consonant with the Catholic Faith.

Anglican patrimony can be understood to be those elements of the Anglican tradition which have sustained and nurtured the faith of those in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. This includes spiritual writings, prayers, music, as well as those pastoral practices distinctive to the Anglican tradition which have sustained the faith and longing of many Anglican faithful for that very unity for which Christ prayed.

The members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham bring gifts to the Catholic Church for mutual enrichment, in an authentic and visible form of full communion, between those baptised and nurtured in the Anglican tradition and the Catholic Church.