A great question by canon lawyer Mark Jakubik:
Given the shrinking numbers of the Episcopal Church and, and the news reports, almost daily, of new ordinations and the like in the American Ordinariate, I got to thinking: when will the average Sunday attendance (in my view the best barometer on a week-to-week basis of the health of a church) for Ordinariate parishes exceed the Episcopal Church’s? I’ll put the over/under at 3 years.
Which side would you take?
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I like his optimism, but I put equal numbers way in the future.
Let’s see how the Ordinariate matches up to Continuing Anglicans for starters. They get the property; I hope we’ll get the people.
Indeed, people forget the Anglican parishes that are somewhat healthy and faithful, in both the Uk and the US. They are there, not in great numbers, but they exist!
It’s impossible for those of us in the Ordinariate to hazard guesses about such things, and while of course we want the Ordinariate to grow in numbers, it’s not foremost on our minds. Mostly, we simply stand in gratitude, to the Holy Father, to the Holy Spirit, and to all those who have worked so diligently to bring about this happy reality.
That this Bridge has been constructed for the benefit of all the churches, as a sign that unity is indeed possible, is enough. We will do our part, to the best of our ability, and if people wish to come, they are welcome; if not, we want good for them in Christ the Lord. The Bridge will exist in ten, twenty, and a hundred years. It will be emblematic of the Pope of Christian Unity, a gift for others, if, or when they ever desire to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.
The so-called “”Holy Father” mentioned before the Holy Spirit? Very telling!
Perhaps even more telling is your cheap attempt to undermine what GK is saying. Wake up to what Anglicanism is – protestant nothing more!
First, I always seek to speak “theologically”, and this is my point! So this was no “cheap” shot! And I am myself a classic and historic Anglican, which is both “catholic” and “reformed” (noting those old Thirty-Nine Articles, some of us believe they are biblically modeled!) But sadly today, the Anglican Communion has sold their history, and have become theologically and confessionally ignorant!
As an Irish Catholic priest whose grandfather was an Orangeman and mother a convert from Anglicanism, I have to say Father that some of your remarks do come across in a nasty way. My uncles did not attend my Ordination, not for any theological reason, but from an anti-Catholic upbringing. The phrase ‘so-called Holy Father’ has been used around me from childhood and I find your attempt to justify it unconvincing. My mother was a classical Anglican and is joyful aboutbthe Ordinariate
@Fr. Gerard: Indeed we Irish all have our issues, and certainly religion (so-called) is one of them. Thankfully I don’t have too much baggage here, at least to my mind. But, we all have our sins and blind-spots, even us so-called priests and religious. Certainly being an RMC for over ten years plus, was central in my life, and I am always a conservative both politically & theologically. And the anti-Protestant train is quite full itself also! But again, my problems with the papacy are really theological foremost. And I will never again accept the idea of papal infallibility, to me this is a quite unsustainable doctrine, and an affront to Scripture and logic!
This is worth quoting again! For Joseph..
“The Anglican mind, in its highest state of development, was supple without being flaccid, liberal yet disciplined, conservative yet open. It recognised that the opposite of protestant is not catholic, but corrupt, and that the opposite of catholic is not protestant, but sectarian. Even at its most polemical, it sought more reconciliation with its opponents than triumph over them. In every generation of its life — from Hooker and Field to Taylor and Cosin to Wesley and Wilberforce to Keble and Pusey to William Temple and Michael Ramsey — it has produced pastors and theologians who exemplify these characteristic. Its ethos informed an entire family of national Churches. Now, however, though the Anglican intellectual tradition remains alive in certain individuals and groups of Anglicans, it can no longer claim to have any substantial influence on what passes for life in the national and international institutions of the increasingly moribund Anglican Communion.”
#about the Ordinariate, if somewhat of the “if they don’t come now, they never will” school of thought.
I am sure you don’t intend to be rude, but I understand the offence some would feel.
Fr Gerard,
My grandfather was Orange as an American can be and I am sure that most of my relatives will be no shows at my ordination as well. Still, I’m sure that amongst all the anti-Catholicism I imbibed as a child there was real Christian faith that has lead me to the threshold of becoming a Catholic priest. I hope Grandpa in heaven will pray for me, you and all of us returning to the Church.