And as I said when Deborah Gyapong announced her hiatus from the Anglo-Catholic blog: Good! The blog is but a shadow of what it once was and with them (Deborah Gyapong and Fr Phillips) gone, there will not be much going on that is worth your while.
But fear not, there are still plenty of ways to follow Fr Phillips:
I’ve been posting articles on The Anglo-Catholic for a little over two and a half years. Many of them I’ve written myself, and others I have reposted from different sources. I hope most of them have been helpful, and I trust they have been a positive support for the Ordinariates. That has always been my intention and purpose.
Right now there seems to be a bit of a lull in any Ordinariate news to write about, and I think it’s most likely because Ordinariate activity is more of an internal thing at this particular time. It’s probably best for those of us outside the Ordinariates to back off a bit and let things work out.
To that end, I’ll be taking an indefinite break from posting on this blog. Of course, all my previous articles remain, and I’ll continue my own blog, AtonementOnline, as well as my Facebook musings.
There’s plenty to keep me busy at Our Lady of the Atonement Church and The Atonement Academy – something in the neighborhood of 3,000 people to care for spiritually, plus there’s a major building expansion that’s very much needed to accommodate the increased number of students applying for admission. I won’t be twiddling my thumbs, I promise!
The Ordinariates are dear to me, and it’s been a privilege to be able to encourage so many to seek their true home in communion with Rome through this wonderful vision of Pope Benedict XVI.
If you have been over to the Anglo-Catholic blog, you would have noticed that the moderator, Mr Christian Clay Columba Campbell, has for some time now been pushing his own new personal blog (with every posting made). And so the notice of a general hiatus coming shortly after Fr Phillips’ would also not come as any great surprise:
From this moment there will be an indefinite pause here on The Anglo-Catholic. The purpose of this blog from the start has been to encourage the development of Personal Ordinariates according to the will of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as expressed in his Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus and the preservation and propagation of that Anglican Patrimony in harmony with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. I believe that we have played an important role in the formation of the existing Personal Ordinariates, and I hope a positive one. Unfortunately, the powers that be have made it known that our help is not wanted at this time. In deference to them, this blog will comply and leave them to their business. Please pray for the Ordinariates, especially that of the Chair of St. Peter.
I just think that there’s simply no one left to post anything worth reading over there. So, goodbye.
UPDATE I: Fr Anthony Chadwick, who too was formerly a guest (contributor) at the Anglo-Catholic, shares his thoughts on the above news:
… I was first contacted by Christian Campbell on 29th November 2009 to ask me whether I would become a contributor on this promising new blog. I accepted, and contributed a number of articles – which are still there. Finally, I discovered that the blog had its own “orthodoxy” and “police”, and my increasing resistance to the pensée unique ended with a rupture. I set up my own blog called the English Catholic, and this met with my expulsion from the Anglo-Catholicin the last days of August 2010.
It now seems to be common knowledge that Christian Campbell went off on his own tangent after his reception into the Roman Catholic Church. I found out very early on that he was going to a chapel of the Society of St Pius X and had adopted the traditionalist ideology. Fair enough, but hardly representative of the Rome-ward movement of “groups of Anglicans”. This culminated with polemics concerning the use of the pre-conciliar Roman rite in the ordinariates, whether in Latin or the Cranmerese English form in the English Missal. This and other issues caused Deborah Gyapong to pull out, since this kind of discussion would tend to discredit other Anglicans on their way over, but less concerned about the exact rite to be used. I have been quite surprised by some things CCCC put on his Facebook page, but they are entirely irrelevant to me and concern only his personal life.
Now, Fr Christopher Phillips has pulled out too, and Campbell himself has announced an indefinite hiatus. We might suppose that Monsignor Steenson has told those who are now Roman Catholics that ordinariate business is private and not to be discussed on blogs. That seems to ring with my recent article on secrecy, but I am not myself concerned with any Ordinariate anywhere. I will not speculate, but with no discussion and no coverage of any kind, the internal business of a “private club” is irrelevant to nearly all of us, as would be the yearly accounts of some provincial golf club in England.
There is an old quip about gentlemen’s clubs in London – that you know a member has died when there is an ungodly stench coming from behind the newspaper!
Fr Phillips, as a priest under jurisdiction, would have seen the need not to provoke problems for himself or his ministry. Similarly, Deborah Gyapong is a respected journalist and maintains excellent relations with the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. It is a question of professional integrity and keeping squeaky clean.
Sic transit gloria mundi. The Anglo-Catholic met a less radical demise than my English Catholic blog which I deleted. Campbell has his personal blog on which he writes about the things that interest him. I do the same thing here, but on different subjects and from another perspective…
Read the whole post here.
UPDATE II: Deborah Gyapong comments on the above here.
The reason given by Mr Campbell for announcing what he terms a “general haitus” for his blog is in these words: “Unfortunately, the powers that be have made it known that our help is not wanted at this time. In deference to them, this blog will comply and leave them to their business. “
There had been of late been some pretty nasty pieces posted by Mr Campbell about the the conduct of the CSP Ordinary in circumstances where it may well not have been possible for the Ordinariate itself to post any response. Sadly, as owner and moderator of the blog, Mr Campbell was also pretty quick to exercise his censorship prerogatives to delete posts critical of what he himself had posted.
The Royal Navy used to be run by the “Lords Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral” and in the Hornblower novels (and in real life), reprimands from on high came to serving naval officers in the form of a letter from the Secretary to the Admiralty to the errant officer containing “an expression of their Lordships’ displeasure”.
I think it rather unlikely that “the powers that be” would have sent out any such letter to the distinguished persons Mr Campbell had invited to be contributers to the blog, but it is not inconceivable that some equivalent of the “expression of their Lordships’ displeasure” found its way to Mr Campbell.
So Mr Campbell has decided to pick up his toys and walk off the playground. Pity.
For those hungry for Anglican gossip there will, I suppose, always be Mr Virtue’s blog and for those interested in Anglican and Ordinariate matters there are qutie a few other blogs of interest – including this one.
I have a feeling that there is a general cessation to the “Ordinariate Fever” going on. I must say that after what’s happened with St. Mary of the Angels, accusations of favoritism and accusations of denouncing the Extra Ordinary Form, the general flat-lining of the entire “Many Anglicans Will Become Catholics!” sentiment, and a lot of other things…. I think it’s time for me to depart as well. (And nothing of any value will be lost)
Peaceout.
@ Mourad.
Yes, this is what I was thinking, more or less…
The blog has steadily gone south and even started biting. It is good that the contributors began to distance themselves from that unpleasant place. Most of them are accomplished bloggers in their own right and I felt they were mostly wasting their time and considerable knowledge at the Anglo-Catholic. Far better for them to go it alone, especially since Mr Campbell clearly seemed to take great pleasure in lording it over others.
Well, that’s it.
Game over.
Anyway most of the bloggers listed in the contributor list of the Anglo-Catholics stopped contributing long ago, and have a blog of their own.
Fr. Samuel L. Edwards –> http://www.scribd.com/doc/70697929/The-Pondering-Heart
Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family
Fr. Michael Gollop, SSC –> Has his own blog http://letnothingyoudismay.blogspot.fr/
Parish of St. Arvans, Monmouthshire
Deborah Gyapong — > Has officially ceased to contribute –> Has her own blog http://foolishnesstotheworld.wordpress.com/
Sodality of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Fr. Seán Finnegan –> Has his own blog http://valleadurni.blogspot.fr/
Diocese of Arundel and Brighton
Fr. William P. “Doc” Holiday
Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family
Ralph Johnston –> Died (RIP)
The Atonement Academy
Fr. Dwight Longenecker –> Has his own blog http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/
Our Lady of the Rosary
Greenville, South Carolina
Fr. Christopher Phillips — > Has officially ceased to contribute –> Has his own blog http://atonementparish.blogspot.fr/
Anglican Use/Pastoral Provision
Our Lady of the Atonement
Fr. Giles Pinnock –> Has renounced his Anglican orders and is now a Catholic seminarian, and therefore is taking a break from blogging
St. Mary-the-Virgin, Kenton
Dr. William Tighe –> Definitely should have his own blog! We have not enough of Dr. Tighe’s wisdom in the few comments he writes on various blogs!
Muhlenberg College
Fr. Ed Tomlinson, SSC –> Has his own blog http://www.tunbridgewells-ordinariate.com/blog/
St. Anselm, Pembury
Personal Ordinariate of OLW
Anglicanorum Coetibus was promugated to facilitate the reintegration into the Caholic Church of “former Anglicans” who had accepted the imperative need to return to Communion with the Holy See.
On the Holy Father’s “mustard seed” principle, the Ordinariates are not a time-limited offer and hopefully the Ordinariates will grow over time. As an example of how it could happen, see the most recent post on the Ancient Richborough blog of Mgr Edwin Barnes which begins:
“For the past few weeks our Bournemouth Group has been meeting after Mass for half an hour of study and instruction. We are together preparing a family (parents and three sons) for reception; then today another Anglican, who has been worshipping with us, decided he too must seek admission. So little by little we are growing, and it is good that we have a few
long-standing Catholics joining us week by week. Some of them too are taking part in our course of instruction, as a refresher.”
While the St Mary of the Angels dispute is exceedingly sad, people ought to understand that the CSP Ordinary has a crozier not a magic wand.
While the Chuch can and does resolve disputes between Catholics over ecclesiastical property in accordance with Canon Law, and while Popes in days gone by even resolved territorial disputes between Catholic sovreigns, what the Catholic Church cannot resolve (other than by consensual arbitration) are disputes over property between different factions in an entity or entities not in communion. Such matters can only be resolved by the procedure of that other entity or in default of agreement by the civil courts having competent jurisdiction.
If one thinks about it, Because there are schisms between Churches there are ongoing disputes between churches over the Holy Places in Palestine which even today are only resolved under a procedure devised by an Ottoman Sultan.
I have had to correct the date when Campbell invited me to join the Anglo-Catholic. The year was 2009 and not 2011, and my time as a contributor in those heady days spanned over nine months.
Ms Gyapong is quite right to speak of the way relations between the Church and journalists are usually managed these days.
However, it is Mr Campbell who writes “Unfortunately, the powers that be have made it known that our help is not wanted at this time.”
I suppose that in the words of Poo Bah, this line could be ““Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.”