An Irish Ordinariate?

The Australian Ordinariate folk seems to know something the rest of us don’t. On their official website:

If you follow the link however, it leads back to the Personal  Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, which is, of course, in the USA (okay, Mrs Gyapong, Canada too).

I Googled the ‘Irish Ordinariate’ and only really came up with a blog exploring the idea, which hasn’t posted anything since middle 2011.

Even the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (closest) doesn’t list a group or an exploration group in Ireland.

But then again, Ireland has never been a bastion of Anglo-Catholicism now has it?

Perhaps it’s but a mistake by the webmaster down-under? Or as I said, something only the Aussies are aware of at the moment?

UPDATE I:  After the above post, they have updated the tab to read ‘Irish Ordinariate -Discussion’ which takes the reader to a blog run by a one ‘Fr O’. Wonder how many ‘Fr O’s’ there are in Ireland… Can’t be too many…

UPDATE II:  Fr O with Little by little.

 

The Portal Mag: May 2013

The Portal, by our Ordinariate brothers and sisters, for May is out (a little early). It’s always a great (free read) resource.

You can read it online here.

Or get it in pdf. here.

 

 

 

The Ordinariate Has Finally Arrived

So opts Damien Thompson, who blogs:

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…

And,

One of the treasures of Anglicanism that the Ordinariate can bring to Rome has nothing to do with vestments or prayer books – it’s the tradition of the Anglo-Catholic “slum priests” who carried the Gospel to the darkest alleyways of Jack the Ripper’s London…

The whole piece is here.

 

Anglican Ordinariate Secure

Leaders of the Anglican Ordinariate urged patience and restraint in light of statements by the Bishop of Argentina that Pope Francis did not favor the creation of a home for Anglicans in the Catholic Church.

George Conger reports:

In a note released after the election of Pope Francis on 13 March 2013, the Bishop of Argentina and former primate of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, said Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was, in his experience, “consistently humble and wise, outstandingly gifted yet a common man” who had been a friend to Anglicans in Argentina.

Bishop Venables said Cardinal Bergoglio “called me to have breakfast with him one morning and told me very clearly that the Ordinariate was quite unnecessary and that the church needs us as Anglicans.”

He later clarified his statement noting the cardinal’s comments were more an affirmation of Anglicanism than criticism of the Ordinariate.

The report from Bishop Venables sparked controversy in the British press and speculation Francis might adopt the different tone than his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. A spokesman for the English Ordinariate denied any change was in the offing telling the Telegraph the comments were Bishop Venables’ not the Pope’s.

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict last month, Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary of the Chair of St. Peter, said: “We members of the Ordinariate are in a particular way the spiritual children of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.  Throughout his years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and especially as Pope, the reconciliation of Anglicans to the Catholic Church has been one of his principal tasks.”

He noted that “when Pope Benedict issued the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus in November 2009, he laid a permanent foundation for the Ordinariate, to be the means to reconcile Anglican groups to the Catholic Church and that this Anglican patrimony might be shared with the Catholic Church.  While the Ordinariate has been a special intention of Pope Benedict, it is now firmly established in the Catholic Church and will continue to serve as an instrument for Christian unity.”

Msgr. Steenson said the transition between Popes “should not greatly impact the work of the Ordinariate.  We should probably expect that the ordinations of our candidates could be delayed slightly, as the Pope must approve these petitions.”

Following the publication of Bishop Venables’ remarks Msgr. Steenson said he had received a number of inquiries from those “who are concerned about what our new Pope’s attitude may be toward the Ordinariates, occasioned by an anecdotal report from an Anglican bishop in Argentina.”

He reaffirmed the “real permanence and stability” of the Ordinariate within the Catholic Church, and added “but it is even more important to remember what it means to be Catholic, to have the full assurance that faith brings. Christ the Good Shepherd entrusted the governance of the Church to St. Peter and his successors. To be in communion with Peter brings a confidence we never knew as Anglicans. Pope Francis understands the pilgrim character of our communities and will be a wise and caring pastor to us,” Msgr. Steenson said.

 

Catholic Church Using Anglican Converts To Serve Parishes

In the Huffington Post (with a video report there too).

Facing a priest shortage, the Catholic Church in the United States has started turning to former Anglican leaders to fill empty parishes.

The number of Roman Catholic priests in the U.S. has dropped by about 20,000 since 1975, while the number of Catholics has increased by 17 million, CBS reports.

The shortage was stretching thin the abilities of Catholic priests, and the Catholic Church was “supersizing” as it tried to accommodate more Catholics at a dwindling number of parishes, according to a 2011 study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate for the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership project.

Allowing converted Anglican priests to join the church was seen as a way to solve this shortage problem.

In an announcement that helped make this solution effective, former Pope Benedict XVI issued an edict in 2009 that created a “new structure to welcome some disenchanted Anglicans into the Roman Catholic fold,” Time notes.

At a Vatican news conference in October of that year, Cardinal William J. Levada, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said Anglicans who wished to convert would now be able “to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony,” The New York Times reports.

This new structure paved the way for former Anglican priests like Mark Lewis to join the Roman Catholic Church.

Lewis, who is married with two children, told CBS News that “It was like God was opening up the door for us to truly become members of the church.”

However, in a 2012 article discussing married Catholic priests in the U.S., the New York Times noted that “the married priest problem” may raise interesting questions for the faithful. (Married priests were banned by the First Lateran Council in 1123, but married converts have been allowed since 1980.)

The Times wrote:

First, are they doing as good a job as other priests? If the church has decided that celibacy confers certain gifts on priests, does it follow that married priests are worse at serving their congregations? Second, wouldn’t celibate priests be a little resentful of colleagues who get to serve the church and have sex too? And third, if the married priests are doing a good job and not provoking envy, why keep the celibacy rule for priests in general?

Still, many of the Anglicans priests — and in some cases whole congregations — who have chosen to convert to Catholicism report the transition has been relatively smooth.

Lewis, who leads St. Luke’s now-Catholic parish in Bladensburg, Md., told PBS that ultimately, converting to Catholicism filled a hole they perceived in the Episcopal Church’s theology.

“We left the Episcopal Church not because we were running away from the issues of the Episcopal Church,” Lewis said. “We left the Episcopal Church because we were running to the Catholic Church … The theology of Rome, the authority of Rome, the unity in the Holy See and in the bishops: that was appealing to us.”

 

 

Fr Peter Wilkinson Given the Title of Monsignor

Peregrinus has the news:

Dateline: Houston, Texas
Feast of the Presentation, 2013

In the presence of three cardinals, bishops and staff of the Seminary of St. Mary in Houston along with deacons, priests with their wives and candidates for ordination for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, Msgr Jeffrey Steenson on the seminary stage announced that the Holy Father has made Fr. Peter Wilkinson a prelate of honour with the title of Monsignor.

This is a wonderful recognition of Msgr Wilkinson’s past service to his people in Canada as an Anglican bishop. As well, Pope Benedict, has recognized the sacrifice and faithfulness Msgr Peter has shown in shepherding his people into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

With his usual humility and grace Msgr Wilkinson dedicated this honour to the clergy, their wives and the people of his former diocese now in communion with the Holy Father.

With great thanks to God the Canadian Deanery of St. John the Baptist now has a monsignor as well as a fine dean. May God bless the Deanery as we walk in the Year of Faith and give us grace to proclaim Christ to all in the New Evangelization in the unity of communion to which we are called.

 

The Proto Ordinariates

One hundred years ago precisely, a community of Anglican Benedictine monks in Wales converted to the Catholic Faith – were they the Proto Ordinariates?

Read Catholic then Protestant and then Catholic again, here.

 

Fr Carl Reid’s Ordinariate Ordination

Fr Carl Reid is a former TAC Bishop. Deborah Gyapong has the post with plenty of photos.

She also has the notes of the homily by Msgr Jeffrey Steenson here.

 

A New Blog

Worth mentioning has been started by Fr Matthew Venuti.

Father Father

Atheist -> Anglican Priest -> Ordinariate Catholic Priest. It happens.

He writes:

As if the world needs another blog…

…it probably doesn’t, but here I am none the less.  At a function the other night a “Catholic famous” blogger, Hallie Lord, told me I should write a book about my story of atheist heavy metal musician to boy band manager to Episcopal priest to Catholic priest conversion story.  No one in their right mind would give me a publishing deal, so instead I will return to the blogosphere.

These days I write for the Ordinariate focused blog Anglican Patrimony, but that is limited to Ordinariate news.  This blog will aim to be simply to be about the many things that are my life, and putting them all together.  Priest, father, husband, former Episcopalian, former Atheist, opinionated music fan with an underused bachelors degree in music business and electric guitar.

Do pay his blog a visit.

 

Could Church Planting Networks be Reform’s Ordinariate?

Cranmer’s Curate:

The Anglo-Catholics have a home to go to in the Ordinariate once  women bishops are appointed in the Church of England. But what about  conservative evangelicals in Reform?

Once a single  clause women bishops’ measure is enacted, as seems almost certain after  the next General Synod elections, will we as a constituency knuckle  under and accept the unbiblical innovation or will we be moved to take  radical action?

The reality is that for us women  bishops are not an isolated departure from biblical truth in the Church  of England. The allowance of clergy and now bishops in civil  partnerships is a concern on top of the heretical teachings the  institutional Church has been tolerating and indeed promoting for  decades.

If the Church of England becomes like TEC,  large evangelical flagships could leave the institutional structures and carry on proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ in their local communities  as confessing Anglican churches. Yes, it would involve leaving their  buildings, which is a messy and tiresome business. But there are recent  precedents for this. St George’s Tron in Glasgow – now The Tron Church  out of the Church of Scotland – did it before Christmas. Orthodox  Anglican congregations in the United States and Canada have been doing  it for several years now. A whole diocese is doing it in South Carolina. It’s do-able for the large and well-resourced churches.

But what about smaller conservative evangelical churches? In the Church of  England, conservative evangelical succession for smaller churches is  difficult to secure even without women bishops. With the worsening  financial situation in many dioceses, churches are increasingly being  amalgamated across the traditions making it very difficult to guarantee  that Christ’s sheep in a small church will not be thrown to a liberal  wolf or wolfess.

Could conservative evangelical church  planting networks provide sound biblical ministry for such smaller  congregations?  This type of network, originally deriving from an  established evangelical flagship but developing outside the  institutional structures of the Church of England, is a growing  phenomenon in cities. Could they act as minster churches for small  ex-parish churches leaving the Church of England?

Leaving their buildings for a congregation of 40 or so adults would actually be quite liberating, They would be spared the expense of maintaining them. Meeting in a school or a community centre would be a lot easier and  cheaper.

Under this scenario, a nearby church plant  would provide a Bible teacher from their staff team who would travel  into that community on a Sunday or on some other day of the week when  the church family chose to meet. He would not be resident in the local  community, which is arguably not ideal. But that is better than a wolf  with a lair in residence. The sound man could teach the Scriptures and  train leaders in the small church but the day to day ministry and  outreach would be the responsibility of the resident congregation.

For it to work, church planters would need to resist the temptation to  poach committed Christian people from those congregations who would  benefit their church plants. A servant-hearted vision for  community-based ministry would be the spiritual key to the success of  such ventures.

Can our church planters rise above the  temptation to empire-build? If they can, then our constituency has a  fighting chance of perpetuating Reformed Anglican ministry outside the  institutional structures.

We could have a home to go to.