Fr. Neil Wall, Convenor and Parish Priest of the first Continuing Anglican parish in Victoria, Australia (Melbourne, 1987), and member of the Community of the Transfiguration, an outreach to distressed and isolated Anglican Catholics, has written to suggest that members of the Traditional Anglican Communion, other Anglo-Catholics, and indeed all Christians pray the following prayer (especially the final part) during Lent, beseeching God for the successful implementation of the personal ordinariates and the continued fruitfulness of the ongoing dialogue between the Holy See and the Orthodox Churches.
For the past eight years — every Thursday — the Community of the Transfiguration has offered this prayer for the unity of the Church. During the TAC College of Bishops meeting in Portsmouth, England (which resulted in the solemn submission of the bishops of the TAC to the Roman Pontiff, the acceptance of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the Communion's doctrinal standard, and the formal request to the Holy See for admission to full communion with the Catholic Church), the Community of the Transfiguration offered it as part of a novena.
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Prayer for the Unity of the Church
Thou alone, O Lord, art worthy to receive glory, dominion, and power, and to thee alone we offer our prayers of thanksgiving and petition.
For thy Holy Catholic Church and the presence of thy Holy Spirit to guide Her into all truth,
We praise, bless, and thank thee.
For the Patriarchs and Prophets, for Blessed Mary, thy Apostles, Saints, and Martyrs, for holy men and women who have witnessed to thy love and truth through the ages,
We praise, bless, and thank thee.
For those who are working and praying for a return of all Anglicans to Apostolic Faith, Tradition, and Order,
We praise, bless, and thank thee.
For self-proclaimed prophets who, in their arrogance and self-conceit, have rejected thy revealed truth and created such deplorable divisions among us,
Father, forgive them and guide them back to thy truth.
For false shepherds who, rejecting their ordination vows, destroy their flocks by creating confusion, errors, and schisms,
Father, forgive them and guide them back to thy truth.
For those in the Church who have betrayed thee by the mental, physical, or sexual abuse of those in their care,
Father, forgive them and guide them back to thy truth.
We pray for all whose faith has suffered and who feel bitter, isolated, betrayed, confused, or angry;
Father, bless, comfort, and strengthen them.
We pray for all faithful clergy, religious, and laity who suffer ridicule, slander, or persecution as they teach and defend the Faith delivered once and for all time. We pray especially for the Pope, the Ecumenical Patriarch, the bishops of the Orthodox and Eastern Churches, the Anglican Continuum, the Primate and bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion, Forward in Faith, the Polish National Catholic and Nordic Catholic Churches;
Father, bless, comfort, and strengthen them.
Eternal and Unchanging Lord, thou hast taught us through thy Son that a house divided amongst itself must fall. Keep us, we pray, in the household of Apostolic Faith and free us from the sins, errors, and divisions of this age. Let us never do anything to widen those divisions, and give us grace to work and pray in love for the peace and unity of thy Church, so that there may be One Church, with One Faith, under One Shepherd, even Jesus Christ Our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
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