In our attempts to define Anglican patrimony, we should allow it to be a bit open-ended. I know that’s usually not our way. Those who are on the conservative side of things tend to like tight descriptions and clear statements. Not always, but usually. However, this is one of those times when the definition of patrimony is going to change – or perhaps I should say it’s going to be enriched – with the passing of time. As unusual as it might seem, some aspects of our patrimony are yet to come.
The customary definition of patrimony is “something inherited from one’s ancestors.” As we think about our own Anglican patrimony, quite rightly we consider such things as liturgy and language, music, aspects of architecture, things done “decently and in order.” Many things are defined and much is undefined, but it’s all unmistakably Anglican. However, we know also that “patrimony” isn’t static. For instance, we have parochial patrimonies which are reflected in particular churchmanship, treasured vestments, an honored tradition of music, pastoral practices with which we identify. But unless a parish is dead, its patrimony continues to grow and develop. It stands on what came before, certainly, but that which we hand on to subsequent generations isn’t exactly the same as what we received from our ancestors.
The Ordinariates will be moving into almost-uncharted waters. I say “almost-uncharted” because a few of us have had the opportunity to scout on ahead, and are already experiencing the Anglican patrimony as a living part of the Latin Rite. We’re finding there’s a richness which has developed as we’ve unpacked precious Anglican treasures in our new home. It’s rather like when my wife uses my great-grandmother’s recipe for plum pudding, and I discover it tastes even better.
This realization of a “developing patrimony” struck me the other day when I was offering one of the early weekday Masses. Of the forty-five or fifty people present, I don’t think any of them had ever attended an Episcopal or Anglican church. Almost all of them have belonged only to this parish – either for their whole lives, or from the time they were children. For them, the Collect for Purity is simply a Catholic prayer said at the beginning of the Mass; the Comfortable Words are part of a Catholic penitential rite; the Prayer of Humble Access is what Catholics say before receiving Holy Communion. They don't think of our liturgy as coming from “someplace else.” It’s just a Catholic liturgy. Of course, they've attended other Catholic parishes. They know our liturgy is different, and that our parish has a particular “feel.” But they have embraced and experienced our Anglican patrimony exclusively as Catholics, and in that way these second-generation Anglican Use Catholics probably have a clearer understanding of the patrimony being a living and developing patrimony, than do we who are first-generation converts. They haven’t had to attempt to live as Catholics outside the communion of the Catholic Church, and they’ve never gone through the mental gymnastics we had to endure, trying to put a Catholic spin on things, when much of the evidence around us was contrary to what we believed about ourselves.
The little experiment that is the Anglican Use, local though it is, gives a glimpse of the future, because the Ordinariates will be doing all this on a grand scale – oh, probably not grand at the beginning, but when second-generation Ordinariate Catholics become the majority of our members, there will be a much deeper understanding of our Anglican patrimony, because it will have been experienced in the context of full communion with the Holy See.
Most of those heading toward an Ordinariate think in terms of what they'll be able to bring with them, and that's important. Our Lord said, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost,” and that applies to the various elements of our patrimony which come from our past. But the Lord also said, “Behold, I make all things new,” and that, too, applies to our patrimony. Within the Ordinariates, all the familiar things we love will be made new, for a new generation of Catholics. Our past is building the future.
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Oh, Father…how beautifully said. Exactly what we need to hear. There ought to be but one comment on this article – Amen and Amen!
Excellent article, Father!
God bless you.
Very well put, Father! Thank you.
As an anecdotal support of Fr. Phillips' great article, when I am serving at Our Lady of Walsingham, I am always very impressed at some of the young men servers who know the responses to the preparatory prayers said in the sacristy ("I will go unto the altar of God…") in good Anglo-Catholic style, by heart. Of course I am a bit ashamed that I have to refer to the prayer card for them.
ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam
Bravo Fr. Especially the last line: "Our Lord said, 'Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost,' and that applies to the various elements of our patrimony which come from our past. But the Lord also said, 'Behold, I make all things new,' and that, too, applies to our patrimony…."