Though not related directly to the core mission of this blog, this article on SSPX-related happenings is a must read for anyone interested in the affairs of those dedicated to preserving Holy Tradition in the Catholic Church (and others who aid the Liberals and Modernists by continuing to give this movement a bad name).
I have been remiss. I published here the story of an ordination to the diaconate, but not the crowning glory of this deacon's ordination to the Holy Catholic priesthood. Better late than never!
Just got word that the Edmonton group will be received on Sunday, July 29th, this weekend.
Here is the email that was forwarded me from former Anglican Catholic Church of Canada priest David Skelton.
'I am truly delighted to be able to tell you that we now have a firm date for our reception. This is July 29th at 10. 00 a.m. at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Edmonton. We will be received by our new Auxiliary Bishop, Geoffrey Bittman. Archbishop Smith was very sorry not to be able to officiate himself, but like us, he was anxious to proceed as quickly as possible. Please keep our little ‘Group of Seven’ in your prayers."
Finally! I hope someone will take lots of photographs and send us a report!
I stayed with then Fr. David Skelton and his lovely wife Mary when I spoke at a writers' conference in Edmonton back in 2005 or thereabouts. They have a lovely chapel in their home where we prayed Mattins and Evensong together while I was there.
There are others who are already Catholic who will be part of this Ordinariate-bound group.
Please keep them in your prayers!
Here's another contribution from former Our Lady of Walsingham parishioner, Vincent Uher. This piece, for me at least, begs the question of when and how are we to see Governing Councils in the Ordinariates come to be. Under Anglicanorum cœtibus, the Governing Council of a Personal Ordinariate has considerable sway, its approval necessary for a number of key pastoral decisions, such as erecting a new parish or advancing postulants to Orders. These are unusual limits placed on the power of a Catholic Ordinary (and my only guess is that this was intended to be a nod to Anglican synodal government), but they are clearly mandated in the primary legislation and norms. Presently, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is "governed" by the Ordinary, his assistant, Fr. Scott Hurd, and (truth be told) several "interested" Catholic bishops.
In England, at least, there has already been established some form of collegiality and aid to the Ordinary, Msgr. Newton. It is this temporary arrangement which Mr. Uher addresses his latest piece and which we propose for our reflection.
* * *
English Wisdom: Triumvirate
I think my family and friends in Britain have been blest greatly with a triumvirate at the head of your Ordinariate in Britain. While one must necessarily be appointed to make the final decisions, having a council of three at the top is a far better situation than having one leader in isolation. Even if in Britain this is more ad hoc than a canonical structure, I would hope this sort of triumvirate model would become the norm for the Ordinariates. Msgr. Newton has shown great, great wisdom through it.
Of course, it would be different in North America and in Australia. My family and friends in Australia might imagine the Ordinary being named and then two others raised up (as Monsignors of the Protonotary Apostolic or something like it) who would perhaps be former bishops in TAC, the Australian Anglican Church or former priests of the same. It would be incredibly wise to create from the marvellous incoming Church in Torres Strait such a Monsignor to serve in this triumvirate.
In North America it would make sense to create such a triumvirate under Msgr. Steenson as well. The territory is vast, and the Ordinariate is not the only expression of the Anglican Patrimony in the Catholic Church in North America. By way of example, a former Anglican Catholic bishop in Canada would make an excellent choice as another Monsignor with oversight for the Canadian deanery. And it would be prudent and very wise to make the senior pastor of the Pastoral Provision parishes also a Monsignor with similar oversight responsibilities among those in the Pastoral Provision but serving in concert with his brother in Canada and together with Msgr Steenson's leadership of the Ordinariate.
I offer these thoughts to my family and friends who are far more influential than I. No one seems much interested in what a lay hermit in Texas thinks of these things. So I entrust the ideas to you if they are worthy. The one thing that has become clear to me is that a single Ordinary with a Vicar General and an office assitant is an irreduceable minimum that should have been given more provisions for the journey by Rome. It is too small an organisational model to be effective with so great a missionary task.
I know some will say, But look here! In North America, the Ordinary has got health insurance for us this May. And look at all of the men being ordained through the training programme he developed. I am in no way trying to take away from these stellar achievements. One should applaud the Ordinary right heartily for being willing to take up a task where Rome provided no money and the USCCB offered no immediate help with Insurance from the get go. We see that as an historian and a scholar he is absolutely the right person for all of these tasks at the onset. There are other considerations though where he would be well served to have brothers — a Msgr. 'Canada' and a Msgr. 'Pastoral Provision' with which to work in this common mission.
What has developed in England from Msgr. Newton's excellent leadership and vision is clearly a model worth repeating. And it really is worth reapting everywhere an Ordinariate is established or where they might be a mixed situation like that in North America … say in India for example. My family in India have some very clear thoughts about these things, but sadly… and it is sad that this is the case across the board, there is only the most limited collaboration with the Laity in Christ of the Anglican Patrimony, a matter that should be corrected post haste. Bishops and priests don't make the Church. Jesus Christ and all of His Faithful make the Church.
You can find some wonderful pictures by Thatcher Kelley of the reception of members of the Fellowship of John Henry Newman on April 15 by Victoria Bishop Richard Gagnon here.
You can read Bishop Gagnon's homily here.
There was this disconcerting photo for those of us who have only ever seen former Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) Bishop Peter Wilkinson in clericals:
The Catholics in Victoria welcomed us with a cake!
I have many pictures of our Ottawa reception here, here, here and here and Ottawa Archbishop Prendergast's sermon here, and a YouTube recording of it here.
When you become a Catholic, it may be that Mother Church gives you a spanking. That is to say, you may find things difficult and not to your liking. Many converts discover that things do not go their way. They are disappointed and let down. They are unappreciated. The church is bigger and stranger and tougher than they thought.
If so, don't be discouraged. It was so with the great Cardinal Newman. Everything he tried to do was undermined or misunderstood. He was suspected and ostracized and pushed to one side.
Father Peter Cornwell is an English Catholic priest who was once the vicar of the University Church in Oxford, as was Newman. He writes here of Newman's struggles.
So if you are in a similar situation, and the Catholic Church doesn't give you all the love you thought you deserved, take heart. If things are difficult and you feel 'far from home', dig out your hymnal and sing Newman's hymn Lead Kindly Light in a loud and hearty voice. If the Catholic Church is not all that you wanted it to be, stop and ask yourself…
What did you want anyway — a bed of roses or a Crown of Thorns?
I went to England to study at Oxford afflicted with a severe case of Anglophilia. I had come from an Evangelical background, and much influenced by C. S. Lewis, was simply looking for 'Mere Christianity'.
I wished to be a 'Mere Christian' in the Anglican Church, and by God's grace I was an Anglican for fifteen happy years, and an Anglican priest for ten of those years.
Then in 1995, while a country vicar on the Isle of Wight, I left the Anglican Church for 'More Christianity.' My whole conversion story is told elsewhere — on my website and in various publications — but suffice it to say that the question of women's ordination prompted an examination of authority in the church which led me back to Cardinal Newman and the Fathers of the Church and finally to Rome.
Ten years later I was ordained through the Pastoral Provision and now welcome the erection of the Ordinariate. I hope to comment here regularly, and to meet and support an increasing number of brothers and sisters as they enter the Ordinariate.
A "Reluctant Anglo-Catholic"? Only because I was always more of a mainstream Anglican in churchmanship. I loved Catholic spirituality and Catholic worship, but never signed-up and called myself an 'Anglo-Catholic'.
I hope all those who are full-blooded will forgive me for that!
From James Bradley:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE
Another Anglican bishop answers Pope Benedict's call to unity
Former Anglican monk and bishop, Robert Mercer, has been received into the full communion of the Catholic Church by Monsignor Keith Newton through the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
On Saturday 7 January, Mgr Newton celebrated Mass according to the Book of Divine Worship at the historic church of St Agatha’s, Portsmouth, by kind permission of the Reverend John Maunder, who cares for the Traditional Anglican Communion faithful in that area.
Mgr Newton said, 'It is a great privilege to receive Robert into the fullness of Catholic life. He is a man of unimpeachable moral stature who, through his ministry in Africa and with the Community of the Resurrection, brings many valuable treasures of Anglican life into the Catholic Church'.
Robert Mercer was born in Zimbabwe and has been a member of the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, for 49 years. From 1977-89 he was the Anglican bishop of Matabeleland and from 1989-2005 he served as a bishop of the Traditional Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. He retired in 2005 and became the Episcopal Visitor to the Traditional Anglican Communion in the UK.
Six former Anglican bishops have now been reconciled to the Holy See through the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
In an earlier time I was a member of a SWAT team in a very active, urban area of the Southeastern United States. During the 21 years I served in this capacity, I “chalked-up” close to 2000 operational missions. On the way to any given target location there was always much playful banter among the team members, but as we closed on the location, I as the supervisor, would give a “minute out” warning. Upon hearing this notice, there was an instantaneous hush inside the vehicle, the only subsequent utterance being the lead element operator advising of any slight deviation(s) to be made as intelligence updates came over the radio. As the proximity to the target decreased, I would give a “30 seconds out”. After this alert not a sound was to be made by a soul in the vehicle save the team leader until the police code “10-97” [on scene] was given. This was the order to initiate the operation. All the preparatory training, the mental and physical preparation, the planning, both contingency and practical, was, at this point, past. This was the time to act! This was the time at which the proverbial “rubber meets the road”. It was for real.
I use this illustration to point out to those of you who have been a part of this journey toward the Ordinariate in the United States that you are “30 seconds out”! What you have sought, some of us for several years now, for what you have prayed, for what you have argued (amongst others and yourselves), for what you have prepared, for what you have sacrificed (in some cases very much), is at hand. As of tomorrow you are “10-97”. You jump out of the theoretical approach into the existent, and, as the SWAT members who upon reaching the target must engage with the realities of their situation, you must now engage with the realities of yours.
As I stated above, we have prayed, argued, theorized, conjectured, guessed, etc., about an Ordinariate in the United States. Now it is time to get real. Now it is the time to sacrifice to make this thing that is the Personal Ordinariate for Anglicans work here. I have, up to this point, always tried to present the practical aspects of this endeavor. I have been absent from posting for a significant period because for the last several months there has been nothing to be said in the practical realm concerning the matter at hand, but as of midnight tonight, things become VERY practical. Your prayers must become more focused, as you will have an Ordinary for whom to pray, a named Ordinariate with real people, parishes, and clergy that need your particular prayers. You must begin to sacrificially assist at Masses offered at, and for, Ordinariate parishes and gatherings. This means if you must drive, spending ever increasing amounts on gas, and giving additionally of your time to reach groups forming to establish Ordinariate parishes, or to increase the attendance of those already established, then so be it. We must dig deeper into our treasure to help provide financially for the fledgling Ordinariate. We need to seek advice from the Ordinary and clergy as to pressing temporal needs and provide for those needs (e.g., vestments, sacred instruments, holy images, etc.). We must be willing to vacuum the carpets, clean the restrooms, cut the grass, watch the children, and provide the refreshments. In short, Fathers, brothers, and sisters, you must now take ownership of that for which you have asked and prayed for so long.
X-XCVII !
Fr. Dwight Longenecker has written to share his latest Ordinariate-themed post: two lists of opportunities and patrimonial tidbits both the Anglican Ordinariates and Holy Mother Church will receive or share as full communion between them comes to fruition. There are some interesting items on each list. What would you add to Fr. Longenecker's collections?