There was a lot happening this week around the globe of direct interest to our readers.
Here's a quick rundown of some of the week's stories that we didn't get to:
ARCIC III
The next phase of Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue gets underway in May. Msgr. Mark Langham, the Catholic co-secretary for this round of talks, had this to say to Vatican Radio on the subject of the Ordinariates:
We’ve always said the path of traditional ecumenical dialogue is different from that of individual or group conversion – Vatican Council makes that clear in its document on ecumenism, so we don't see our work lying within that framework of the ordinariate. Our work is to stress the traditional relationship between the two traditions that has been expressed over 40 years in ARCIC so although the ordinariate is an extremely important aspect of the landscape it won’t in itself be something that comes into our discussions.
Read the rest of the interview.>>>
Social Justice and the Ordinariate
In the UK, The Independent had a story on Fr. Keith Newton's thoughts on social justice, reporting him as saying, "you cannot be a Christian without working for Kingdom values while on earth." Bishop Weston, Fr. Mackonochie, and all the sisters who gave their lives for both the gospel and the poor would be proud. The interview also includes some good quotes about the importance of church schools and the future of Britain as a Christian country.
The Groups Keep Grouping
To update the map count, there's one pin yet to be added for the UK. When it's in, that will bring us up to 79 groups of Anglicans for the U.S., Canada, and the UK, a jump of three from last Saturday.
A Report from the Australian Ordinariate Gathering
Finally, The Messenger, just put up a very upbeat report up on the recent Ordinariate gathering in Australia, including this summary of Bishop Elliott's comments on the future there:
Sharing our stories, listening to each other, and being there as the unfolding the Ordinariate takes place, was a central theme of the conference. Perhaps the most eloquent was Bp. Elliott who spoke, on day two, of the way that the Ordinariate may unfold in Australia. One of the major things that Bp. Elliott stressed was that Australia was not England, nor was it Canada nor was it the USA. The history of Australian Anglicanism is unique to itself, so the unfolding of the Ordinariate will be unique. The Bishop spoke of the two major divergent streams here in Australia, the ACCA, those who left, or were driven out, of the Anglican Church in Australia, and those who stayed within and tried to fight the heresies from there. It has been 23 years since the first ACCA parishes were formed, so it has developed its own way of doing things, its own distinctive Anglican flavour, while those within, have their ways, their norms, so there has been a divergence, not an insurmountable one, but a divergence none the less. Bp. Elliott emphasised that the coming together of these two streams of Anglicanism will mean that the Ordinariate will develop differently to that in England and Wales, though there may be some similarities.
In a later talk, Bp. Elliott outlined the process, as he sees it, in the erection of the Ordinariate. Firstly, each Anglican priest who goes into the Australian Ordinariate will need a Catholic priest sponsor, a former Anglican priest if possible, a person who he can be with, befriend, listen to, confide in, encourage, and just be there for the man as he prepares for Catholic ordination, both before and after. This makes a lot of sense to me, as we will need hand-holding as a lot of what we do will be new, especially Canon Law. Secondly, the laity, each person who joins the Ordinariate, as I understand it, will need a Catholic sponsor, one who will stand by them as they move into the Ordinariate especially at their Chrismation.
Read the rest of the report.>>>
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