Successful Gathering

Last night's Evensong and Benediction was wonderful! Father Baca gave a wonderful presentation of where we are with regards to the Ordinariate in the United States, and we had a great discussion of what it means for Orange County.

We are off to a great start too, as seventeen current/former Anglicans have signed up to create the Anglican Use Society of Orange County and to petition for an Ordinariate parish when the time comes, and we have thirteen others who plan to worship with us. We are starting off small, but steadfast!

The next step is to get paperwork in order and to schedule our first meeting together. More details to come as they emerge!

God bless you all. Ut unum sint.

Fr Bartus+

Anglican Patrimony

by Fr. Christopher Phillips

There's been quite a bit written lately about "Anglican patrimony." It's been kicked around by bloggers and internet discussion groups. Sometimes it's just been kicked.

There seems to be consensus that any patrimony would include the liturgy, and not just the Eucharist, but the Offices and everything else that's associated with the Book of Common Prayer. Hymnody has been mentioned, as well as the Psalter and Anglican chant. Things like architecture, our choral tradition, a particular pastoral style - all these things and more come into the mix when there's a discussion of Anglican patrimony.

I'm wondering if these things really aren't our patrimony, but instead are things that simply allow our patrimony to be expressed.

Perhaps we could think of it this way. Imagine a family living in a comfortable home, surrounded by all that's been accumulated over the years. Some of the things are treasures from previous generations. Other things are the serviceable items that contribute to an agreeable life. But they're all things that have been chosen to express what the members of the family enjoy, what they value, what they find to be beautiful. If those things were to be destroyed in a fire, would the family's values be destroyed? Would they change their sense of what is beautiful? No. Those sensibilities are within the people themselves, not within the things. The articles simply serve as a means of expression. What can be replaced will be replaced. Other things that express the family's sense of beauty and comfort will be accumulated over time. But that which is being expressed comes from within the members of the family.

This, I believe, says something about the Anglican patrimony. It's something within the people themselves. This is how it's possible for the patrimony to be preserved even when it's a small group meeting in a rented storefront. Yes, majestic gothic buildings are helpful. Antique vestments and fine pipe organs are marvellous. Few things are more beautiful than sunlight filtered through stained glass. But are those things the actual patrimony?

No, a handful people who know and love Christ, who pray the familiar words of the Prayer Book together, who have a sense of things done "decently and in order," and who know what it is to offer one's best in worship and then take the grace received out into the world - this handful of people embodies the Anglican patrimony.

This is part of the genius of Anglicanorum coetibus. It carves out a place for people to make this patrimony a living reality under the protection of the Catholic Church. This is why it's going to work. It's already been successful within the terms of the Pastoral Provision. Our Anglican Use parishes, few though they may be, are incarnations of the Anglican patrimony. And the beauty of it all is that it didn't take thousands of people, and it didn't require gorgeous buildings to start. All it needed was a small community of faithful people who had this "Anglican sense" of things, and from that it grew. Our parish is filled with people who've never set foot in an Episcopal church, but they certainly demonstrate the Anglican patrimony in a wonderful way.

Anglicanorum coetibus has plenty of naysayers, people who are certain that the numbers will be few. Maybe they're right, but so what? I hope hundreds of thousands will flock to the Ordinariates, but if they don't, that doesn't mean it hasn't worked. Let's face it, our Lord's little band of apostles didn't look exactly overwhelming at first.

From whatever beginning God grants to the Ordinariates, this marvellous patrimony will expand and be strengthened. With every conversion, with the birth of every child, with the slow but steady growth of every parish, the patrimony will continue to flourish.

Maybe that's one of the reasons the Apostolic Constitution calls them "Personal Ordinariates." They have to do with persons, not things.

(Originally posted on AtonementOnline.)

For more on Anglican Patrimony, the audio recordings from the Anglicanorum Coetibus Conference at Pusey House are extremely helpful: Click here.

The Catholic Church is Our Home

The Catholic Church is our home. This is for Christians of an Anglican heritage particularly, but it certainly is true for all Christians, even all people! But many people ask why that is the case. "Aren't all denominations ultimately the same deep down? Some minor differences are there," they might say, "but we're all going to the same place." I hope that we are all going to the same place, but the question surrounding which denomination is best, or ultimately right, is not simply a matter of "what works" but rather "what is." Being is not quite the same thing as what works.

The atheist or agnostic might look at Christianity and throw his hands up in exasperation, for it can be quite confusing. Thus, one more reason for Christian unity. Our divisions are many and often come with embarrassing baggage! What sort of witness are we giving the world?

As many people know, we who call ourselves Anglicans are inheritors of the initial break with the Catholic Church by Henry VIII--to oversimplify things--which eventually formed what we now call the Church of England. Missionaries from the Church of England brought the worship of God through the Book of Common Prayer around the world and now Anglican churches can be found in practically every major city on earth that speaks English (and even many that don't)! And, of course, within those daughter churches, divisions eventually arose--such as in America with The Episcopal Church (TEC) and even within the original mother church, the Church of England (CofE). The churches that broke away from these are often called Continuing Churches, as they continue one aspect or another of the faith or worship that was changed within the original churches. These smaller groups aren't united with each other either, and unfortunately become oddities to the outsider. But one of these breakaway groups, together with many who've remained within the mother churches, have decided that enough is enough. Christians are supposed to be a part of one church, which is the Body of Christ on earth. After all, we confess in the Nicene Creed, "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church." (Before you read on, please read Perry Robinson's excellent essay, Why I Am Not An Episcopalian.)

One breakaway group that has decided to no longer remain such has not tried to support the "ism" in Anglicanism any longer. Their aim, wisely, is not to try to form another Anglican church on the same principles (i.e., the Branch Theory--the claim that Anglicans are a branch along with the Catholics and Orthodox of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church even though none are in communion with each other!). This particular breakaway group is called the Traditional Anglican Communion, a tiny body of traditional Anglicans who know that the game is up for Anglicanism as an "ism." Many others within the official Anglican Communion, such as many members of Forward in Faith, as well as churches that have already joined the Catholic Church in what's called the Anglican Use, have also realized the game is up. It's over. It's futile to try to recreate the same error in hopes that this time it'll work. We can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again, yet many try. Even still, it's not about whether it will work (however one defines "work")--which it won't--but about being united as one church. It's about being united with the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church that has always existed.

But Anglicans have been separated for over five hundred years from the Catholic Church, and have developed their own spirituality, liturgical use, musical tradition, and cultural ethos. And the Catholic Church has continued onwards too. There are newer dogmas that have been discovered that some Anglicans are not comfortable with, either because they have a misunderstanding about them or they still believe in the Branch Theory. But for those Anglicans who do believe that the Roman Catholic Church is and has always been the Catholic Church of the Nicene Creed and the inheritors of what Jesus Christ himself established, Pope Benedict XVI has allowed for the creation of Anglican Ordinariates (non-geographical dioceses essentially) for them to come into communion with the Catholic Church while retaining their Anglican patrimony. This is a permanent structure that churches and parishes from the groups mentioned earlier will enter. This will ensure that our Anglican patrimony will be perpetuated and be encouraged to flourish with the best of what our Anglican heritage has to offer while shedding off the 'ism' that has forever plagued us.

To the outsider, this might seem like we all have missed the forest for the trees. In some respects, ironically, that is what this reunion is precisely trying remedy. But in order to do that, we must have a firm foundation upon which to go about the business of worship and service in our Anglican context, and that takes sacrifice. It takes conversion of mind and heart. We can't just erect a house on shifting sand for the house won't last. We need to build our house upon the rock, the successor of the Apostle Peter (the Pope), and those bishops in communion with him.

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18 (RSV)