A study reported by The Tablet shows there are 389 Catholic priests who were once Anglican priests, with 87 being in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

It is estimated that there are 3000 active diocesan priests in England and Wales, 800 retired priests and 1000 religious priests.

Most of the former Anglicans are believed to be working in parishes or chaplaincies.

Sociologist Professor Linda Woodhead told The Tablet that the Church of England clergy represented in these figures began to leave their original church from 1994, when the first women were ordained priests.

She estimates that about 250 clergy "went across" between 1994 and 2000, with a further 52 from 2001, and then the Ordinariate clergy on top of that.

Continue reading

Fr Donald Minchew - a former Anglican who converted to Catholicism after attacking the Church of England's loss of traditional values - admitted entering into a civil partnership as a favour to a family friend desperate to work in Britain.

Continue reading

The new liturgical rite includes material from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer — the 1662 text which became the main point of reference for prayer in the Anglican Church — and from the Roman Rite followed by the Catholic Church.

It also contains prayers written by Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, who was burnt at the stake in 1556 during Queen Mary's brief attempt to restore Roman Catholicism in England.

Continue reading

Imagine you arrived at an unfamiliar church just as the service was starting and you heard: "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid…" Right, you'd think, CofE, Book of Common Prayer.

But this is the beginning of a Catholic Mass, a Roman Catholic Mass.

It is a liturgy approved by the Pope, and it takes lumps of the Holy Communion service from the 1662 Prayer Book. I find the general effect pleasing but distinctly unsettling.

Two questions arise, depending on the direction from which one is coming. A member of the Church of England might wonder why Catholics should want to use the Book of Common Prayer compiled by Archbishop Cranmer (pictured here in 1546). A Catholic might ask: but is it the Mass?

The Catholics who already use it were once Anglicans and, since the beginning of 2011, have joined the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. About 80 have been ordained priests, and there are more than 1,000 lay people. Not many.

It is remarkable that the Vatican should have approved the service. (This is not technically a rite. It is, I think, a "use" of the Roman rite.) But on the question of its validity, it is to be noted that the "Eucharistic Prayer" is not the one in the Book of Common Prayer. It is a translation of the Roman Canon, but a different one from that in force in Catholic parish churches. Continue reading

Fr Warren Wade, 78, a grandfather who was ordained 50 years ago, will lead at least 10 of the 15 members of the North Turramurra Anglican community into the ordinariate after they undergo instruction. He said that some Anglicans had been "praying for unity for a long time" and "their prayers have been answered". The ordinariate wiil be based at Holy Cross church in Melbourne.

Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliot of Melbourne acknowledged the difficult journey

"We must not be triumphalist about it; we must respect the sensibilities of other Anglicans who do not choose to make this step," he said. "I would invite Catholic people to reach out and welcome these men and women who are choosing unity."

Kevin Parsons, 85, and his wife, Judith, have chosen to join the ordinariate, as they had been dissatisfied with the "overwhelmingly evangelical" nature of the Anglican diocese of Sydney and changes, such as the ordination of women.

"The Anglican Communion has lost, in my opinion, much of the tradition on which it was based," he said.

He regarded it as a "pivotal point" that the personal ordinariate will allow former Anglicans to retain their own liturgy and traditions.

"I've been an Anglo-Catholic all my life, as far as I can remember, and it's always been in the background for myself and many of my friends that, sooner or later, Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics should have an arrangement for some sort of union."

Image anglicanhistory.org

Mgr Keith Newton said he was "very grateful" for the Pope's support. "This gift is a great help and encouragement as we continue to grow and develop our distinctive ecclesial life, whilst seeking to contribte to the wider work of evangelisation in England and Wales." Continue reading

But this week they will do so a mile down the road in St Anne's Roman Catholic church, their new home.

Led by Fr Ian Grieves, the priest at St James in Darlington for 23 years, 58 parishioners will formally join the Ordinariate, the body set up by the Pope for disaffected Anglicans.

They are not alone: this week across England, 200 Anglican worshippers and 20 clergy will cross over to Rome.

Many are frustrated by the Church of England's move to appoint women bishops.

Catholic Cardinal Donald Wuerl announced Tuesday the equivalent of a diocese for converts who want to retain some of their Anglican heritage.

The new body will be called the Anglican Ordinariate for the United States. It follows an unprecedented invitation from Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church in groups or as parishes. Formerly, converts were accepted on a case-by-case basis.

"I think I had better share with my friends the distressing news that my ordination within the Catholic Church has been "deferred", the Ordinariate blogger wrote.

"I think there has been some misunderstanding about the content of my blog, which I regret."

Hunwicke noted that the main characteristic of his blog is the total submission to the Church's teaching authority and the utmost admiration of Pope Benedict XVI.

He thought that "regular readers" would be aware of this. However in the meantime he has "promptly" deleted any comments on the blog or email sent to him personally, and closed down the blog

A former Anglican priest at St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, and former Senior Research Fellow at Pusey House, his blog "Fr Hunwicke's Liturgical Notes" was read by many in the blogosphere and has received extensive support and prayers.

In his final blog post, Hunwick asks "the prayers of all those who wish me well, at a time which is the most unpleasant I have ever had to live through in my 43 years of priestly ministry."

Sources

• Fr Hunwick's Liturgical notes
• Catholic Herald

These new Catholics will join the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a unique grouping created by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglicans left feeling isolated since the Church of England decided in 1992 to ordain women as priests.

Those joining the ordinariate will be allowed to keep some of their customs and liturgy and will be received into full communion with the Catholic Church on Easter Sunday.

The former Anglican priests can be ordained to the Catholic priesthood even if they are married.

"Of more than 22,000 ordained Church of England clergy in total, about two dozen would appear to have decided to join the ordinariate at this time," said Howard Dobson, spokesman for the Archbishops' Council.

The Rev. Simon Chinery, a curate or assistant priest at two Anglican churches in Plymouth, said "I deeply love the Church of England, it's a hard decision to leave it behind," he said Wednesday, adding that he would particularly miss the church's rich musical heritage.

In leaving St Barnabas Church in Tunbride Wells, the Rev. Ed Tomlinson said,"I spent so many years battling to defend the faith from within the Church of England, which is crazy, and that's taken all my energy away from visiting the sick, preaching the good news and helping people," Tomlinson said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Rev. John Corbyn of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Harlow, said his group may be part of a second wave to migrants.

"It's not just one day and that's it," Corbyn said. "It's not a closing down sale."

Sources:
First appeared in Forbes. Reprinted with permission.
Image: Trumpet.com