Reading Ordinariate leader Father David Elliott was anointed by the Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth the Right Rev Crispian Hollis at St John’s Cathedral, Portsmouth, on Saturday.
Father David is among the first wave of clerics joining a global break away to Catholicism, spurred on by Pope Benedict XVI’s offer to accommodate Anglicans within the Roman Catholic Church through the English Ordinariate – a group for Church of England traditionalists wishing to switch allegiance while retaining some of their Anglican traditions.
I wouldn’t exactly call a “17 strong” congregation an opening of the floodgates.
I believe Jesus had even less…
How are you getting on, RPP? You remain in my prayers.
God bless. PM.
In one sense Archer-Of-The-Forest is correct – a congregation of 17 is neither here nor there in terms of a whole movement. But I really don’t think that this article purported to describe the entire Ordinariate, just a particular detail of it.
Its the same as reading about a new church plant by ACNA – most of them are quite small, but each is interesting and significant, and when we look at the bigger picture there are over 200 of them.
The officials of the Ordinariate a few months ago informed the press that they were looking at a first wave of about 66 priests and 900 laity. All the reports seem to indicate that they are getting the priests, and if the 66 bring only 15 parishioners each, they will easily get their 900.
The real question is what happens in the longer run. The Pastoral Provision of JPII started with great promise, but 30 years later it has less than a dozen congregations. I expect the Curia is hoping for greater things from the Ordinariate.
And, this is all just one more headache for Rowan Williams. He is losing bishops, priests and congregations to the Ordinariate, but he also has many Anglo-Catholics who aren’t leaving, and have signalled they intend to fight from within CofE.
Let me be clear. I wasn’t denigrating the Ordinariate. I certainly wish them well. But, the way some quarters (on both sides) are carrying on about the Ordinariate, you’d think it was turning into a series of Mega-churches overnight.