I\u2019ve always felt sympathetic to foreigners on holiday in England who come across a church advertising Mass and displaying crucifixes and statues inside. When they discover later that they have been at a service of the Church of England, not of the Roman Catholic Church, they are puzzled and confused.<\/p>\n
So what would you think if you went into a church and heard the clergyman begin: \u201cGod, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit\u201d\u00a6\u201d\u009d?<\/p>\n
If you said it was an early part of the Anglican service of Holy Communion, you\u2019d be right. But I\u2019ve just been looking at a new service booklet with the Order of Mass according to the Use of the Ordinariate. It begins with that prayer, yet it is a Roman Catholic liturgy. Instead of bells-and-smells Anglicans stealing the Catholics\u2019 clothes, as it were, we have Catholics (Roman Catholics) cannibalising the Book of Common Prayer<\/p>\n