The world’s first personal ordinariate has grown dramatically during Holy Week.
New
members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
celebrated their first Easter as Catholics after the new structure
expanded from 20 to almost 1,000 members after receptions and
confirmations during Holy Week.
Groups of former Anglicans were
received and confirmed at celebrations across the country, which began
on the Monday of Holy Week.
Most groups entered into full communion
with the Catholic Church on Holy Thursday before or during the Mass of
the Lord’s Supper though a number of groups were also received at the
Easter Vigil.
Mgr Keith Newton, the Ordinary, or head, of the
ordinariate, said that it was only now that the ordinariate was coming
to life, although the structure was officially established in January.
He
said: “This is the start of it. The lay faithful moving into the
Catholic Church is really the start of the ordinariate. Until now there
have been only about a dozen members, but now it is growing to between
900 and 1,000.
“It is not an enormous number of people in Catholic
terms, or even for the Church of England, but it is quite significant
that such a number of people are making this step together.”
The
Ordinary said that the first wave of groups coming into the Catholic
Church only marked the beginning of the ordinariate and that many
Anglicans were watching the process carefully.
Ordinariate groups
exist across England, Wales and Scotland, including in Greater London,
Coventry, Cornwall, and Birmingham.
The south of England was the part of
Britain most strongly represented in the first wave of groups joining
the ordinariate.
Fr Edwin Barnes, one of the five former Anglican
bishops who have become ordinariate priests, celebrated the Easter Vigil
for a group from St Barnabas in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, who had been
received earlier that week.
During his homily he told the group that
joining the ordinariate was a kind of “resurrection moment”.
The little
beginnings of the different groups were “a new flowering of the
Resurrection”.
“Easter is always the same, but always different,”
he said. “For you the differences are very plain: no cavernous spaces of
St Barnabas’s to help lift up your hearts. Until now you have been able
to rely on the generosity and the prayers of those who preceded you in
that place.”
The ordinariate group, Fr Barnes said, needed to
“keep in touch with our former Anglican friends, to ensure by our
kindness that we don’t put up barriers”.
“We will be looked at by many
to see just what sort of a go we can make of being ordinariate
Catholics,” he said.
For James Bradley, the former curate of St
John’s Sevenoaks, the Easter Triduum marked an important journey for his
family. He was confirmed during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper with his
former vicar, Ivan Aquilina and the Sevenoaks ordinariate group, while
his sister was confirmed the day before at the Oxford Oratory. His
parents were confirmed during the Easter Vigil.
Mr Bradley, who is
due to be ordained as one of the ordinariate’s two transitional
deacons, said: “It was wonderful to see my sister and parents received
this week. Whilst they have made their own very personal journey into
the full communion of the Church, it’s obviously also been something
very profound for us to share.”
Archbishop Bernard Longley
received three groups on Holy Thursday at St Chad’s Cathedral
in Birmingham. Ian O’Hara, who belongs to the Coventry group, said:
“Maundy Thursday was a profoundly moving yet joyful and inspiring day.
This was the culmination of a journey which for many of us had lasted
several years.”
Speaking about the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Mr
O’Hara said: “This Mass was especially significant and poignant for us
as it marked the end of our Eucharistic Fast which we had all begun on
Ash Wednesday. To make our Communion for the first time as Catholics on
the very day our Lord instituted the Eucharist will have a deep and
lasting affect on us all.”
For Easter the group joined the parish of St Joseph the Worker in Canley where they had received instruction.
Mr
O’Hara said: “We were delighted to be able to take a full part in the
Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night and the Mass of Easter Day where we
celebrated our Lord’s Resurrection with even more joy and gusto this
year.”