Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Ordinariate in the United States

The view from Rome:



Only two Episcopal parishes thus far, we may not see that many more. As I have written before, most orthodox Anglo-Catholic parishes and individuals within the Episcopal Church (which are proportionately fewer than those in the Church of England) have already left, aligning themselves with various "alphabet-soup" breakaway Anglican organizations. With the Ordinariate, I imagine we will see the few remaining Orthodox A-C parishes still in the Episcopal Church taking the swim.

Idle speculation: I wonder if any orthodox "medium-high" parishes (e.g. St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue), seeing their A-C high-church brethren safely climbing aboard Peter's Barque, will be tempted to do the  same. It seems to me as long as they faithfully observed the order and rubrics in the Book of Divine Worship, they could effect a "lower" celebration of the Mass Holy Communion: leaving off extreme smells and bells and bowing and scraping, thus preserving some their good protestant integrity, but at the same time being united with a Church whose apostolic succession and sacraments are unquestioned, unlike (and increasingly so) those of the Episcopal Church.

 (Readers of a more scholarly bent than I should feel free to rip this speculative exercise to shreds.)


(Via the Ordinariate Portal, with thanks to Augustine).

1 comment:

LSP said...

Good St. Thomas 5 Ave call -- some might say that the Rector would welcome such a thing. Others might argue that there's a precedent for not 'rocking the boat'...

Of course St. Mary the Virgin, Time's Square, should have been the Ordinariate flagship; too bad it went over to the dark side.

Whatever, I for one look forward to your continuing St. Thomas campaign.