Thoughts on the Ordinariates - July 2023

 

American Exceptionalism and
 the Personal Ordinariates
Some thoughts on Independence Day weekend 2023

 

Chancery Office, Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

The recent 29^th anniversary of Ordination of Fr. Alan Hawkins has given me food for thought on the history leading up to the creation of the Personal Ordinariates.

 

Happy Anniversary, Father!

 

Americans are known, for better or for worse, for our fierce streak of independence.  We don’t always “go along to get along”.  This was true for a small group of Episcopalian clergy who desired to become Catholic, with the support of a Catholic Bishop and a Monsignor.  This small group approached Rome during the papacy of St. Pope John Paul II seeking a path to becoming Catholic, with their congregations following them, and retaining most of their liturgical and musical heritage.  This was granted to former Episcopalians (in the USA only) with the indult called the “Pastoral Provision” in 1980.

 

Once the indult got rolling, it was given an easier name to recognize its origins, the “Anglican Use”, e.g. not a new Rite, but a “use” of the exiting Roman Rite.  The original spurt of growth was from a region of United States known even more for its fierce independence – a State that had formerly been a sovereign country – Texas.  (Lots of red, white, and blue in that flag, and just one star!)

 

It began with Fr. Christopher Phillips when he founded the proto-parish of the Anglican Use, Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio, Texas in 1983.  The parish has always had a very strong music program, emphasizing English hymnody, Anglican chant, and Gregorian chant, often in Latin.  Less than ten years into its history, the parish founded The Atonement Academy, which eventually grew to cover pre-K through high school.  It is very successful as a Catholic school and has students for many parishes in the Archdiocese.  Since all Pastoral Provision parishes existed under the umbrella of the local Diocese, this school became one of the jewels in the crown of the San Antonio Archdiocese.

 

Just a year later, in 1984, Fr. James Moore founded Our Lady of Walsingham parish in what was then the Diocese of Galveston-Houston.  This became my family’s spiritual home, actually just before that, while the group was still meeting in peoples’ houses.  I joined the Schola Cantorum immediately and began learning how to sing Anglican Chant.  In the late summer of 1986, our schola master resigned, and Fr. Moore asked me to take his place.  During our first chat about going forward, we agreed that every Liturgy should have, not only the best hymnody available, but also both Anglican and Gregorian chant.  I held that position until January of 2003 when I moved to Charleston, South Carolina.  I miss OLW and Fr. Moore (RIP).

 

Ten years later, in 1994, more history was made up in Arlington, Texas (midway between Dallas and Fort Worth).  Fr. Alan Hawkins brought his group of former Episcopalians, the entire parish of St. Mary the Virgin, into full communion.  This included the properties which had formerly belonged to the Episcopal Diocese, setting a legal precedent for such transfer of property from one ecclesiastical corporation to another.  Fr. Hawkins' brought a treasure of English musical tradition and the parish also had a very good music director and program.

All three of these parishes are now part of the Ordinariate in the USA.  Aspects of these pastors' and parishes' liturgical and musical tradition are now integral parts of the Personal Ordinariates - now commonly called the "Anglican Patrimony".

Arms of the Ordinariates:

Our Lady of Walsingham, Chair of St. Peter, and Our Lady of the Southern Cross

To date, there are approximately 40 parishes or groups in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.  Of those, seven are in the State of Texas.  The POSCP is the second Ordinariate established, preceded by the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (under the patronage of St. John Henry Newman), and followed by the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.  The group of Anglican Use priests in Texas was the next steppingstone of a movement or conversion from the Anglican Communion to a reconciliation with the Catholic Church begun by St. John Henry Newman in the mid-nineteenth century.

 

I love being a member of the Ordinariates.  This is such an exciting time in Church history to live!  But, on this Independence Day weekend, I would like to suggest that the creation of all three Ordinariates did not happen in a vacuum.  Exceptional Americans, indeed Texans, paved the way.