THE
P RTAL
August 2018
Page 18
Like yeast
that a woman took …
Developing Religious Life in the Ordinariate by Br Robert Augustine
I
had the privilege of addressing the gathering at Minster Abbey on 21 st July at a Colloquium on the
Religious Life (yes, fetch the dictionary – I had to look it up too!) and a great day it was. The starting point
for my talk was the lady who regularly tells me, in a manner worthy of Lord Kitchener, that the Ordinariate
needs more Religious. But if she is right, are we doing anything about it?
In 2009 the expectation was that gangs of Anglican
Religious would float across to Rome and simply
carry on their community life. Two groups of women
did come – only one survives; a success story in
Birmingham but Sr Jane Louise is now a solitary. Add
in the three male Religious, two of whom are priests,
and that is the sum total. And where, you might ask,
are any new vocations to come from?
the HQ would allow brothers to gather for fellowship,
an annual retreat and Chapter. As they wouldn’t
normally be living together, the more contemplative
Carthusian-flavoured solitary in Tunbridge Wells
could be accommodated just as easily as the active
pseudo-Franciscan in Manchester. And these days no-
one, wherever he is based, need feel isolated (or indeed
out of range of a diligent Prior). Of course, the same
framework could also provide for a separate female
branch. A number of people at Minster asked about
the possibility of having lay Companions or Associates
– well yes, why not? The dispersed model works well
for the Anglican Order I left behind and, with one
significant tweak to satisfy the canon lawyers, it could
be a means of bringing another smidgen of Anglican
patrimony into the Catholic Church.
Although there’s a lot of goodwill (and two or
three generous individuals), experience shows that
former Anglican Religious are left largely to fend for
themselves. So from that source we shall, I suspect,
end up with just a handful of solitaries all paddling
their own canoe. What about religious vocations
from within our ranks? There may well be people
quietly being prepared by the Holy Spirit but there
is no-one identified at an institutional level to act
If the Ordinariate really does need more Religious,
as a first point of contact for anyone looking to as my friend suggests, and if we want to make a unique
explore the religious life. It would be helpful to have contribution to the landscape of religious life in the
such a person, named on the vocations page of the Church, then perhaps this is a way forward.
website; someone willing to engage with groups,
Visit www.retreat-olb.co.uk
meet enquirers and be open to promoting all kinds
of religious vocation. That would be a start.
The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
As things are, getting any new religious community
off the ground is as likely as yours truly becoming
Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. But do not
despair, I have an idea – for the former that is, not
the latter. It would take several articles to explain this
proposal in detail but here is the basic outline. The
Ordinariate is extra-terrestrial – well, you know what
I mean! Our groups are dotted about the country, yet
all fall under the jurisdiction of the Ordinary based
in London. Fine, so what about following that same
principle and introducing to the Catholic Church the
radical concept of a dispersed religious community
with its headquarters in Walsingham?
A community structure could be established, which
provides for any stray ex-Anglican Religious and also
– crucially – for new vocations. Having Walsingham as
THE ORDER OF MASS
D ivine W orship : T he M issal
in accordance with the R oman R ite
Ordinariate Mass cards with the
Order of Mass from
D ivine W orship : T he M issal
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