Snapd
ragon
THE
P RTAL
June 2016
Page 5
Ordinariate
distinctiveness
Snapdragon has been thinking
By nature,
most of us are conformists. On
the whole, we want to blend into the crowd and
not stand out from those around us. Blending in is
the safe option. We all want to be liked and the surest
way to be accepted by others is to be like them.
We are taught this lesson as infants; out from the crowd.
very few parents want their children to
To those outside the Church we ought to look
be unlike all the “normal” children on the playground,
and so as we grow up we are constantly encouraged to different and to our fellow-Catholics we ought to look
different too - not separate or superior or at odds with
conform and be like the rest.
- but distinctive.
we want the same
Conformity is not something we shake off as adults.
Though we may go through a phase in teenagehood and early adulthood when we try to assert
our independence and individuality, by and large as
adults we settle into conformity once more. Looking
around at what others have and what is all the rage at
the moment, we want the same - homes, cars, salaries,
gadgets etc.
In my little corner of the Ordinariate, where, so
far, minimal use is made of Divine Worship, the
Ordinariate’s own Missal, I am sensing that five years
on it is our similarity to the surrounding culture, not
our distinctiveness, that is turning people’s heads.
ceremonial and solemnity
People recognise that what we sing and how we
sing it are different, that we celebrate the Roman Rite
Not having the latest toy is not quite as detrimental to with greater ceremonial and solemnity than many
an adult as to a teenager; nevertheless the conditioned congregations are used to doing, that our common
desire not to stand out as different is there in adults. life as a congregation is important, but is that why you
We need to fit in and be like the rest.
meet at a different time for your own Mass and with
your own priest, they seem to be asking. I’m finding it
standing out from the crowd
harder and harder to give a convincing ‘Yes’.
Fitting into the surrounding culture is problematic
for the Christian because we ought as Christians to
Distinctiveness isn’t just about liturgy - we have
stand out from the crowd - ‘You are the light of the barely begun to explore the spiritual and pastoral
world and salt of the earth’. There ought to be lots of elements of our patrimony - but five years into this
issues and concerns where our views stand in often project I wonder whether ordinariate groups which
stark contrast to the views of those around us - same don’t really stand out from the crowd liturgically
sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia and many more.
will be able to remain as distinct communities, and
whether instead they will naturally dissolve into the
When we nail our colours to the mast and allow our wider culture.
views and beliefs and actions to be seen to be different,
In summoning up the courage as Anglicans to stand
we know that we risk coming under attack for what we
believe and mocked until we step into line and look out from the crowd and set ourselves apart from
unacceptable doctrinal, moral and ecclesiological
like the majority.
developments, we tried to make ourselves look as
Fitting in and looking just like the rest is particularly much like Roman Catholics as we could.
tricky for those of us who belong to the Ordinariate.
Perhaps now that we are Roman Catholics it’s time to
Not because our relation to the world is any different
from that of any other Christian, but in the sense that be brave again and dare to be different by recovering
within the Church also we have been called to stand some of what we too quickly cast aside.
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