We’re pleased to announce that the latest issue of Shared Treasure (née Anglican Embers) is being sent out within the next few days. This will be Volume IV, No. 9, and it contains some important pieces, including some news that the Society is announcing about an upcoming conference.

The biggest piece in the issue, and certainly the most important, is the latest paper written by Professor Hans-Jürgen Feulner, who was a key member of the Anglicanae Traditiones Inter-dicasterial Commission that the Holy See established a few years ago to produce the liturgical books of Divine Worship that are used by the Ordinariates. Dr Feulner takes a look at the establishment of Divine Worship: The Missal and examines its inner structure and character, while raising some fascinating possibilities for future developments of the Catholic Church’s Anglican patrimonial liturgy.

This new issue also includes excerpts from the writings of John Keble and J. R. R. Tolkien on the Annunciation. There is news included from both the Ordinariates and the Society, an analysis of the latest revision made by the Holy See to the Complementary Norms governing the life of the Ordinariates, and the latest installment of the Rev. W. Chave McCracken’s 1959 analysis of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll’s Left Hand (or the Religious Symbolism of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland).

This latest issue has been sent out electronically to Society members and is available to them for download on the Society website. Hard copies are being mailed to journal subscribers and should arrive soon.

The work that goes into producing the Society’s Journal depends on the support of Society supporters, and for their support we are most grateful. We’re excited to get our copies!

I expect news any day now from the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter on the joint 10th Anniversary of Anglicanorum coetibus pilgrimage to Rome led by the three Ordinaries.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross has published the details of the Australian end of the pilgrimage here.

Do you remember where you were when you first heard  Pope Benedict XVI would be publishing an Apostolic Constitution allowing for the creation of Ordinariates for Anglicans wishing to become Catholic and at the same time allowing them to preserve aspects of their patrimony?

I was at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) annual plenary.  The picture above is from last year, as I no longer have pictures from 2009.

How did you feel?  Were you shocked? Exhilarated?  Disbelieving? Overcome with gratitude and thanksgiving? Wary?  Concerned about your future? Where were you when you heard? What did you do? Who did you talk to?

It’s hard to believe it is now almost exactly ten years since that day.  We have so much to be thankful for.  It’s pretty amazing when you look at how far we have come! Continue reading →

As Canadians celebrate Canada Day, historically and still known by many as Dominion Day, some good news for the Deanery of Saint John the Baptist has been announced. Our former dean, Father Lee Kenyon, is being appointed pastor of the ordinariate parish in Victoria, British Columbia, and will be moving with his family back to Canada over the summer in order to take on the assignment in the fall. The timing is even more fitting given that it was also announced today that Blessed John Henry Newman, the namesake of the Victoria parish, is to be canonized this October 13th.

The previous pastor, Monsignor Carl Reid, who succeeded Fr Kenyon as Dean of Canada when the latter was given permission to minister in the Diocese of Shrewsbury in England a few years ago, has just recently been named as the new ordinary of the Australian ordinariate, taking over the reins from Mgr Harry Entwistle.

Fr Kenyon was instrumental in guiding our Calgary parish into the Catholic Church back in 2011. As the parish website says, “After almost a year spent in prayer, study and discussion under the leadership of Fr Lee Kenyon, the parish voted by nearly 90% in November 2010 to accept Pope Benedict’s generous invitation for us to come into full communion with the Catholic Church, through the provision of an Ordinariate.”

Fr Kenyon is much beloved by the Canadian ordinariate community and the news that he has been asked to take on this assignment in Victoria is encouraging news for Canadian Catholics of the Anglican tradition. The Deanery of Saint John the Baptist looks forward to welcoming the whole Kenyon family back to Canada!

Pope Francis announced today that he will canonize Cardinal John Henry Newman on Oct. 13.

The Catholic Herald reports:

In February, the Pope signed a decree recognising a second miracle attributed to Blessed John Henry Newman, the inexplicable healing of a woman with a “life-threatening pregnancy”.

Blessed John Henry Newman was one of the most prominent converts to Catholicism from Anglicanism of the 19th century.

He was already an esteemed Anglican theologian when he founded the Oxford Movement to return the Church of England to its Catholic roots, before himself converting to the Catholic faith.

He was renowned as a brilliant thinker and was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII.

This is excellent news for those who have registered already for Symposium 2019 to mark the 10th anniversary of Anglicanorum coetibus.

Here is the link to register for the Symposium.  Spaces are limited.

Accommodation in Rome close to the centre city might be hard to find.  I have stayed with the Suore Brigidine at their via della Isole location.  It’s about 5 km outside the centre city, so you’d need to take a bus or a cab, but it is clean, quiet, and relatively inexpensive for Rome.

From the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter website:

June 29, 2019 – Ordination to the Sacred Priesthood of Rev. Mr. Robert Chapman Kirk and Rev. Mr. Gregory Blake Tipton. Through the imposition of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit by Most Reverend Steven J. Lopes, Bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston, Texas.

I continually wrestle with the fact our parish is not especially seeker-friendly.  I recall how I was as a seeker  30 years ago and recognize I probably would not have come back for a number of reasons:  no women up front; people standing or kneeling to recite prayers in unison from a book (how weird!); and the stress on believing and reciting creeds.

Twenty years ago, when I first started attending Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I was ready for all of the above.   At the time, Annunciation permitted a kind of open Communion—if you believed in Real Presence in the Eucharist, you would receive.  I wonder now if I would have continued to attend services at Annunciation if we had the Catholic discipline we have now: that one must be a baptized Catholic in good-standing in order to receive Holy Communion.   I  totally accept this discipline now.  

I was reminded of this by a recent post by Fr. Christopher Phillips on his Atonement Online blog:

Continue reading →