Following their plenary assembly earlier this month, bishops from the Anglican Ordinariate list seven distinctive traits of their spiritual and pastoral heritage, including lay participation, commitment to the poor, and the family as domestic church.
Vatican News A distinctive ecclesial ethos, evangelisation through beauty, direct outreach to the poor, pastoral culture, the family as a domestic church, Scripture, preaching, spiritual direction and the Sacrament of Penance. Those, according to a new document released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, are the key markers of Personal Ordinariates established in 2009 under the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. Bishop Ordinaries from the Personal Ordinariates had gathered for their plenary assembly at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith from March 1 to 3. The Dicastery, led by Cardinal Prefect Víctor Manuel Fernández, published a report on its website on March 26 entitled “Characteristics of the Anglican Heritage as Lived in the Ordinariates Established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus". In it, the bishops describe their experience in the Ordinariates and how they have integrated elements from the Anglican tradition into their practice and spiritualities. An Anglican Heritage The text says that despite the vast geographical distances between the Ordinariates—which are scattered from Inverness to Devon, from Edmonton to Orlando, from Perth to Sydney to Guam—there is a widespread sense of common identity born from sharing the “worthy patrimony of piety and usage” to which Pope Paul VI once referred. This, they note, is the same Anglican identity that John Paul II's 1980 Pastoral Provision, and later Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibu, aimed to preserve. Reflecting on this “precious gift,” the bishops recalled the homily given by Cardinal Fernández at the episcopal ordination of Bishop David A. Waller in Westminster Cathedral on June 22, 2024. In particular, they highlighted his reflection on the inculturation of the Catholic faith among people who have lived the Gospel in the context of the Anglican Communion – and his emphasis that, in receiving these individuals, the Catholic Church “not only gives but is also enriched”. Seven distinctive traits In response to an invitation from Cardinal Fernández to describe their lived experience, the bishops identified seven traits they consider characteristic of the spiritual and pastoral heritage of the Ordinariates. Firstly, they mentioned a distinctive “ecclesial ethos” marked by the broad participation of clergy and laity in the life and governance of the Church; then “evangelization through beauty,” which is not an end in itself, but has the power to lead us to God, and “direct outreach to the poor” in “the concrete realities of the neighborhood”. The bishops also highlighted a “pastoral culture” of deep interconnectedness between divine worship and daily life, following a rhythm that is liturgical and “almost monastic, drawn from the English spiritual tradition,” as well as the family as the domestic church and the first place where faith is learned and lived. Finally, the bishops emphasized the strong tradition of preaching founded on Scripture, as well as the importance of spiritual direction and the sacrament of Penance.