I'm filing for next week's America on the world's first Ordinariate, which is swelling in these days from 20 members to over 1,000 (including 64 priests) as former Anglicans are received into the Catholic Church in England and Wales in low-key ceremonies across the nation. A whole new chapter in the story of Western Christianity -- I've said this before, but I really feel it now -- has been opened, and, having walked a little of the way with one group of 16 received last night in central London, I feel something of the excitement of it.
Part of the joy of journalism is getting behind the tags, monikers and agendas and discovering the "real" story, the one not told in the easy headlines.
Being with these very ordinary but deeply impressive people I've been able to nail three big myths about the ordinariate squarely on the head.
The first is that they are "disaffected Anglicans" -- people switching denominations because they disagree with the Church of England's positions on women priests and homosexuality. In reality they are passionate advocates of Christian unity who have long prayed for corporate reunion between the two Churches. But over the years - since the 1992 decision to ordain women, of course, but more especially following the 2008 General Synod and Lambeth conference -- they've watched that dream vanish. Not only has the Church of England demonstrated that it has no internal mechanism for enabling that corporate reunion, but it has also given the message firmly to Catholic Anglicans that it is no longer willing to make room for them. In the midst of this sad realization, Pope Benedict in September 2009 made his dramatic offer, making possible that dream after all. Many of the central London group spoke of how the offer came as a challenge as much as an invitation: this is what they have been asking for; how could they now refuse?
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