Christ is the human face of God; the fullness of Revelation. He lives in his church and operates through the baptised who are his hands, his feet and his merciful face. What the Church believes across all nations, by everyone and down the centuries is his unmistakable voice. With the recent developments in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion I have increasingly found myself in a situation where I cannot preach the Gospel of Christ and celebrate his sacraments with any integrity.It is the generous offer of Pope Benedict XVI in the form of the Ordinariate that gives me the joy of continuing this faithfulness to this Gospel. The move to the Ordinariate also gives me the opportunity to offer to you the greatest witness I can possibly give you.
For this reason I have written to the Bishop of Rochester notifying him that I intend to resign from this Parish in order to become a Roman Catholic in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.Fr James has notified the same bishop that he intends to resign for the same noble reason.
God willing, our last Sunday with you will be the 6th of March. On Ash Wednesday, a group from this parish will start the journey to be in full communion with Pope Benedict and received in the Catholic Church during Holy Week.
Now that the time of reflection is over, the time of the parting of friends has come. Parting is sad, but it will be healed by love. We need to make sure that this is truly a parting of friends with generosity from all sides.
This is not the time to say goodbye. I am sure we will have the opportunity for that during the next few weeks. Today is the time to hold each other in prayer and give thanks to what we have received and given to each other.
I will always hold you in my prayers and will always be available for you from within the Catholic Church in the Sevenoaks Ordinariate Personal Parish.
Fr Ivan D Aquilina
13th February 2011
See announcement here.
As a result, Sevenoaks blog has ceased but they have an Ordinariate Blog.
5 comments:
From the church website it appears the dcn James has only just been ordained..how much has his training cost the CofE? Surely he must have has very strong catholic tendancies to the RC church during this time to have arrived at his latest decision? I cant understand therefore why he was ordained into the Cof E? I really dont get this.
Rev Bradley and Rev Tomlinson were both ordained after the CofE started to ordain Women. They must have known the way the church was going, so why convert now? I've yet ro see any of this 'patrimony' nonsense as both these ministers rejoice in aping Rome anyway. What pastoral experience will Rev Bradley be bringing with him aftere just a few months as a deacon? There are others like him, too. Anglo-Catholics, on the whole, have looked down their noses at Roman Catholics, especially in matters liturgical. I fear we are going ro have a Church within a Church, with Roman Catholics regarded as second class citizens.
Anonymous,
I think consciences are to be determined by those who hold them. It is not for any of us to judge the motives of men but only God. That goes for me and anyone else. At least we can all rejoice that these people who have come to the conclusion that they are to be united to the Holy See are following their consciences. Whatever one personally thinks about this, it is the creation from the Holy Father and therefore in union with him, we rejoice at the generosity of the Gospel. That is what the HF is displaying and that is what I give thanks for.
This has been a long time coming. As Anglicanism moved from catholicity to ordination of women priest and then to gay bishops, it was inevitable that many clergy would seek service where their consciences were not regularly violated.
Here in the States many left ECUSA decades ago and became priests in the Orthodox Church. Many more here have gone that way than have gone to Rome. I think of Fr. Matthews-Green, Stephen Freeman, and Patrick Henry Reardon. When I realized, by God's grace, the error of my ordination as a priest in ECUSA, I left the order of priests and after a long period of exploration I became an Orthodox laywoman. Finding where we are supposed to be isn't easy. May God bless all who are on this rocky path!
Let's not impinge on the integrity of Fr Tomlinson and Bradley. Instead, their decisions should be respected. They have always believed in the essence of Anglo Catholicism. It must be heart-wrenching for them to see the Anglican adrift and molding its ideas to the current, liberal cultures.
I seriously doubt that there is a turning back for the Anglican Church at this juncture. It will be very difficult for Archbishop Rowans to undo the damage that has been inflicted on his Church. We are witnessing the progression of a painful rot as it eats its way into the very heart of the Anglican Communion.
To all Ordinariate sceptics, I urge you to read the Pope's Apostolic Constitution with an open mind. The sincerity of the offer from the Holy Father is bared in black and white.
We are in a critical moment in Church history now. Do you wish to continue in your protestation and stay out of communion with See of Peter or do you wish to be in communion with the See of Peter?
The choice is yours...
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