What is the Anglican Patrimony? While not the only question addressed in The Anglican Patrimony in Catholic Communion: The Gift of the Ordinariates edited by Tracey Rowland, it is the book’s dominant focus. As everyone probably knows by now, the founding documents of the Ordinariate do not say what specifically the Patrimony is. As a result, a variety of perspectives have emerged. Happily, these perspectives are not all mutually exclusive; rather, each in its own way illuminates some aspect of the totality that makes the Anglican Patrimony so special.
The first seven chapters explore these various perspectives in some detail. The last four chapters shed light on the cultural context in which the Patrimony developed.
Patrimonial Insights
The Orchestra of Ecumenism. Cardinal Levada, in the book’s opening chapter, stresses that the Ordinariate arose from years of ecumenical discussions between Rome and the Anglican Communion. He likens the Catholic Church to a symphony orchestra to which new instruments (the Ordinariates) have been added. The Ordinariates play the same notes as the rest of orchestra, but the overall effect is now enriched and enhanced.
The Patrimony’s Four-Fold Nature: Liturgical, Spiritual, Pastoral, Theological. Father Richard Waddell continues Cardinal Levada’s ecumenical emphasis, noting that the establishment of the Ordinariates was intended to have “a positive ecumenical effect” (p.24). He then explains that the Anglican Patrimony is not limited to just the Ordinates’ liturgical texts as some have thought, but also includes those Anglican spiritual, pastoral, and theological traditions that are consistent with Catholic faith and practice.
The Ordinariate Use of the Roman Rite. Bishop Lopes recounts how Divine Worship, especially the Missal, was designed with sufficient flexibility through its rubrics and appendices to meet the diverse needs and styles of Ordinariate parishes worldwide. He also clarifies that although the Missal “preserves some ritual elements and traditional gestures associated with the Extraordinary Form, its theological and rubrical context is the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite” (p. 52) with added emphases on (1) the proclamation of the Word of God – which is why the penitential act comes after hearing the Word rather than before, and (2) the liturgy as the prayer of the Church, hence the removal of silent prayers by the priest alone which become the public prayers of “priest and people together” (p. 54).
The Necessity of Active Evangelization. Monsignor Timothy Perkins tells us that “the time has come for the Ordinariate to embrace its evangelizing mission” (p.72). A passive approach to evangelism will fail. The Ordinariates need to look beyond attracting disenchanted Anglicans toward actively evangelizing other groups including lapsed Catholics, Christians baptized in other communities, and those having no religious affiliation.
The Essence of the Patrimony. If you thought the Ordinariates’ liturgical texts were the essence of the Anglican Patrimony, Fr James Bradley has news for you. He argues that the liturgical texts are not themselves the Patrimony but only the vehicle through which the Patrimony’s essence is conveyed. That essence, he says, is the virtue of religion, by which he means “a way of being, a way of doing, even a way of speaking” (p. 78). The Anglican Patrimony then is a lived reality, a culture, and an ethos “that runs through the entire life of the Personal Ordinariates” (p.82).
The Personal Evangelism of John Henry Newman. Professor Clinton Brand returns to the importance of the Ordinariates’ evangelizing mission through the lens of John Henry Newman’s conversion and personal witness to his fellow Anglicans. Newman believed in and demonstrated the power of personal influence for evangelizing people, what he called speaking to another person “heart to heart” (p. 89).
Beauty at the Heart of the Patrimony. Professor Robert Andrews shows us that beauty has been the central concern of Anglicanism since from before the Reformation up through today. Beauty not for beauty’s sake but beauty as “a religious vision that is in its origins both medieval and modern, thoroughly Anglican and English in nature and that is at its heart aesthetic” (p. 111).
The Anglican Cultural Context
Transforming the Culture Through Holiness. Dr Petroc Willey examines the heritage of sanctity found in English Christianity through two reference points: (1) the poetry of George Herbert, and (2) King Alfred the Great’s translations of Christian classics from Latin into the English of his day. Specifically, he proposes that English Christianity came to embody transcendence in a practical form of holiness that transformed the culture through the rise of the universities and the emergence of egalitarianism.
Illuminating the New Evangelism: The Caroline Divines. Dr Jacob Phillips focuses on the Caroline Divines, seventeenth century theologians who emphasized both the Catholic and Reformed heritage of the Church of England. He suggests that the moderation and discretion of the Divines illuminate a way forward for the New Evangelization in our time.
Christ the King. James Bogle analyzes how the English monarchical tradition, while not a part of the Anglican Patrimony per se, nevertheless helps us to understand what it means to call Christ “King.” Moreover, he writes that Anglican culture “preserves and exemplifies the kingly aspect of the Christian vocation, one of the three roles of the baptized, that is, prophet, priest and king” (P.169).
The Reemergence of English Marian Devotion. Finally, Father Alexander Sherbrooke, using the founding and history of Our Lady of Eton College as an example, explores how English Marian devotion survived the Reformation to re-emerge in vigorous form four hundred years later.
Conclusion
Several key themes emerge in the chapters of this book. First, the Anglican Patrimony is ecumenical. This is not surprising given that the Church of England under Elizabeth aimed to reconcile the Catholic and Reformed movements of the sixteenth century. Second, the Patrimony is evangelical, and evangelism remains one of the main challenges facing the Ordinariates today. Third, the Patrimony is liturgical, biblical, and public as seen especially in the texts of Divine Worship including the Missal, the Occasional Services, and the Daily Office. Fourth, the Patrimony is also spiritual, pastoral, and theological. Finally, two key concerns of the Patrimony are expressing the virtue of religion as a way of life and beauty in worship.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, so what is beautiful to one person may be mundane or over-the-top to another. For this reason, diverse expressions of the Patrimony are possible. Accordingly, as Bishop Lopes explains, the Divine Worship liturgy was designed with sufficient flexibility to meet the different preferences of Ordinariate communities worldwide. The Anglican Patrimony then emerges as a many-splendored thing through which the Ordinariates realize diversity within the unity of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism."
The Anglican Patrimony in Catholic Communion: the Gift of the Ordinariates
Edited by Tracey Rowland
Bloomsbury Publishing (2021)
240 pages, $29.95 USD (softcover); $14.55 USD (Kindle)
To order: Amazon.com