Anglican Converts Again Among Those to be Received into the Catholic Church in England and Wales

This year, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is expecting around 200 lay people and 20 clergy to come into full communion from the Anglican world one year after 60 Anglican clergy and about 1,000 lay people first joined the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham during Holy Week in 2011.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - If the numbers are correct, it looks like a large number of men and women will be received during the Easter Vigil as communicants of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

More than 3,600 people took part in the Rite of Election that leads to the final steps toward reception at the Easter Vigil; this number does not represent all those who will be received. This year, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is expecting around 200 lay people and 20 clergy to come into full communion from the Anglican world.

Many of those coming in are doing so as individuals but in groups. According to the London Telegraph, one of those groups is made up of the priest and 58 lay people from St. James the Great parish in Darlington, who will be received just down the road at St. Anne's Catholic Church.

An additional 20 from St. James are also being received but will not become a part of the Ordinariate at this time. There are approximately 50 people staying with the Anglican parish.

Other groups coming into the Ordinariate are located in Croydon, south London; Harlow, Essex; Blackpool and Portsmouth will also join the Ordinariate.

Fr. Ian Grieves, former rector of St. James told the Telegraph that he was leaving the Anglican Communion because the Church failed to support the traditional practices of his Anglo-Catholic congregation, placing him in an "impossible" position.

"We were very, very concerned about our place in the Church of England in terms of the validity of orders and the various things about proceeding with women bishops, and therefore there would be no provision for people of a traditional disposition," he stated.
 
"We want validity and authenticity and all those things were denied [to] us for the sake of this politically correct Church and liberal agenda which grinds on and on."

The Church of England has continued to follow suit with its even more liberal American Counterpart, the Episcopal Church. They have now opened the way for women bishops and, in February, rejected a request to institute special provisions for those parishes who could not accept a woman bishop for theological reasons.

Like other clergy coming into the Church, Grieves has already been in formation to become a Catholic priest through Allen Hall Seminary in London. His ordination could come as early as May.

The decisions taken by the individuals in these English parishes comes one year after 60 Anglican clergy and about 1,000 lay people first joined the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham during Holy Week in 2011.

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Set up in January 2011, this was the first Ordinariate established following Pope Benedict XVI's decree in November 2009 that a special jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church would be created for former Anglicans who desire to enter into full communion with the Church while retaining some of their Anglican heritage and traditions. In January 2012, the second Ordinariate was established in the United States, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and the CEO/Associate Publisher for the Northern Virginia Local Edition of Catholic Online (http://virginia.catholic.org). He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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