Who are the Anglican converts?

by Michael Shackleton · March 8, 2010

We have read that the pope is opening the door to admit Anglican groups to fully join the Catholic Church. Who are these groups?

In his apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of November 2009, Pope Benedict wrote: In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately. He did not name them.

It is known that the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) is among the keenest to want reunification with the Church of Rome. This group was founded in 1991 as a reaction against the Anglican Communion’s tolerance of the ordination of women and the acceptance of homosexuality among the clergy. It describes itself as an international commmunion of churches in the continuing Anglican movement independent of the Anglican Communion and the archbishop of Canterbury. It is represented in all English-speaking countries, including South Africa.

In October 2007 the TAC met in Portsmouth, England, and agreed to write to the pope asking him to allow it full, corporate and sacramental union with the Catholic Church. The Vatican responded favourably, particularly as expressed in Anglicanorum coetibus. The TAC regards this as a generous invitation to full union because it allows the convert group to use their old prayer books and liturgy, in effect maintaining the established culture of Anglicanism while simultaneously being subject to the bishop of Rome and the norms of the Catholic faith as set out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The pope has proposed that the newly embraced convert group will be unified with the Catholic Church by means of personal ordinariates, that is, specified networks of widespread adherents who are not limited to a territory such as a diocese. Each ordinariate will be entrusted to an ordinary (a celibate bishop) appointed by the pope, who will exercise his authority jointly with the local diocesan bishop. Each ordinariate will have to be self-financing.

The archbishop of Canterbury and the Vatican have been in close contact, and this suggests that interest in communion with Rome is not limited to the TAC. Right now it is not clear how things will develop because there has to be much more discussion to clarify issues. Meanwhile, individual Anglican groups or dioceses may approach Rome without waiting for a collective movement.