We have learned from the media that significant steps with regard to the erection of the English Ordinariate will take place in January 2011. Moreover, on January 1 our three in-post bishops become free men, liberated from The House of Bondage (can anyone place that phrase of Blessed John Henry's?). Given the sort of men they are, I doubt whether they will delay in mediis rebus minutes longer than they are forced to. But, whatever happens, January 18 2011 cannot but prove a poignant day for Anglican Catholics. The liturgical significance of that day is bound up with one of the few distinctively Anglican Papalist liturgical initiatives which caught on beyond our own rather narrow horizons: the Chair of Unity Octave. And, of course, that Eight Days of Prayer is concluded by the Feast of the Conversion of S Paul.
Long before it was renamed The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - itself now more or less forgotten in the current ecumenical winter - the Chair of Unity Octave was devised by an Anglican Franciscan, Fr Lewis Thomas Wattson, Friar of the Atonement, on October 3, 1899. He and his brethren moved corporately into Full Communion ten years later ... one of the first examples of the process urged by Anglicanorum coetibus: group reconciliation. His brilliant notion was to have an Octave of Prayer beginning on the Feast of the Chair of S Peter at Rome (January 18), and ending on that of the Conversion of S Paul (January 25). The devotion was indulgenced by Benedict XV in 1916 and by Pius XII in 1946. Its observance was vigorously encouraged in the Church of England by priests like Fr Henry Fynes-Clinton and organisations with which he was associated, notably the Catholic League.
Bugnini's prim and disapproving pencil deleted the January 18 celebration on the grounds that it duplicated the Feast of the Chair of S Peter on February 22. The history of these two commemorations seems to be this. The February date was indeed the original day for commemorating the Chair ... that is to say, the Episcopal Consecration and Episcopate ... of S Peter. But the churches of first millennium Gaul disliked having festivals in Lent. And so they transferred it to the date in January. When their commemoration slithered into the Roman Calendar, this January feast was deemed to be that of S Peter's episcopate in Rome; the February doublet was called the feast of his episcopate in Antioch.
Perhaps future generations will have occasion to see January 18-25, 2011, as significantly bound up with the Great Ordinariate Adventure. And as people look to the future, I hope they will not forget the heroic men who, in the darkest of times and with no encouragement from local RC hierarchies, prayed and worked and exposed themselves to persecution on behalf of the Unity for which the Lord prayed.
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I somehow suspect that Rowan will not delay longer than he needs to in putting new PEVs in place. I wouldn't be surprised if I were told that their CRB checks and their pre-episcopal medical examinations were rushing through even as you read this. It will be amusing to see if either of the "successful" candidates needs to do any eating of former words. And, sooner or later, in 2011 0r 2012 or 2013, will SWISH reluctantly attempt to say something about what it actually is? Well, I mean, it can hardly put off that indefinitely, can it? Or ... can it? Perhaps it is safer to keep totally shtum. A dignified and disdainful silence would become men nurtured in the culture of secrecy which marks the Anglican episcopate..
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Fr. H,
I remember being captivated as a child with the Chair of Unity Octave, flanked as it was by the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul. I also learned then of the Friars of the Atonement (who had pamphlets emphasising what is contained in At-One-ment) and a monastery not far away in Garrison, NY, called "Graymoor". It's still there, and I commissioned them to say anniversary Masses for one of my aunts who passed away in 2004, which they happily accepted. The Octave, in my view, is certainly an element of the Anglican Patrimony, and belongs on the local Calendars (at least) of Anglican Ordinariates.
'The House of Bondage.' Yes indeed.
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt…
This January will also be the four hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the Parliament which effectively outlawed the catholic faith and rendered its practitioners traitors in the most ferocious and punitive programme of anti-catholic legislation. This included the notorious Act Against Reconciliation, which was enforced with relentless severity and produced a number of martyrdoms.
The session began, I believe, on 16th January 1581.
Dear and Reverend Father:
Have followed your blog for some time now, with much glee. Too bad about St. Magnus the Martyr, but teh Catholic League have pledged several thousand pounds to the establishment of the Ordinariate. Will be in Oxford to debate at the Union 3 Feb. Perhaps you will be around?
Asking your blessing,
Charles A. Coulombe
I suspect that we may see a Freemason appointed as one of the PEVs - they are "sound" people with no nasty Romish tendencies and, of course, Rome wouldn't have them anyway, The declaration on Masonic Association is quite clear about that! The General Synod and Archbishop of Canterbury are not too keen either but Rowan is on the back foot and so will nod it through. Fr Jonathan Baker would fit the bill nicely, he is already in a position to steer FiF along a Swish rather than Ordinariate course. Oh, and he is a Guardian at Walsingham - I wonder how many others are "on the square" and thus opposed to the Ordinariate. I do hope he has declared this conflict of interest to the Council and Members of FiF, just as one would have to declare a financial interest! Amongst the many issues are the exclusion of women from freemasonary - great for the "Inclusive Church" brigade to get their teeth into by having their mysoginistic suspicions about FiF thus confirmed.
Father, I have just been reading Sheridan Gilley's admirable "Newman and His Age" and come across the "House of Bondage" quotation - it is from a letter of his confirming to his correspondent that he is not intending to return to Anglicanism, and can be found in the twentieth volume of his collected letters.
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