A treasure to be shared.
The late Pope Benedict XVI made a remarkable invitation to Anglicans in 2009 — to come home. The Supreme Pontiff did so through the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum cœtibus which made it possible for Anglicans to become Roman Catholics as whole groups. What’s more, the invitation was to return the venerable English spiritual heritage and Anglican patrimony to Christ’s Church as a treasure to be shared.
Since that historic invitation, three Personal Ordinariates have been erected: Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom; the Chair of Saint Peter in Canada and the United States; and Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia. The Ordinariates are a key ecumenical venture exemplifying the Second Vatican Council’s vision for Christian unity, in which diverse expressions of the one true faith are joined together in union with the Pope.
In the Council’s Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis redintegatio), the Catholic Church declared that Christian groups coming into communion would bring their own distinctive traditions to the Catholic Church; they would not be suppressed or absorbed. The Ordinariates are tangible expression of this.
Ours is a beautiful and ancient tradition now rejoined with the Church after nearly five hundred years of separation. Pope Benedict made a remarkable invitation to come home. Whether you’re Anglican or protestant wishing to join the Church, or a Catholic seeking a traditional Mass, come and discover the Venerable English Mass.
ABOUT US
Ordinariate Parishes and communities retain the important elements of the noble and ancient Anglican tradition (Ecclesia Anglicana), but are fully Roman Catholic. Without excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite, we celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See. Through books such as Divine Worship: The Missal, and Divine Worship: The Daily Office, we share our distinctive commitment to praising God in the eloquence of the Prayer Book tradition.
Our founding documents make clear that the Ordinariate is intended to be an instrument of Catholic unity: an opportunity to model what the future reconciliation of separated Christian communities could be. We wish to fulfill the Holy Father’s vision for Christian unity, in which diverse expressions of one faith are joined together in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
OUR VISION
To establish traditional English Mass communities in every major city in Canada.
WHAT WE DO
Protect, nurture and celebrate the Anglican patrimony as a members of the Roman Catholic Church.
OUR COMMUNIES
Small but vibrant. Few but growing. We need you to join us in our evangelising mission.
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS
”Let there be no mistaking: This is not an Anglican liturgy separate and distinct from the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church... ...It is not a Protestant service dressed up as a Catholic Mass. It is the Catholic Mass of the Western Rite, filtered through the Anglican experience, corrected and expressed in an Anglican voice.”
— Dr. Clint Brand, Anglicanae Traditiones Commission
“Let us put ourselves into His hands, and not be startled though He leads us by a strange way, a mirabilis via, as the Church speaks. Let us be sure He will lead us right, that He will bring us to that which is, not indeed what we think best, nor what is best for another, but what is best for us.”
— St. John Henry Cardinal Newman