Could Anglican Ordinariates be the Real ´Anglican Middle Way´?

The Anglican Ordinariate could become the 'way in' not only for Anglicans, but for other Christians who long for the historic church.

GREENVILLE, SC. (Catholic Online) - As an Anglican seminarian from an Evangelical background I was introduced to the concept of the via media or 'middle way.' It was explained that the Anglican faith was a 'middle way' between the extremes of Protestantism and Catholicism. Anglicans were meant to be open to the truths to which both Protestants and Catholics witnessed. In matters of liturgy, sacred music, spirituality and doctrine the Anglican was meant to be informed by both the Catholic and the Reformed traditions. While this was good in theory, as Cardinal Newman observed, in practice the via media was no more than a good idea. It was no more than a good idea because no one actually practiced the Anglican via media, or if they did, they did not do so for long. That's because Christianity is a dogmatic religion. We need to have a firm set of beliefs to undergird our religious practice, and everything else in our religion needs to be an outgrowth of what we believe. Unfortunately for those who wish to follow the Anglican 'middle way' Protestant and Catholic beliefs contradict more often then they complement one another. Therefore, while it may be possible to worship in a way that combines Catholic and Protestant traditions, it is impossible to hold to both Protestant and Catholic beliefs at the same time. Consequently Anglicans end up being either Anglo Catholic or Evangelical. The only stream of Anglicanism which, it might be argued, holds to the via media are the mainstream liberals, but that is not because they hold the Catholic and Protestant beliefs in balance, but because they don't really believe in either. Their via media is really more of a via negativa--not a middle way, but a negative way. A case can be made, however, for a new understanding of the Anglican via media. What if the new Anglican Ordinariate becomes a new 'middle way'? The Anglican Ordinariate will be based on Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus which was promulgated last November. Through this provision a new structure will be erected which grants Anglicans their own ecclesial structure in full communion with the Catholic Church. While fully affirming the Catholic faith, they will have their own parishes, their own Anglican-style liturgy, their own hierarchy and consultative council. They will have their own bishops and their presently married clergy will be ordained as Catholic clergy incardinated not to a Latin diocese, but to the new ordinariate. The Holy See has responded to repeated requests from individuals and groups of Anglicans asking for a way to come into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining the treasures of their Anglican patrimony. What will be the future of this new Ordinariate? Three different futures can be foreseen. It could be that the new Anglican Ordinariate simply brings into full communion with the Catholic Church a rather minute number of conservative Anglo-Catholics. Around the world there will be small enclaves of traditionalist Anglicans who will differ from all the other tiny Anglican schismatic churches in that they will actually be in full communion with Rome. They will keep to themselves and be viewed by mainstream Catholics as an eccentric rump of dissident Anglicans who like incense and lace and old fashioned language who somehow managed to worm their way into the Catholic Church. Catholics will regard them with bemused bewilderment. Anglicans will shake their heads and wish them well and wonder why they didn't become 'proper Catholics' if they wanted to swim the Tiber. A second vision is that the Anglican Church will eventually fade away and the Anglican Ordinariate will be all that is left of Anglicanism. In this scenario an increasing number of Anglicans worldwide will see that at last the two churches can be in full communion and take the step of joining the Ordinariate lock, stock and barrel. This is almost certainly not going to happen. It will not for several reasons. First of all, the Evangelical Anglicans are Protestants. After they have made polite ecumenical noises they do not really understand or appreciate the Catholic faith. Secondly, many Anglo Catholics also do not really want to be Catholics. They want to be Anglicans. They honestly do not see the importance of being in full visible communion with the Catholic Church. They have honest misgivings about some of the Catholic dogmas and they continue to believe that they are 'Catholic within the Anglican Church.' Thirdly, the liberal wing of the Anglican Church certainly has no wish to be in full communion with Rome. They dislike Roman authority, dogma and moral teachings and are increasingly anti-Catholic. However, I believe things could develop in a very different and exciting direction. The way to understand this more dynamic possibility is to see the Anglican Ordinariate as a true via media between Protestantism and Catholicism. The best way to explain this direction is to give some examples. The Church of the Atonement in San Antonio, Texas was founded by a group of disenchanted Episcopalians who felt called to the Catholic faith. They discovered Fr. Christopher Phillips, a bright young Episcopal priest who was a convert from Methodism who also felt called to the Catholic faith. They invited him to be their pastor. He and his young family moved to Texas and they got started: just a few families with a pastor meeting in a borrowed room at the local Catholic parish on a Sunday afternoon. Now, some thirty years later Church of the Atonement is a thriving parish with a beautiful church, school and hundreds in attendance. In Springfield Kansas, Shane Schaetzel, a former Evangelical, who was an Episcopalian and eventually came into full communion with the Catholic faith, has started a prayer group with fellow Catholics, a few Anglicans and Evangelicals who are interested in the Catholic faith. The group meets for prayer and uses the Vatican approved Anglican style Book of Divine Worship. They hope to found new Anglican Use parish. In Scranton, Pennsylvania Fr Eric Bergman led members of his Episcopal congregation into full communion with the Catholic Church and with the encouragement of the diocese and local clergy have established a small, but thriving Anglican Use congregation. What do these small shoots of initiative indicate? I believe they could show the way to a very exciting future for the Anglican Ordinariate. Those who observe American Evangelicalism often assume that all Evangelicals are devotees of big Baptist churches, mega churches or followers of  "televangelists". They do not understand the breadth and complexity of American Evangelicalism, and therefore do not realize that there are many Evangelicals who are not like this at all. They are well educated and thoughtful Christians who are very interested in the historic faith. They are disenchanted with mainstream Evangelicalism and are searching for a church rooted in history. They are searching for a church that is liturgical. They are searching for a church that has a deep spirituality. When they leave their Evangelical churches and search for something more their first stop is usually the Episcopal or Lutheran churches. They soon find that these churches are chest deep in the whole liberal and radical agenda, so they depart sadly. If these Evangelical pilgrims summon the courage to overcome their deeply engrained anti-Catholic prejudice and go to their local Catholic parish they find that it is either as liberal and trendy as the Episcopalians or there are cultural and devotional obstacles that they find it difficult to overcome. Even if they come to agree with Catholic doctrine and are received into the Church they are still aware of the big cultural gap between the Protestantism they were brought up on and the Catholic Church they have joined. What they are looking for is a church that holds to the fullness of Catholic doctrine and practice, but has some of the practical strengths of Evangelicalism. If these sincerely searching Evangelical Christians could find a church that was fully Catholic and yet offered a liturgy and church life that 'felt' traditionally Anglican combined with an Evangelical zeal for evangelization and Scripture they would immediately feel at home. If they found a home in parishes of the Anglican Ordinariate what would these converts bring to the whole Catholic Church? We only have to look at the contributions made to modern American Catholicism by those Evangelicals who have already 'come home to  Rome'. Steve Rea, Marcus Grodi, Scott Hahn, Tom Howard, Mark Shea, Carl Olson, Francis Beckwith...are just a few well known names, and there are many more who are not well known. The converts from Evangelicalism bring to the Catholic church a sincere love of Christ, a profound faith, deep knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures, a heart ready to learn and love the fullness of the faith and a desire to bring more of their Protestant brothers and sisters into the full embrace of Mother Church. For the Anglican Ordinariate to open up in this way those involved will have to have an old fashioned missionary spirit. They may need to walk away from Anglican buildings and property. They will need to study how to plant and grow churches. The Evangelicals are the Christians who know just how to do this. If the Anglican Ordinariate opens up in this way, the old Anglican via media will be seen as a prophecy of a true 'middle way' which could be the way for many Protestants to find their way into full communion with the Church. The parishes of the Anglican Ordinariate could become the 'way in' not only for Anglicans, but for liturgically minded Lutherans and Methodists and Christians from a whole range of denominations who long for the historic church and wish to join the billions of Catholics who follow the faith of our fathers. -------------------- Fr Dwight Longenecker is Chaplain to St Joseph's Catholic School in Greenville, South Carolina.  He was ordained under the pastoral provision for married former Anglican priests. Go to hiswebsite at  and connect to his popular blog, Standing on My Head.

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